After online church this morning I walked about 30 minutes to Broad Street where the third mural of the Mending Walls project has been completed. Here is a good summation of the project and this particular mural from a website called graffiti street.
With the Black lives movement at the forefront of conversation, Richmond artist Nils Westergard and SillyGenuis painted a mural dedicated to the victims of police brutality and to support BLM. The collaboration is part of the local project ‘MendingWalls’, a public art project that brings together artists from different cultures and backgrounds to create murals that address where we are now in society.
“Our hope is to bring about healing through public art while adding something meaningful to the conversation of Black Lives Matter.”
The mural on Broad street measures about 100′ long and 25′ tall and memorialise the names of Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling, Botham Jean and so many others who fell victim to police brutality and other hate crimes.
There will ultimately be 16 paintings in the Mending Walls Project. This one uses a local hip hop artist as the central model and includes a quote by James Baldwin.
What is it you wanted me to reconcile myself to? I was born here, almost 60 years ago. I’m not going to live another 60 years. You always told me ‘It takes time.’ It’s taken my father’s time, my mother’s time, my uncle’s time, my brothers’ and my sisters’ time. How much time do you want for your progress? —James Baldwin
