Humanity

There’s a hidden door in Downtown Disney. Only this one isn’t meant to be walked through.

Flanking a stage near the monorail station, you’ll find a glistening white tower, the work of artist and activist Nikkolas Smith, who has adopted the term “artivist.” At first glance, the tower — one of Downtown Disney’s most striking works — appears to be a nod to Disneyland’s Midcentury art, for its curved lines and space-age optimism wouldn’t be out of place in Tomorrowland.

That’s there, says Smith, but there are also a number of more subtle inspirations.

The tower is a nod to five Black architects, trailblazers whose creations sometimes went unnoticed or overlooked. And that’s why at the base of the structure is a looping opening meant to signify a half-open doorway.

Downtown Disney’s Legacy Tower touches on the styles of different Black architects as it rises into the sky.

(Gary Coronado / For The Times)

Smith shares a distressing anecdote. “They had to learn how to read drawings upside down, because they weren’t allowed to sit next to the white clients,” Smith says, adding they also had to endure unequal pay. “So I was incorporating things like the half doorway to symbolize their struggle.”

Officially designated as the Legacy Tower, Smith himself fixates on that word — “legacy.” The term, he says, represents a thematic constant across his work. A regular collaborator on a number of Walt Disney Co. projects and a former architect with Walt Disney Imagineering, the division of the company focused on theme park experiences, Smith is something of a connector. His canvas art, full of fast-moving brush work, is often rooted in the past while urgently seeking to draw links to the present.

Artist Nikkolas Smith went viral for his portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. in a hoodie, a tribute to slain teenager Trayvon Martin.

(Nikkolas Smith)

His 2025 children’s book, “The History of We,” tells the story of how humanity can trace its roots to Africa. And one of his best-known pieces is of Martin Luther King Jr. in a hoodie, meant to evoke the image of Trayvon Martin, the slain 17-year-old whose death inspired a social justice movement. The work went viral in 2013 while Smith was still working for Imagineering. It altered his career trajectory.

“It was like, ‘I cannot just make art about churros and rides right now,’” Smith says. “There’s a time for that, and there’s also a time to talk about this.” He references his portraits related to the killings of Black men, many at the hands of police officers, such as Philando Castile and Michael Brown.

“At the end of the day, Disney understood that,” Smith adds. “They understood that I needed to make art that was extremely important at the moment, about justice or the lack of justice.”

Smith left Disney in 2019 after 11 years but has maintained a close relationship with the company, so much so that Imagineering called upon Smith to design the tower, which opened in 2023.

Artist Nikkolas Smith, left, chats with guests Ricky Yost and Martina Yost of Aubrey, Texas, who recognized Smith from a recent Disney cruise excursion.

(Gary Coronado / For The Times)

As the Legacy Tower spirals toward the sky, its patterns and and lattice work nod to the likes of James H. Garrott, Robert A. Kennard, Roy A. Sealey, Ralph A. Vaughn and Paul Revere Williams. All were active in Los Angeles — Williams, for instance, was a pivotal designer on the LAX Theme Building — and Smith interlaces decorative flourishes in varying styles that twist around one another to work up the Legacy Tower’s pointed spheres.

The door of the Legacy Tower symbolizes perseverance, Smith says. “They made it through, despite all of the obstacles they had to go through.”

Smith had studied the architects while a student at Hampton University, and has documented on his Instagram their various stylings, which range from restrained to whimsical to ornate. A section referencing Vaughn is modern minimalism, whereas an area dedicated to Sealey is full of jagged, pointed linework. All of it is held together via a coiling design that feels full of movement.

The patterns of the Legacy Tower are nods to the likes of James H. Garrott, Robert A. Kennard, Roy A. Sealey, Ralph A. Vaughn and Paul Revere Williams.

(Gary Coronado / For The Times)

“How can I show humanity’s interconnected future? That’s the idea,” Smith says. “There’s this African theme of Sankofa. If we look toward our future, we have to look at the past and value and appreciate the past. I thought it would be great if I could really commemorate some Black designers and architects as the foundation and backstory of the tower. And I was also thinking about these breezeway block patterns that you see in Leimert Park.”

And yet it also feels like something that belongs in the park. Smith says he looked at some Tomorrowland designs.

“A Midcentury Modern vibe was Walt,” Smith says, referring to park patriarch Walt Disney. “That was Walt’s thing. It all connects. I love that people can hopefully now connect both things. You can connect Tomorrowland and Walt with Paul Revere Williams.”

It’s clearly Smith’s favorite design of his for Disney, although it’s not the only space at the resort that features his artistry. During his decade-plus with Imagineering he regularly worked on teams that focused on projects at Disney California Adventure, which this year is celebrating its 25th anniversary. He was heavily involved, he says, in the evolution of Avengers Campus, contributed to a small promenade stage in Pixar Pier and helped envision the facade of Guardians of the Galaxy — Mission: Breakout!, which transformed the former Tower of Terror into a sci-fi structure.

Nikkolas Smith says elements of Downtown Disney’s Legacy Tower symbolize perseverance.

(Gary Coronado / For The Times)

Smith looks back fondly at his years at Imagineering, specifically calling out his time on the Guardians project. The former fake hotel is now full of glistening bronze pipes, a retro futurist look that former Imagineer Joe Rohde, who led the design, has said takes influence from the high-tech aesthetic of architect Renzo Piano, who worked on France’s Pompidou Centre.

