A few blocks east of downtown, on Santa Clara Street in the masterfully rebranded East Village, I stop at Writers Bench, a small art space that speaks authentically San José. A rack of spray colorful paints, a case full of stickers, a t-shirt rack and a gleaming purple low rider bicycle surround a chessboard, set up and ready to play, in the middle of the narrow storefront.

The artists behind Writers Bench—which takes its name from the Bronx subway bench where aerosol artists congregated in the movement’s early days—first operated the business out of a box truck. The storefront incarnation this week features an exhibit by San Jose wildstyle graffiti artists Natrl and Ankor.

“We just like to paint,” operator Dre Hernandez says. “We understand how it is for business owners, because they ge

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