2021–2025 | Site-Specific Mural / Public Art
The Afro Block Party
4430 Third Street, between La Salle Avenue and Kirkwood Avenue
Bayview–Hunters Point, San Francisco
Commissioned by Feline Finesse Dance Company for its House of Finesse on Third Street in Bayview–Hunters Point, House of Finesse transformed the dance studio’s exterior into a site-specific installation drawn from the visual world of The Afro Block Party.
Painted directly across the building’s barred storefront, the mural repeated four Afro Block Party figures and expressions—ERRAY!, AFRO PUFFS!, YEE!, and THE AFRO—in a grid of purple and metallic gold. Rather than treating the security bars as an obstruction, Afatasi incorporated the existing architecture into the composition, allowing the repeated characters to occupy the windows and façade as part of a single graphic environment.
Created for a neighborhood youth dance company in Bayview–Hunters Point, the work placed images of natural hair, girls, humor and local vernacular directly into the everyday streetscape. The commission connected The Afro Block Party’s celebration of children, creativity, natural beauty and neighborhood culture with a space dedicated to young people’s artistic expression.
For four years, from 2021 to 2025, the mural remained visible along Third Street and became part of the neighborhood’s visual landscape. After the façade was repainted in 2025, a community member contacted Afatasi to say that she missed seeing the Afro Puffs at Feline Finesse because they had “always made me smile when I passed.” The unsolicited message became a small record of the relationship that can form between a public artwork and the people who encounter it repeatedly in their everyday lives.
House of Finesse is an early example of The Afro Block Party moving beyond individual artworks and into the built environment—using its characters and visual language to occupy neighborhood space and reflect Bayview–Hunters Point back to itself.
Artist: Afatasi
Commissioned by: Feline Finesse Dance Company
Location: 4430 Third Street, between La Salle Avenue and Kirkwood Avenue, Bayview–Hunters Point, San Francisco
Dates: 2021–2025
Medium: Site-specific exterior mural
Series: The Afro Block Party
Status: No longer extant; façade repainted in 2025