Dapper Bruce Lafitte (formerly Bruce Davenport, Jr.) was born in 1972 at Charity Hospital and grew up in the Lafitte Housing Projects in the 6th Ward. With the encouragement of his grandparents who raised him, he began to draw at the age of five as a means to entertain himself and document the world around him. The artist has been described as, “not so much a self-taught artist as he is a self-taught anthropologist.” His vivid color marker drawings, which have received international attention, provide detailed reenactments of the vibrant pageantry of New Orleans culture, the artist’s community and his personal heroes. The artist currently lives and works in the Lower 9th Ward.