photo by: Explore Lawrence

These new street banners are part of a campaign of the Lawrence visitors’ bureau, Explore Lawrence, and feature 10 local residents. Pictured in the top row, left to right: Pam Van Roekel, of the Eldridge Hotel; Severina Martin del Campo, of La Tropicana; Brian Lenjo, of the Eldridge Hotel; boxer Shiloh LeBeau; Nicole Van Velzen, animal rescue worker. Bottom row: Stephanie Willis, of BodyTruth Apothecary; hip-hop artist Cuee; Roger Boyd, of the Baker Wetlands; Lied Center executive director Derek Kwan; and artist Mona Cliff.

From a hip-hop artist to a hotel manager, the faces that greet Lawrence residents and visitors from street banners are meant to highlight the diversity and uniqueness of the city.

The banners are part of a campaign of the Lawrence visitors’ bureau, Explore Lawrence, and feature 10 local residents. They hang from light posts around the downtown, at big intersections, and various other locations across the city.

Andrea Johnson, director of marketing and communications for Explore Lawrence, said the hope is that the diversity of residents picked for the city banners — both in demographics and what they represent — highlight what makes Lawrence special.

“I just think it’s really a very authentic and genuine representation of Lawrence and it just brings out the welcoming nature of who we are,” Johnson said.

The banners went up in April, replacing the first iteration of city banners featuring the faces of local residents. Like the first set, the new banners will likely stay up for several years. Explore Lawrence Executive Director Kim Anspach said the first set of banners were created in 2015 when Explore Lawrence launched its “Unmistakably Lawrence” brand. The new campaign includes a related series of short videos from 30 residents responding to the prompt, “Why Lawrence?”

The 10 people on the banners were among the 30 who took part in the “Why Lawrence?” project. Johnson said the selection process aimed to get a wide variety of people and perspectives, and that the 30 residents featured include business owners, artists, musicians, and athletes, as well as people representing both the city’s universities, the University of Kansas and Haskell Indian Nations University.

The photographs and videos for all 30 people were done by Lawrence photographer Jason Dailey, and are being added to the Unmistakably Lawrence website. Johnson said the videos are being released one-by-one, and that eventually, everyone represented on the banners will have a related video on the site.

Below is some information about each of the 10 people featured on the banners, collected from the Explore Lawrence videos, past Journal-World reporting and other sources as noted.

Cuee is a transgender hip-hop artist from Chicago now making his way in the music scene in Lawrence, according to his website. Cuee has performed in over 10 cities and played at pride events in Lawrence and Kansas City. Cuee is also involved in community activism, and is a board member at The Haus of McCoy, a queer and trans youth center in Lawrence.

Stephanie Willis is the owner of the downtown shop BodyTruth Soap Apothecary, 10 E. 9th St. Willis started making soap in Detroit in 2014, using ingredients from a community garden. She later opened her first in-person shop in Lawrence in 2019, where she sells soap, shampoo, and other handmade skin care from plant-based ingredients.

Nicole Van Velzen works in animal rescue, with a special focus on end-of-life care for older dogs. Van Velzen fostered 26 dogs and kittens in 2021, according to her website. She authors a blog where she shares stories about the animals she cares for.

Shiloh “Shy” LeBeau is a U.S. Intercollegiate Boxing Association National Champion Boxer. LeBeau will represent Kansas this August as a member of the KC Golden Gloves National Team the 2022 National Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions in Tulsa, Oklahoma, according to her Facebook page. LeBeau was the subject a 2017 Amazon Prime documentary, “Shiloh,” which focused on her experience as a Native American, female boxer.

Brian Lenjo is the front desk manager for the downtown Lawrence’s historic Eldridge Hotel, 701 Massachusetts St. The hotel was a fixture in the violent period leading up to the Civil War, and was burned down twice. Lenjo has been featured in videos and interviews about the hotel’s history and supposed paranormal activity. Pam Van Roekel, general manager of the Eldridge Hotel, is also featured in a city banner.

Severina Martin del Campo is the matriarch of the family-owned restaurant La Tropicana, 434 Locust St., which serves Mexican cuisine. The family opened their business in 1967, and believes it is the oldest family-owned restaurant with original owners in the same location in Lawrence, as the Journal-World reported. Del Campo and her late husband, Jesse Sr., taught younger family members how to cook their very own recipes.

Mona Cliff is a multidisciplinary visual artist focusing on contemporary Native American identity and culture through traditional Native crafting methods such as seed bead embroidery and fabric applique. Cliff, a member of the Gros Ventre tribe, created the “Natives Now” mural in East Lawrence, helped with the “Restoration” mural near the wetlands, and last year was selected for two prestigious museum and airport commissions, as the Journal-World reported.

Derek Kwan is the executive director of the performing arts center, the Lied Center, 1600 Stewart Drive. He is a voting member of the Recording Academy, which presents the Grammy Awards, and has production credits on over 60 albums, including the Grammy-winning “Bebo De Cuba” and New York Times Album of the Year “Lagrimas Negras,” according to the Lied’s website.

Roger Boyd is a scientist and birding expert. Boyd previously served as director of the Baker University Wetlands, and was an integral part of restoring the Baker Wetlands and creating the on-site Discovery Center, 1365 N. 1250 Road.