“How much can we add to it? How much can we get away with gluing onto this thing?” Smith says of the Guardians facade. “What is the right amount of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ without being too much? Without scaring people on the freeway?”

Today, Smith continues to focus on social justice work, and has also collaborated with filmmaker Ryan Coogler, such as completing concept designs for his Oscar-nominated film “Sinners.” Smith’s 2023 children’s book “The Artivist” documents the importance of creating art that’s in conversation with the world, believing it’s not only a source for education but for empathy. Smith’s weekly paintings speak out often against the current administration, and Smith has been particularly vocal on the ICE raids.

A selection from “The Artivist,” an illustrated book from Nikkolas Smith.

(Nikkolas Smith)

“Some people say that all art is activism, but I feel that some of the best art that is created is art that has a message,” Smith says. “And hopefully that message has to do with the humanity of all people, and for me, I like to focus on marginalized communities, and how we can value the humanity of everybody. That’s why I make picture books about the origins of humanity and the origins of this country.”

The Leimert Park resident says his wife and young son regularly visit the Disneyland Resort. And when he does, Smith says, he always takes a moment to stop by the Pixar Pier stage that he contributed to, which is often used for character meet and greets.

“They were team projects, and I do go up to them with so much pride,” he says. “I go up to the Pixar Pier promenade stage, and I just go up to it and touch it. … The beautiful thing about Disney is these creations are usually around for a lifetime.”

It turns out you can take the artivist out of Disney, but you can’t fully take the Disney out of the artivist.

SEOUL, March 5 (UPI) — A South Korea-based human rights organization said Thursday it has identified specific Chinese public security officials and command structures allegedly involved in the systematic forced repatriation of North Korean escapees — a practice it argues could amount to crimes against humanity under international law.

The findings were presented at a seminar in Seoul hosted by the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, or NKDB, which released a new report examining how Chinese authorities detain and return North Koreans who cross the border seeking refuge.

The event brought together international human rights experts and officials such as former South Korean ambassador for North Korean human rights Lee Shin-wha, and included video messages from U.N. Special Rapporteur on North Korean human rights Elizabeth Salmón and U.S. State Department official Julie Turner.

The report marks a shift from documenting abuses against North Korean escapees to identifying operational responsibility within Chinese security institutions, Donghwi Shin, a human rights analyst at NKDB and one of the report’s authors, said at the seminar.

“Ultimately, the forced repatriation of North Korean defectors can be understood as a structural processing system,” he said. “It is not a simple act of administrative enforcement.”

Human rights groups have long accused Beijing of violating the principle of non-refoulement, a core rule of international refugee law barring the return of people to countries where they face persecution.

China maintains that North Koreans who cross its border illegally are economic migrants rather than refugees and routinely returns them under bilateral border agreements with Pyongyang, despite being a party to the U.N. Refugee Convention and the Convention Against Torture.

Human Rights Watch said in an October 2025 report that Chinese authorities have forcibly returned at least 406 North Koreans since 2024, warning that those repatriated face a high risk of torture, imprisonment and other abuses upon return.

NKDB’s report, The Machinery Behind the Forced Repatriation of North Koreans in China, analyzes how those returns are carried out through what researchers describe as an organized cross-border system involving multiple government agencies.

Drawing on more than two decades of documentation, the study examines 8,245 recorded cases of forced repatriation and testimonies from 96 survivors who were returned to North Korea after being detained in China.

Researchers said the process typically involves Chinese public security organs arresting North Korean escapees, detaining them in border regions such as Liaoning and Jilin provinces, and transferring them to North Korean authorities at designated crossing points.

The report also includes survivor testimony describing what happens after repatriation.

At the seminar Thursday, one North Korean escapee shared the experience of being repatriated from China in 2014, detailing a brutal 19-month period of processing, interrogation and eventual detention at a forced labor camp in Ryanggang Province near the Chinese border.

The escapee, whose identity was withheld for safety reasons, described routine beatings, torture, malnutrition and humiliation, including a public trial at a marketplace where crowds spat, cursed and threw stones.

“At the prison camp we were forced to work from 4:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. without rest,” the escapee said. “We ate rats and maggots just to stay alive, the only source of protein we could have.”

Ultimately, the escapee’s parents sold their house to pay a bribe that allowed for an eventual release and relocation to South Korea.

However, the experience left lasting scars, including damaged legs and psychological trauma that requires ongoing therapy and medication.

“My only wish is to have one night of deep, peaceful sleep,” the escapee said. “We demand that the facts of our suffering be brought before international courts.”

Such testimony reinforces the legal arguments presented in the report.

Under Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, deportation or forcible transfer carried out as part of a widespread or systematic attack against civilians can constitute a crime against humanity.

The report argues that repeated forced repatriations may meet that threshold if officials knowingly participate in returning individuals to a system where such abuses are foreseeable.

Previous investigations by U.N. bodies and human rights organizations have documented harsh treatment of repatriated North Koreans, including detention, interrogation and abuse inside the country’s prison and labor camp system.

NKDB researchers said the findings raise questions about accountability not only for abuses carried out inside North Korea but also for officials involved in facilitating forced returns.

The organization called on U.N. member states and governments with sanctions authorities to examine the findings and consider possible accountability measures.

Speakers at the seminar said the research should serve as a foundation for policy action.

“The challenge now is translating this research into actual policy change,” former ambassador Lee said. “We must confront the structural causes of repeated forced repatriations in China with clarity.”