At MoKaBe's, CVPA Students' Art Ensures St. Louis Won't Forget

The coffeehouse has made space for art commemorating the 2022 mass shooting that killed three and injured seven

Oct 24, 2023 at 5:13 pm

A painting by former student Nick Dilworth hangs on the walls of MoKaBe's Coffeehouse in south St. Louis.

Monica Obradovic

A painting by former CVPA student Nick Dilworth hangs on the walls of MoKaBe's Coffeehouse in south St. Louis.

At MoKaBe's Coffeehouse near Tower Grove Park, it feels just like every other morning. Customers sip their lattes and work on their laptops. Employees banter in the kitchen. Traffic noises from South Grand Boulevard pockmark the typical coffeehouse soundtrack of people chatting over soft music.

The morning of October 24, 2022, began just as normal as this. Then 19-year-old Orlando Harris brought an AR-15-style rifle to Central Visual Performing Arts High School, or CVPA, and killed three people, including himself. Another seven were injured — and countless more traumatized.

It'd be easy to go in and out of MoKaBe's without a thought of the shooting that occurred just a mile away. But art on the walls is a sharp and poignant reminder.

Mo Costello, co-founder of MoKaBe's, didn't want the memory of the shooting to slip away with time. So since February, MoKaBe's has featured artwork by CVPA students as part of a display called "Post Traumatic Healing." Art teacher Kelly Terry curated the display, which includes work from both current and past CVPA students.

"This is a small way to say that we collectively care," Costello says.

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Monica Obradovic

A MoKaBe's patron works amid the backdrop of CVPA art on the wall.

The artwork varies in medium and subject matter. Some students used their art as a tool to express their emotions about the shooting as an effort to let go. One digital painting by Micajah Carr, a ninth grader, shows the Statue of Liberty gagged by a cloth with the words "Second Amendment" strewn across it. In the corner of the painting, a hand holds a pistol pointed at a young women's face.

Another piece, a painting by 2022 alumni Nick Dilworth, displays a collage of images, including the face of 15-year-old Alexzandria Bell, an aspiring dancer who was shot and killed at school that day, and teacher Jean Kuczka, who died shielding her students from gunfire.

"They're so powerful," Costello says of the pieces. "People stop and take the time to look."

CVPA, a magnet school centered on the arts, attracts talented young artists who are passionate about visual or performances art. True to form, the students have turned to public displays of art in various forms since the shooting — not only has a way to heal, but as a refusal to let the tragedy of the shooting dim their shine.

Students created the MoKaBe's art when school reconvened months after the shooting, according to Costello.

She plans to continue to display their work for an indefinite amount of time.