A curator/artist talk/book signing and screening of the rarely seen documentary Chocolate City Burningby Apoxy provides deeper historical context on the DC graffiti movement and the legendary Dot Com crew. $5 tickets at the door with popcorn/sodas for sale in site. (Cash/Venmo/Square)
Film: 5-6:30
Talk/Book Signing: 6:30-8:00pm
This screening is part of the current Graffiti Exhibition curated by Cory Lee Stowers.
Alternate Identities is an exhibition exploring over three decades of graffiti culture in the Washington, DC region and beyond. Curated by subcultural anthropologist, artist, and author Cory Lee Stowers, the show features more than 50 original works—canvas pieces, sketches, photographs, and found objects—handpicked by 9S Studio from the Double Down Kings Artchive, one of the most comprehensive graffiti collections in the area.
At its core, Alternate Identities is a story about names—how they're chosen, how they're written, and how they live on walls, trains, and in communities. This immersive retrospective brings viewers into the world of style writing, where coded letters, layered textures, and iconography reflect not only artistic mastery but also social commentary, resistance, and personal identity.
The exhibit features rare and intimate post-graffiti works created between 1992 and 2025, including pieces from Stowers’s private archive—a 30-year collection of gifted, acquired, and self-produced work. Through these visual artifacts, Alternate Identities traces the evolution of a subculture that has long existed in the margins, yet has shaped the urban landscape in profound ways.
Throughout the three months, the exhibit will expands with new contributions from the Inner Circle Art / AI Crew—a group of writers from Eastern Maryland who helped redefine Washington, DC’s graffiti scene in the late 1990s. Works by Shawn Adomais, Kink’d Ink, and Evil highlight the cross-regional collaborations that have fueled graffiti’s reach and resilience over the past decades. Leaving a lasting mark not only in urban environments, but in suburban and rural spaces as well.
Visitors are also invited to participate in related programming:
A Graffiti 101 workshop (September 20th, 12–2 PM) introduces the foundational techniques of style writing in a sketch-based format.
A curator talk and screening of the rarely seen documentary Chocolate City Burning (September 20th, 5–8 PM) provides deeper historical context on the DC graffiti movement and the legendary Dot Com crew.
A longtime creative culture worker, Stowers is co-founder of the Double Down Kings, the region’s largest graffiti crew with over 300 members, and founder of the 14th Street Graffiti Museum in DC. He currently serves as Executive Director of DC Murals, a nonprofit documenting the city’s public art since 1997, and leads ART B.L.O.C. DC, a creative consultancy for public storytelling through design and mural work.
Stowers’ newly released book, To The East: The Rise of Public Murals East of the River, will be available for purchase during the exhibition.
