Steven Johnson, known as BLAZE, is an early Oakland graffiti writer and the author of BLAZE: The Birth of Oakland Graffiti. Inspired by Style Wars in 1983, he began writing across Oakland and the East Bay, developing his style alongside the artists and crews of the emerging scene. His illustrated memoir brings together surviving photographs, black-book drawings and firsthand memories to preserve a personal record of that era. Johnson later became an attorney and continues to share the history of the culture that shaped his youth.