The story begins with Emanuel Martinez, whose mural La Alma, painted in 1978, can be found in La Alma Lincoln Park. “Martinez is the founder of this movement,” says Cooper. In the ’60s, “he traveled to Mexico to see the work of great muralists there,” adds Williams, “and he brought that knowledge back with him to Denver, where he was from. Denver was an important location for the Chicano civil rights movement, and his major contribution to that movement was painting murals for his community.”

Emanuel Martinez’s mural Confluent Peoples covers two walls underneath Speer Boulevard along Little Raven Street. “If people are familiar with Martinez, it’s likely they've seen this mural,” says Williams. “It’s right downtown, on this very large scale. Like all of his projects, he had young people involved: He’d invite young people to help paint it.”

In 2008, the artist David Ocelotl Garcia painted the Huitzilopochtli mural facing Eighth Avenue, on a building that currently houses the dispensary Mana Supply Co. “This was the first mural he painted,” says Williams. Informed by his Mexican American heritage, “he took these very traditional characters and created this very intricate, colorful mural.” The podcast dives into what happened in 2020, “when renters painted over the mural with white paint, and how the artist brought the mural back.”

Water Ceremony is the most recent mural from the artist David Ocelotl Garcia and is located on the side of the Latino Cultural Arts Center, where he has his studio.

Look for the Queen Fathima mural off Walnut Street between 27th and 28th Streets. “Five Points was a historically Black neighborhood,” says Cooper. “It was known as the Harlem of the West. Now, with gentrification, you don’t see Black folks there at all. When Jodie Herrera and Miles Toland had the opportunity to paint a wall, they painted a portrait of Fathima Dickerson, the daughter of the owners of the Welton Street Cafe, which had been a staple gathering place for decades.”

“This will be the new location of Welton Street Cafe, a few blocks down from the original, which closed during the pandemic,” says Cooper. “Everyone gathered there. It’s been the home establishment for the Five Points community. It has lasted the test of time. The Queen Fathima mural, painted as part of the 2020 Crush Walls festival, represents Welton Street Cafe’s presence in Denver even while their new location is being built.”

Along the Ralston Creek Trail in Arvada, underneath the intersection of Ralston Road and Lamar Street, you’ll find a collection of multiple murals that were painted at Babe Walls 2021. “Babe Walls is a mural festival for all female and nonbinary artists,” says Williams. “[On the podcast,] we speak with three women who provide context about why starting this festival was really important, and how it’s been part of an important shift in Denver’s street art scene over the last few years.”

“Babe Walls 2020 was the first time Danielle SeeWalker, the Indigenous artist behind Waníyetu Wówapi (Winter Count) on the Denver Indian Center Building, painted a mural,” says Williams. “Part of the idea of the festival is to be more inclusive, to bring people in who might be artists but have never painted a mural before. SeeWalker has since painted more than 25 murals; she’s just been on fire.”

“The Breonna Taylor mural by Detour and Hiero Veiga [at 2845 Walnut Street] is one of maybe two murals that survived from the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement,” says Cooper. “Murals from the Black Lives Matter movement got tagged and painted over a lot. There was a real disdain for art that represented George Floyd and BLM, so a lot of those murals don’t exist anymore. The tagging and defacing has been very triggering for the artists. This is one of the last ones that’s available to see.”

The Eastside Forever mural by Adri Norris, on the Glenarm Recreation Center, was created with the community on the east side. “Norris was brought on by the city of Denver to do a Black Lives Matter mural in front of the Capitol Building," says Cooper, "similar to the one in DC. Like a lot of things that were painted in June 2020, it was temporary. Eastside Forever is an attempt to gain permanence: We are here, and we built this. It’s a testament to the community’s desire to remain vibrant.”