Muralist Charles Key Wants to Teach Kids That Art Can Be a Way to Dream Find Keyâs artwork in the Napier area and elsewhere around the city Tweet
By Charles KeyPhoto: Daniel Meigs
Growing up in South Central Los Angeles in the â80s, Charles Key didnât have a lot to do. The neighborhood, he says, was infested with gangs, and his parents wouldnât let him leave the yard. But his imagination was active. His father was an artist, and the walls of South Central were covered in graffiti.Â
Charles KeyPhoto: Daniel MeigsAfter the L.A. riots of the early â90s, Keyâs parents moved the family to Nashville. He graduated from Antioch High School, and worked various jobs after, including as a chef. But art was always in his back pocket â a calling, he says, and a ministry.Â
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Photo: Daniel Meigs
It feels like a massive tear forms in the space-time continuum the moment you walk through the glass door of Blue Stripes Urban Cacao. A devil pops up on one shoulder, an angel on the other. Suddenly youâre being torn between indulgence and restraint, hunger and health, chocolate and cacao.
Blue Stripes opened in February in the Three Thirty Three building. The Gulch cafe is the latest from Oded Brenner, co-founder of the worldwide chocolate cafe chain Max Brenner. Blue Stripes, which also has a New York location in Union Square that has been closed during the pandemic, is where âwellness meets indulgence.â Itâs also where Brenner employs the whole cacao pod â fruit, beans, shell, even its juice â to make everything from sugar-packed, luxurious desserts to keto-friendly post-workout energy snacks.