Protest signs and artwork on the Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence, Date: 20 October 2020
Protest signs and posters on the Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence, located on the north side of Lafayette Park in Washington D.C.
There is a small cardboard cutout of Donald Trump that reads “Family Separator #tinytrump.” There is a pink sticker that has the black power fist at the top and flowers surround it. There are two hands below it and they are holding up two weight scales that have a gavel and a dove in them. This sticker reads “No Justice No Peace No Racist Police” This sticker was created by @citizenruthbrand.
There is a view from the ground that shows the fence and people walking on the sidewalk and protesting in the street. On the ground is a line of papers that are black and white printed photos of photos. They read “The Doors are Closing on Evil. White Supremacy is Terrorism” “The Moral Finder of This Country is Torn to Shreds” “Trump’s Life is a Waste of Matter” Trumps a Liar” and the rest are unable to be read properly.
Another shot of the fence shows two flags that are standing up against the fence and one is a black flag that has “Trump” on it with a black circle background that has a red circle with a line going through it. The second black flag next to it is folded over and has “Trump” on it with the communist sickle and hammer replacing the “U” and has a red circle with a line going through it.
There are many posters that reads “Trump Digs His Own Grave” “Trump Lies All The Time” “Trump is Guilty” “Arrest Trump” “None of this is Normal Stop the Gaslighting” “ACAB” “Stop ICE!” “Stop Murdering Black People” “Don’t Force Your Dick on U.S.a [sic]” “Outbreak? Crime Scene? Or Both? Vote Them Out” “Save Our Kids” “votethem out! VoteThem Out!! VOTETHEM OUT!!!” “Black Trans Lives Matter” “Silence is Betrayal” “Yeah The Black Guy Did It” “State of Injustice” “My Body is NOT A Political Playground” “America has had 400 years to make it RIGHT BLM” “Loser” and “Tool of Russia Under Master Putin [-] Threatening Rotten Unscrupulous Murderous Pandemic-Panderer” “No Barrett No Trump No KKK No Fascist USA Fuck Your White Supremacy” “State of Obstruction” “The Trump Hotel is a Crime Scene” “The Trump Hotel is a Breeding Ground of Corruption” “We can’t repeal out pre-existing conditions” “KKK in Blue” “Justice for those Killed” “Black Lives Matter.” And a poster that is on black cardboard with “BLM” that was spraypainted on with yellow spray paint.
A black poster with pink cursive handwriting reads “fuck Trump” and has hearts drawn around it. Another poster that has the silhouette of the Grim Reaper on a yellow background with Mitch McConnell’s face on it reads “Moral Monday Caravan on McConnell” and “STOP McConnell’s Meanness, Mayhem & Misery Pass a Full & Just Stimulus Package!” Another black poster has different colored words and reads “Fuck You GOP!” “Gray Old Peckers.”
There is a black poster that reads “The Silent Unknown” which seems to be a poem and has an image of someone in red with their hands up and head down.
There are multiple pictures of those who lost their lives to police brutality and they have “Rest in Power” or “#SayHerName” and some of them have the victims' names on them. The legible names are “Pamela Turner May 13, 2019” “Bryan Overstreet April 2015” “Cory Levert Tanner Aug 13, 2014” “Zikarious Flint March 30, 2014” “Kiorte Spencer Februrary 26, 20[..]” and “Mathew Ajibade Jan 1, 2015”.
There is a cardboard poster of the Monopoly man who is holding a police officer and it reads “Black Lives Matter R.I.P. George Floyd Breonna Taylor Atatiana Jefferson Freddie Gray” it further has “marcmoneyart.com” and “@marcmoneyart”.
A cardboard poster that has black silhouettes of protesters holding names of people who have been killed by police brutality (Sandra Bland, Breonna Taylor, Freddie Gray, Tony McDade, D’Quan Young, and George Floyd) reads “All I wanna say is that they don’t really care about us.”
A poster that reads “Justice for Queen Breonna” has a portrait of Breonna Taylor with a crown on and there is a painted portrait of Trayvon Martin that reads “Trayvon.”
There is a painted portrait of Vanessa Guillén with the Mexican flag behind her (green, white, and red) that reads “Not one more.”
The Black Lives Matter Memorial fence was a temporary chainlink fence installed in the area north of Lafayette Park and the White House from June 2, 2020, until January 30, 2021. The fence prevented public access to the area, and it also served as an important site of protest and self-expression. Activist Nadine Seiler played a crucial role in protecting and caring for the fence, along with Karen Irwin and other activists in a loosely-formed group informally known as the "Guardians of the Fence." Nadine Seiler and Aliza Leventhal systematically documented the fence over the course of months, and Seiler became the de facto curator of the fence. Additional information: Library of Congress blog post "Protest Preserved: Signs from D.C.'s Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence" D.C. Public Library Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence Artifact Collection”
Urban Art Mapping
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=40&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=2020-10-20">2020-10-20</a>
MM
Photographer: Aliza Leventhal
H Street NW and 16th Street NW, Washington, D.C., USA
Protest signs and artwork on the Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence, Date: 13 October 2020
Protest signs and posters on the Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence, located on the north side of Lafayette Park in Washington D.C.
