Page 28 - bon-dia-aruba DEC 14 2020

A28 u.s. news
Dialuna 14 December 2020

Artists, activists rush to save Black Lives Matter murals

a digital version of the "Right to Re-
main" poster by local artist Kreau,
3D graffiti honoring victims of po-
lice brutality and digital tears pouring
over Seattle's skyline.
Gargi Kadoo, a member of the design
team, says much of the protest art
around Seattle was removed. Street
art has been erased in many other
cities, including Tulsa, Oklahoma,
where workers in October removed a
Black Lives Matter painting at the site
of the Tulsa Race Massacre where in
1921 a white mob attacked a prosper-
ous African American district, killing
an estimated 300 people. Other cities
such as Indianapolis and New York
City have seen their Black Lives Mat-
ter murals vandalized.

"This is our homage to the art that is
gone," she said. "It's trying to keep the
message alive virtually, in a form that
no one can take down or hose off."

In Oakland, California, community
arts organizations are preserving and
cataloging more than 700 murals.
The team is discussing plans includ-
ing a December outdoor exhibition,
Neither woman could bring Art Mapping George Floyd and Anti- the Black Lives Matter street mural a 2021 indoor exhibition, and high
themselves to watch the video of Racist Street Art database. stretching across Indiana Avenue. school lesson plans centering the art-
George Floyd's final moments, his The mural is wearing down from work, said Jean Marie Durant, presi-
neck pinned under a Minneapolis "The art was changing quickly, and traffic, and with winter will come dent of Oakland Art Murmur Board
police officer's knee. these raw, immediate responses were weather damage and snowplows. of Directors.
being erased and painted over," said
But as their city grieved, Leesa Kel- Todd Lawrence, an associate profes- But the mural will live on in prints The Black-led Black Cultural Zone
ly and Kenda Zellner-Smith found sor of English at the University of St. and T-shirts created by the local has a leading role in the project.
much-needed comfort in the messag- Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Black artists behind the original mu-
es of anguish and hope that appeared one of the database's creators. "We ral. More than 1,000 shirts have been "We've been living this story, this
on boarded-up windows as residents want people to see the full range of sold. Vinyl banners representing 24 trauma for a long time," CEO Car-
turned miles of plywood into can- responses, the complexity, the multi- other murals painted in the down- olyn Johnson said. "That gives us a
vases. Now, they're working to save tude of voices." town area are displayed at the city's perspective that others may not have.
those murals before they vanish. Central Library. We know how to best tell this story."
Lawrence and art history professor
"These walls speak," said Zellner- Heather Shirey were part of a re- "All of us know the mural won't be Back in Minneapolis, Save the Boards
Smith, who said she was too numb search team already documenting there forever," Jeffers said. "So we all is working with researchers Lawrence
to cry after Floyd's killing. "They're street art. When the streets of count- wanted a piece of it to hold onto." and Shirey as well as the Minnesota
the expressions of communities. We less cities became temporary galler- African American Heritage Museum
want these feelings, hopes, calls to ac- ies after Floyd's death, they set out to For Seattle's Black Lives Matter street and Gallery to document, archive and
tion to live on." capture the art before it disappeared. mural, Mexican American artist An- plan an exhibition in May 2021, the
gelina Villalobos, aka 179, mixed her anniversary of Floyd's death.
Together, the two Black women Although many of the 1,600 artworks mother's ashes into the bright green
formed Save the Boards to Memori- in the crowdsourced database come paint she used for the letter A. City Museum co-founder Tina Burnside
alize the Movement, part of a push to from Minneapolis, Shirey says they workers scrubbed the mural from the says the initiative hopes to preserve
preserve the ephemeral expressions hope to expand to pieces from around asphalt after it began chipping, but the murals in a way that continues di-
of anger and pain born of outrage the world. one worker collected paint from each alogue on systemic racism, provides
over racial injustice that triggered "Oppression and racial violence is letter, which Villalobos plans to keep context and allows for public access.
weeks of protests across the country. unfortunately universal, so art is re- on her mother's altar in the kitchen.
sponding to it around the world," she "It's an important chapter in the fight
Some artists began painting intricate said. "I'm getting my mom back, but she's for racial justice in this country," she
murals, but many spray-painted raw been transformed," she said. "It's like said. "We're documenting history."
messages of anguish. Zellner-Smith Similar work is going on across the ... a time capsule of that mural expe-
started with the simple pieces. country as groups take measures to rience and all the work and thought Kelly and Zellner-Smith have filled
keep the art alive. and pain that went into it." their warehouse space to capacity.
"Some of these boards aren't pretty," They started out by hoarding boards
she said. "There is collective pain and In New York City, the Soho Broad- The original artists have repainted the in their garages. Now, they have 537
grief in each board, and each one tells way Initiative worked with local arts mural, planning to touch it up again in a warehouse. They say watching
a different aspect of this story. And groups to get permission for murals in five years. the space fill up was surreal.
now we get to tell that story to every- and provide artists with materials.
one." As murals started coming down, the Designers at the Seattle architecture "Being surrounded by these boards
organization returned 22 artworks to and design firm GGLO are using a that encompass this pain and grief
One is the word "MAMA" scrawled artists and collected 20 more waiting different approach to preserve protest and hope, it was spiritual," Kelly said.
hastily onto the side of an abandoned to be returned. art by creating an augmented reality
Walmart. The word was among art show that allows visitors to use The group's next steps are to catalog
Floyd's last. Now it's part of a data- In Indianapolis, organizer Malina smartphones to view works scattered the boards, do 3D scans and build a
base of protest art called the Urban Jeffers is unsure about the future of around the city. The show includes virtual gallery.