The flying saucer that has hovered over Junkman's Daughter's entrance in Little Five Points for years is coming down, making way for a new mural by Atlanta folk artist Kyle “BlackCatTips” Brooks. The old UFO used to collect rainwater that spilled onto shoppers standing underneath it, and it had started to deteriorate, while the store's facade mural had badly faded. The overhaul marks the fourth version of the storefront's look since the shop moved into its current former grocery store space on Moreland Avenue in the 1990s.
According to Axios, the UFO will be replaced by an awning stretched over the store's entrances, and Brooks is expected to include an easter egg paying homage to the departing flying saucer, per store steward Moss Mills. The new mural will feature eccentric characters and, in Mills' words, “more frowns, teeth, horns and character chaos.” The project is expected to take at least four weeks to complete.
A Family Legacy Rooted in Salvage
Junkman's Daughter traces back to 1982, when Pam Majors opened the store on Euclid Avenue to sell odds and ends her parents had accumulated, before it later expanded into other merchandise. Majors, who died in 2016, built the business into a Little Five Points institution now stewarded by her son, Moss Mills. The store eventually grew into its 10,000-square-foot space, which according to Discover Atlanta includes a 20-foot-tall red high-heeled shoe staircase leading up to the footwear department.
The shop launched using goods accumulated by Majors' parents, a history detailed by Atlas Obscura, which also notes the store has drawn a roster of famous visitors over its four decades in the neighborhood, including Steven Tyler, Bono, Cyndi Lauper, Lenny Kravitz, Tura Santana, and members of The Clash and Outkast. Mark Gavron later owned a store called Junkman's Daughter's Brother in Athens. The independent retail strategy behind the original store even earned it a spot among the “25 Best Independent Stores in America” in retail consultant George Whalin's 2009 book, Retail Superstars, as noted by Abt.
The Artist Behind the New Face
The mural work falls to Kyle “BlackCatTips” Brooks, who spent years clandestinely placing doodle-painted wood scraps on telephone poles and road signs before turning street art into a full-time career in 2011. Per Atlanta Magazine, Brooks developed a signature folk style built around bright, smiling creatures and now lives near Arabia Mountain in DeKalb County, where he has published the children's book Smile a While alongside his public murals.
Brooks' painting schedule at Junkman's Daughter will include a gap so he can attend Finster Fest, an annual celebration of folk artist Howard Finster. The festival takes place at Finster's four-acre Paradise Garden in Summerville, and this year's edition runs September 19-20, featuring more than 70 folk, contemporary, and craft artists alongside 17 live music performances, according to a PR Newswire announcement. Brooks is exhibiting work at Finster Fest through September 27.
Little Five Points' Bohemian Backbone
The Junkman's Daughter facade has long been considered a key ingredient of Little Five Points' character, standing alongside other neighborhood landmarks like the Vortex Bar & Grill's oversized skull entrance. The district earned its bohemian, alternative identity in the 1970s and 1980s, when high vacancy rates let young artists, entrepreneurs, and students move into a commercial strip that had declined amid changing transit patterns, per Creative Loafing.
That countercultural streak has long included public art. Little Five Points supported street murals for decades before municipal or commercial mural programs spread across metro Atlanta, according to ARTS ATL. The L5P Business Association also runs the neighborhood's annual Halloween Festival and Parade, ranked among the largest in the Southeast, while community radio station WRFG has broadcast from the district since 1982, according to reporting from the Pacifica Network.