There is a close up shot of a wet cardboard poster that reads “There’s no such thing as neutral education. It is a tool of conformity or freedom. - Paulo Freire”
There is a white board that reads “Donald Trump is a white SPREMACIST” and surrounding the board are photographs of victims to police brutality and they read “Rest in Power”. Some of the victims are Michael Ealy, Henry Lee Sr., Demarcus Semer, and Malik Williams.
A poster reads “Being Black in America is Exhausting. Y'all want us to Sing, Dance, Play Football, Shoot Basketball, Be Target Practice and be QUIET. Signed, An Exhausted Black Folk”.
There is a flag that has the trans flag on it, which is blue, pink and white and it reads “Black Trans Lives Matter.” On the ground is a poster that has the word “Bigotry” written over and over on it and then a large red ‘stamp’ that reads “IMPEACH”over the words. Next to this is a cardboard poster that reads “Do the Right Thing!” and has the black power fist taped on the cardboard poster. Another cardboard poster reads “The BIGGEST Gang in Every City is the Police [;] #ORGANIZEORDIE [;] Black Power Matters [;] Fuck 12.” Then another poster reads “David ‘BBQ Man’ McAtee, 53 YO Louisville, KY Chef Community Pillar Killed by the same police he’s fed for free June 1st, 2020.”
There are posters that reads “Destiny” “DAMF” “Blue Lies Matter” “Black Lives Matter”
Stickers are on an old tow away poster and the stickers reads ‘Fuck Trump #MakeAmericaGreatAgain” and it looks like a campaign poster. Another sticker reads “DIRTS Win” with “Dirts” in a blue text and “win” on top of the text. There is a sticker that has a silhouette of Trump’s head and under it reads “Injustice” on an orange background.
There is a cardboard poster of the monopoly man that is holding a police officer and it reads “Black Lives Matter R.I.P. George Floyd Breonna Taylor Atatiana Jefferson Freddie Gray” it further has “marcmoneyart.com” and “@marcmoneyart”.
There is a painted portraited of Trayvon Martin that reads “Trayvon.”
There is a painted portrait of Vanessa Guillén with the Mexican flag behind her (green, white, and red) that reads “Not one more.” Another poster reads “Silence is Betrayal”, “fuck racism”
There is an orange hazard cone in from of the fence next to a poster that reads “FREEdom is not FREE, except for those Tax Cheats who are…FREEly allowed to not pay taxes!!! They still [illegible] public services that are paid by TAX PAYER funds. These Billionaires are the TOP of the ENTITLEMENT CLASS.”
The Black Lives Matter Memorial fence was a temporary chainlink fence installed in the area north of Lafayette Park and the White House from June 2, 2020, until January 30, 2021. The fence prevented public access to the area, and it also served as an important site of protest and self-expression.
Activist Nadine Seiler played a crucial role in protecting and caring for the fence, along with Karen Irwin and other activists in a loosely-formed group informally known as the "Guardians of the Fence." Nadine Seiler and Aliza Leventhal systematically documented the fence over the course of months, and Seiler became the de facto curator of the fence.
Additional information:
Library of Congress blog post "Protest Preserved: Signs from D.C.'s Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence"
D.C. Public Library Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence Artifact Collection”
Urban Art Mapping
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=40&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=2020-10-13">2020-10-13</a>
MM
Photographer: Aliza Leventhal
H Street NW and 16th Street NW, Washington, D.C., USA
Protest signs and artwork on the Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence, Date: 08 October 2020
Protest signs and posters on the Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence, located on the north side of Lafayette Park in Washington D.C.
Multiple posters read “America BE Better” “We Can Do Better” “Join Armenia in War Against Turkish Terror” “If You’re Not Outraged Ur [sic] Not Paying Attention,” “White Guilt is your conscience speaking to you. Please Listen” with specific words underlined in red. A poster in the image of a trans flag reads “Black Trans Lives Matter.” A black poster reads “Black Fathers Matter.” A cluster of posters read “Justice para Vanessa Guillén” “JUSTICE Vanessa” “Gracias Latina Valiente”, which has a flower that is drawn on the poster. There is a poster that reads, “How Could You “LIE” To Us About LIFE + DEATH.”
There is a photograph of Trae Darson and next to this is a poster that reads “The People That Learned.” And there is an image of pink hearts and a circle that looks to be stylized butterflies and underneath this reads “To Love.” Which was done by Clara in 2020.
There is a stained glass window on the King Emmanuel Baptist Church that has burn marks underneath it and on the window next to it is a white spray-painted black power hand on the notice board for the church.
