Shannon Galpin

Location: 2032 14th St Boulder, CO 80302 (alleyway behind the Boulder Theater)

Inspired by ransom notes, the artist wheat-pasted the names of 18 Black individuals who were murdered at the hands of police, including Black women Breonna Taylor and Sandra Bland, Black girls such as Aiyana Stanley-Jones, and Black trans women like Aja Raquell Rhone-Spears. In addition to their names, Shannon included adjectives like "mother," "friend," and "veteran" to draw attention to their humanity.⁠
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The muralist was inspired by the #SayHerName movement, which began in 2014 by the African American Policy Forum to bring awareness to the often invisible names and stories of Black women and girls who have been victims of police violence.⁠
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As Shannon puts it, "Street art is one way to call attention to injustice...to putting it right in our community’s gaze. This is about how we challenge each other 'do not look away.'⁠
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How are we making sure we don’t forget the names of all the women who have been killed by police violence? How are we working to change policies?"⁠

About the Artist:

@sgalpin74

National Geographic Adventurer of the Year and global activist, Shannon Galpin, is the former founder of the non-profit, Mountain2Mountain and co-founder of the wildlife conservation organization Endangered Activism.  Shannon worked for over a decade on women’s rights projects in Afghanistan. In 2009, she became the first person to mountain bike in Afghanistan, where later she eventually supported and trained the first Afghan Women’s National Cycling team and helped build and support the burgeoning right to ride movement in Afghanistan. Shannon is the author of two books, her memoir, Mountain to Mountain:  A Journey of Adventure and Activism for the Women of Afghanistan, and a photography book Streets of Afghanistan. She has written for publications such as; the UN Chronicle, National Geographic Adventure, Outside Magazine, Sidetracked, Patagonia, and Blindfold Magazine. She is the producer of the documentary film, Afghan Cycles, and has acted as field producer in Afghanistan on other productions. She is the Executive Director on an upcoming wildlife conservation documentary about art as activism which is in post production with her 15-year old daughter, Devon.  

The International Olympic Committee awarded Shannon an Honorary Achievement Diploma in 2015 for her work promoting gender equity through sports, and Shannon is a recognized Fellow with the Explorer’s Club and with the Royal Society of the Arts in England. A passionate believer in public art as activism, Shannon created the groundbreaking streetart installation, Streets of Afghanistan in 2011 the first street art installation in Afghanistan. She continues to collaborate on climate change street art through the project, #WhatWeLose, a large-scale mural collaboration with her daughter and Mexican artist, Diana Garcia which launched in Paris in 2018.  Shannon speaks internationally about social justice issues at venues such as the United Nations, The Harvard Club, The Explorer’s Club, National Geographic Headquarters, the Italian Parliament, multiple TEDx stages, and keynotes corporate conferences. She has been featured in national and international media such as; Outside Magazine, National Geographic Adventure, Dateline NBC, BBC Radio, Bicycling, The Sunday Times, Huck Magazine, The New York Times. Three short films have been made about her work, MoveShake, Waking Lions, and a Liv Ambassador video which became a short film festival piece. Shannon is a sexual assault survivor and two-time traumatic brain injury (TBI) survivor.

Currently she is working on The 400 Project, a social justice youth initiative teaching social justice and anti-racism through the lens of art as activism. She has been working during COVID on a deep dive into an immersive, multi-media gallery exhibition around brain trauma, memory loss, and the search for identity, that she plans to evolve into a series of street art installations and traveling pop up exhibition in medical brain centers. She is also working on her second memoir about the same subject which tracks her final trips to Afghanistan.

THANK YOU

to the Boulder Theater for hosting and to Conscience Bay for sponsoring this mural!