Written by Mollie Talbot for The KC Scene
On February 1, 2024, I sent my son and husband to what should’ve been a memorable day celebrating the Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory with the rest of our city.
A few hours after they left, my phone pinged and dinged with friends and Instagram followers asking if we were at the parade and if we were okay. As soon as I discovered there’d been a shooting, Kyle called. Eerily calm, he described that while he and my son were walking back to the car, they heard what sounded like “fireworks” and watched police officers apprehend someone on foot, tackling him to the ground.
Like anyone in that situation, he was in shock. He was sure it was fireworks and some kind of crowd conflict. The human brain isn’t wired to witness gun violence. While it would take weeks for them to process what happened that day and even longer before they’d identify the way large gatherings began to afflict them with anxieties that hadn’t previously existed, our family’s trauma was minuscule compared to the families of the victims.
On that fateful February day, our city was deprived of the life of Lisa Lopez-Galvan — wife, mother, DJ, radio host, and a prevalent voice for KC’s Hispanic community. She became a victim of our country’s epidemic of gun violence. While feckless sentiments like “thoughts and prayers” and “policy and change” are offered in the wake of similar tragedies as an attempt at providing solace, another Kansas Citian was fast at work processing our collective grief in a language that requires nothing of the voice, yet everything of the heart.
Long-time pioneer of KC creativity, Deaunte Thomas believes with his heart, soul, and canvas that this language is art. While others wondered if another parade or event would take place as a make-up celebration, Deaunte was busy alchemizing the unspeakable into love via brushstroke.
Five days after the shooting, Deaunte posted a memorial painting in Lisa Lopez-Galvan’s honor on his personal Instagram @afkaduddy, stating:
“...a family won't ever get their mother/wife back, dozens of families waiting for children to recover in the hospital. If anyone knows how I can get this painting to her family, let me know. It's the least I could do.”
It worked, too. He later presented the painting to Lisa’s husband.
Deaunte’s sentiment makes me wonder what would happen if the “least” any of us did in the face of tragedy was creating beauty from the ashes, to paint withness into that which is often isolated, unspoken, unfathomable, and unrepresented. This is powerful, and Deaunte lives it out for the benefit of our city and its future.
Involved with the Boys and Girls Club of KC and as an art teacher at Lee A. Tolbert Arts Academy and Noland Middle School, he guides children to chisel out what art means to them despite peer, familial, and societal pressures. As the art director of KC’s 18th and Vine Arts Festival, he curates and encourages artists to plant roots where they are rather than believe a big city is the sole route to their artistic exposure. He is a speaker box for the power of offering individual creation for the benefit of community.
While Deaunte has been recognized for his live-action, in-person sports paintings gifted to KC Chiefs’ Isiah Pacheco and past KC Current goalie Adrianna Franch, the heart of his creative message is much deeper, and everything I hope creatives like my sons encounter in a world that attempts to capitalize on creation and suck it of its sincerity.
With bravery and willingness to touch the untouched topics of tragedy, grief, oppression, inequality, and the underrepresentation of arts in children, especially in Black communities, he’s a testament that art is community service, the fostering of connection, the reduction of crime, and the inspiration of hope. Call me a dreamer, but more Kansas City community members of this mentality would change our city, and he just might be on the way to doing it single-handedly.
Deaunte has donated thousands of dollars in paintings to create cultural collaboration in our city. His murals, portraits, signature boards, community collaborations, and continuous service encouraging the mental health of current KC artists recently earned him a much-deserved proclamation from the City. But while a proclamation is great, what if our city honored his message by the inclusion of Black art in larger spheres, like billboards, streetcars, bus stops, and stadiums? Deaunte and the artists under his wings are ready for the challenge.
As powerful as his creation for Lisa Lopez-Galvan was for our city’s ability to grieve her loss, it displays the power art holds in providing language for what politicians and empty policies and sentiments do not. Deaunte proves that sincerity of heart still deeply matters and that during times of tragedy, fear, despair, and devastation - art is revival, and you have hands meant to heal.
Wanna know where you can find Deaunte and his work?
- Creative Emajinations
- Union Station Graffiti Attic
- Crossroads Charter
- The Hub Argentine
- Santa Fe Murals
- Porter House KC
- UniKC Bar and Lounge
- Nirvana Opulence Salon
- Status Nightclub
- Do Work Factory 3.0
- Wing Studio KC
- Hope Leadership Academy
- Southeast High School
- Success Academy
- Wendell Phillips @ Att
In his own words:
“I’m not too hard to find, like Waldo — somewhere in the community behind an easel and canvas.”
Follow @afkaduddy on Instagram to see his latest community projects.