Multiple posters read “Solidarity” “Silence is Compliance #Black Lives Matter” “Good Cops Dont [sic] Exist” “This is Some Bullshit”
There is a poster that made ‘Trump’ into an acronym and there is a word that follows each letter of his name the first column reads “Trivial [;] Ridiculous[;] Unimportant [;]Meaningless [;]President” and the second column reads “Twisted [;] Repulsive [;] Unscrupulous [;] Molesting [;] Pussy-grabber.” The top of the poster reads “Black Lives Matter [;] Dump Trump [;]Acronymania [;] Dump Trump [;] Black Lives Matter” while at the bottom of the poster reads “Dump Trump, Dump the Chump[;] Black Lives Matter[;] Dump Trump, Dump the Chump.”
One poster reads “This building is of the center of FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY. TRUMP has turned the White House into a cesspool of COVID. Vote Democrat”. There is a multicolored poster that reads “Black Lives Matter”
A poster reads “BLEACH 10/4/2020 [then Arabic text is written under this] WE the people of color and colors [;] Demand to be treated Fair + Lovely [with ‘+ Love’ crossed out] You suggest US to ingest Bleach [‘] You suggest that we become white inside, Dead inside Kill ourselves, Colonize ourselves [;] WE Demand that you, Decolonize your mind, our systems, our stories [;] Try to Bleach us. But our Fabric, our thread out contributions. ARE forever ARE here to STAY.”
On a pillar, there are two posters. The first poster is white and reads [from top to bottom, left to right] “Black Lives Matter [;] End Police Brutality [;] Am I Next?!? [;] I Cant Breath!! [sic] [;] Caution!! [;] No Justice No Peace [;] Whats not a crime bing [sic] black say it louder for the whites in the back! [;] Dont Shoot!! [;] Women Rights! [;]” In the middle of the poster are names of victims of police brutality and short statements which read “Why me!” “Respect!” “Hate” “Please!” “Say there [sic] name!” “Sir” “Color!” “This before you shoot!” “We need respect” “Pain!”.
On a wall multiple posters read “End the School-To-Prison Pipeline #BLM #Police Free Schools” “Hate And Fear Must Be Answered With Love And Hope” “Black Lives Matter” “Palestine Will Be Free” “Stop Police Brutality Against Black Lives Defund And Reform the Popo” The rest of the posters have been spray painted over but there is a small piece of paper over the spray paint that reads, “Black Lives Still Matter Some People Have Moved on But Not Us!”
There are multiple symbols on the poster too such as a black power fist with “B.L.M.” on the fist itself, and a heart that has “Pls” and “Rip” inside the heart, there is a colorful flower as well.
Where the black poster reads “Black Lives Matter”, and “Trans” is written on top of it in green paint. The poster has a drawing of a hand that is making the peace symbol and the earth is in the palm and there are black, red, white, and yellow rays coming from the hand. There is gold writing on the poster that reads “On August 13, 2020 MPD rounded up a group of about 40 protesters & detained them. They dropped ALL charges but kept cell phones & photo cameras. What About our Property? #WAP.”
On the pillar itself there is writing that reads “Don’t Tell Women Wha [sic] To Do”
The Black Lives Matter Memorial fence was a temporary chainlink fence installed in the area north of Lafayette Park and the White House from June 2, 2020, until January 30, 2021. The fence prevented public access to the area, and it also served as an important site of protest and self-expression.
Activist Nadine Seiler played a crucial role in protecting and caring for the fence, along with Karen Irwin and other activists in a loosely-formed group informally known as the "Guardians of the Fence." Nadine Seiler and Aliza Leventhal systematically documented the fence over the course of months, and Seiler became the de facto curator of the fence.
Additional information:
Library of Congress blog post "Protest Preserved: Signs from D.C.'s Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence"
D.C. Public Library Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence Artifact Collection”
Urban Art Mapping
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=40&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=2020-10-08">2020-10-08</a>
MM
Photographer: Aliza Leventhal
H Street NW and 16th Street NW, Washington, D.C., USA
BLM Memorial Fence With Vanessa Guillen Signs
The Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence with a variety of signs that are dedicated to Vanessa Guillen. Some of the signs read "Vanessa Guillen Is My Sister," "I Am Vanessa Guillen," and "Vanessa Guillen is Everyone's Daughter."
Article about Nadine Seiler, the photographer and guardian of the fence:
https://www.npr.org/2021/10/02/1041543414/she-guarded-the-black-lives-matter-memorial-now-shes-working-to-protect-its-art
Interview with the photographer: https://digdc.dclibrary.org/islandora/object/dcplislandora%3A282592
Article about Vanessa Guillen: https://www.nytimes.com/article/vanessa-guillen-fort-hood.html
Urban Art Mapping Research Project
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=40&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=2020-07-16">2020-07-16</a>
LA
Photographer: Nadine Seiler
UAM-GF_3082
1608 H St NW, Washington, DC 20006