CONVERSATIONS
Voices from Black Austin on places, community, change, and the everyday work of making a life here.
Justin Shiels is a visual artist, creative director, and founder whose work explores joy, identity, and storytelling through design and community-centered experiences.
Originally from Memphis and shaped by years in New Orleans, he moved to Austin in 2019 after a series of creative and professional shifts that led him into independent practice.
Through So Curious — a stationery company and creative platform — he creates work and in-person experiences that center joy, connection, and representation through drawing, writing, and communal making.
This conversation is part of You Are Here ATX, an ongoing project exploring presence, belonging, and lived experience in Austin.
Leon Holland is one of UT Austin’s precursors -among the first Black undergraduate students to attend the university following integration in 1956.
Originally from San Antonio, he came to Austin for two simple reasons; it was close to home and tuition was $25. What he encountered, and what he built here, tells a much deeper story.
This conversation is part of You Are Here ATX, an ongoing project exploring presence, belonging, and lived experience in Austin.
We met at one of his current favorite spots in Austin, LoLo Wine Bar in East Austin, where our conversation carried into the evening as the light shifted. He’s been here since 2018 and reflected on how the city has changed, and how it’s shaped him along the way.
The first in a series of conversations.