It’s Been A Hell Of A Month For Mango

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After leading officers on a short pursuit through midtown, an 18-year-old was arrested in the backyard of a residence in Lewiston Gardens late last week, according to the Tulsa Police Department. 

TPD identified the suspect as Talan Jones, who they say was captured with two cans of spray paint in his possession, spraying the word “MANGO” on a concrete wall along the Broken Arrow Expressway. TPD also credited its Air Support Unit with help catching the suspect, which is another way of saying that they needed a helicopter to stop Mango from doing his thing. 

Mango is the nom de plume of one of the city’s most prolific graffiti artists. As befitting a hero of folklore, TPD’s Facebook post announcing the arrest has accumulated over a thousand comments, many expressing support for Mango. Just three weeks ago, Mango’s tag appeared in the background of Paul McCartney’s curious and endearing selfie video from the bank of the Arkansas River, presumably the moment of highest visibility the young artist has ever reached. 

Mango’s work has appeared in public spaces in Tulsa for years, often in locations that are difficult to get to, let alone spray with spraypaint. If you drive past the historic Hawks Dairy building at 11th and Lewis and look up high on the wall, you’ll catch a prime example. The building is set to be converted into luxury apartments soon, so: catch it while you can. 

Mango’s been especially active over the past year, but some Tulsans remember seeing his work around town way longer than that. His tag appears in a post from 2022 in this collection of Okie graffiti. Back in November 2024, local lawyer Frank Frasier put out a public call to the artist, who’d recently tagged a stretch of freeway wall adjacent to Frasier’s law office, urging him to “reach out” to talk about doing a piece of legitimate public art instead—preferably one that would celebrate Route 66. 

Graffiti tagging isn’t really about promoting cultural tourism or reflecting a lifestyle back onto the people who view it. It’s meant to be anarchic. But that’s not to say it’s not a culture-builder in its own way: hip-hop even claims it as one of its five pillars.¹ 

Anyway, we at The Pickup wish the best for Mango. His style and daring make Tulsa more like a real city: a place where expression can happen whether you’ve got a permit or not.