Mike Hughes wrote his first tag on a wall in Washington Heights in 1968. He was 12 years old. He didn’t know he was inventing a movement.
More than fifty years later, Mike — known to the world as Mike 171 — is still writing, still teaching, and still building. A co-founder of United Graffiti Artists in 1972, one of the first generation of New York City writers, and a 9/11 first responder, Mike has watched the movement he helped create go from vandalism to Sotheby’s auction. He received none of that money and wants none of that credit.
On the rooftop of his Astoria building, Mike has built the Rooftop Graffititeria — a legal sanctuary where artists from around the world come to paint without fear. He’s been writing a book about Washington Heights since 1996. He has no plans to stop.
MIKE 171 is not a history lesson. It’s a character study about what it costs to outlive your own revolution — and what you build in its place.