Steve ESPO Powers (Article)

Everyone grows up. There comes a time when you’ve got to hang up beer bongs and g-strings. Maybe that’s a little too prolific an example, but some people have wilder days of their youth than others. One day you wake up and realize you’re starting to look silly doing things that you once thought were “cool”. Maybe you’ve gained some responsibility over the years. Sooner or later, the time comes to relinquish some of your fire. 

In December 1999, Steve “ESPO” Powers learned this the hard way, but let’s start at the beginning. A young Steve Powers trained at The Art Institute of Philadelphia and the University of the Arts. Before his school days, starting in ’84, you could find ESPO tags across the city, but it wasn’t until later that he really found his signature. His schooling probably went a long way towards his aesthetic style, but it didn’t slow him down. 

Moving to New York in ’94, ESPO began his days of illicit graffiti in full. All the while, the man skirted a fine line between legal and illegal. Some of his work even used legitimate billboard techniques; this was an idea ESPO became known for. A strange fusion between clean, very un-graffiti-like examples of his tagging the name “ESPO” across New York in the big block letters became his trademark. It wasn’t until years later, though, that this young graffiti artist really pushed the envelope on his peculiar crusade. 

In ’97, ESPO embarked upon his most interestingly ambitious project to date. He focused his attention on the metal gates of shops and storefronts that looked abandoned and out of business; oftentimes severely marred by various other graffiti. Dressing up in street clothes—or sometimes even as a city worker—ESPO would begin the task of covering over all the old graffiti with white or silver paint. If passersby got suspicious and asked him what he was doing, he would tell them that he was with the “Exterior Surface Painting Outreach” and that he was cleaning up that particular surface. Following this, he’d transform each panel of the grating into a letter of his name. 

From Steve Powers’ mouth, he used the name in any way he wanted as the need arose. ESPO meant whatever he wanted it to mean at any given time. This unique angle on what some might consider graffiti—and others a warped public service—became the young man’s signature practice, and his exploits on this strange breed of censorship are still famous to this day. In a subtle sense, ESPO found a way to be incredibly bold while still maintaining an almost charitable message behind his work, as if he was doing an overworked city’s job out of the kindness of his heart, although in an arguably egotistical fashion. By ’99, around 70 examples like the one shown above had been painted. 

Like was mentioned earlier, however, days like this don’t usually last forever. In December of ’99, Powers’ home was raided by New York police and he was arrested for graffiti vandalism, following his involvement in a protest against Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's effort to shut down the controversial art show "Sensation" at the Brooklyn Museum. After being charged with six counts of criminal mischief, Powers accepted a plea and engaged in five days of community service. 

The entire ordeal was likely an eye-opening experience. While various New York newspapers criticized Giuliani’s actions, very harsh words were spoken against the graffiti artist known as ESPO. It’s hard to imagine what went through Powers’ mind at this time, but Powers ended up renouncing his days of graffiti. The man started on an effort to learn the sign painting business, and soon found a new applet for his skills. Had a true New York graffiti legend really gone soft?

Yes and no. Powers clearly took a hard look at his life after the arrest that was likely very disturbing to someone who did little more than replace wanton graffiti with clean lettering. He took a step back and saw that he could still practice the craft that he loved without risking his own neck, and that he perhaps could do some real good in the process. It’s clearly apparent that ESPO was never much of your typical rebel, so making the jump from illicit works to something much more respectable wasn’t much of a leap. Powers grew up, so to speak, but he didn’t lose his spunk and originality. In fact, he expanded it even further. 

In 2002 while in LA, Powers volunteered to paint over graffiti for the city as a public service. He did, however use the old name ESPO in a very subtle way as he did. The artist believes in a sort of synergy between writers (graffiti artists) and buffers (city workers who paint over said graffiti), in that both sides of the coin have merit. This looked to be the last time Powers made use of the name ESPO, though, and in recent days, he’s even admitted he dislikes the old name entirely. 

He has no problem with owning up to his past, and finds nothing wrong with anyone respecting the history that made him who he is today, but at the same time, he has very strong opinions on graffiti within his current lifestyle. Those days are long behind him, and he takes a lot of pride in the name Steve Powers and the work he does nowadays much more than what he did in the past. Basically, if you run into him on the street, I think he’d appreciate very much being addressed as Steve, rather than ESPO. 

So what is Steve doing these days? One of his latest projects was titled “A Love Letter For You”, in which Powers and his team took to the rooftops and graffiti marred surfaces of West Philadelphia, censoring the city in a very beautiful way. Many of the murals created feature images and sayings that you might expect to see on a T-shirt, but at the same time, they convey thought-provoking, positive and even subtly romantic “love notes” across the city. When asked about the project, Powers said "I saw this as an opportunity to reclaim the space on these rooftops and reexamine graffiti," and he certainly has accomplished that objective. He’s even spread the project to Brooklyn. 

So what do you think? Is trading in the good old days of youth and mischief worth it? That’s up to you to decide, but Steve “ESPO” Powers has showed us that personal creative genius never goes away unless you let it. There’s always another idea, another flash of inspiration, and another surface to make your mark on. Who says you have to be illegal to be cool?