Black Lives Matter Street Mural, Somerville, MA
- Creator
- Xerxes Butt and Anthony Araujo-Amaral
- Title
- Black Lives Matter Street Mural, Somerville, MA
- Coverage
- 42.397348, -71.104338
- Description
- "Black Lives Matter" is painted on the pavement in yellow. Inside of the letters are the faces of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Eurie Stamps.
- Source
On the weekend of September 27th, 2020, the group Just Us Somerville gathered volunteers to paint a Black Lives Matter mural on the intersection of Somerville’s Broadway and Medford streets. This was supported by the city of Somerville and the Somerville Arts Council. The piece depicted George Floyd as well as Breonna Taylor and Eurie Stamps, all victims of police brutality, and with the latter especially reminding the people of police brutality right there in Massachusetts.
The mural itself did not receive much preservation effort, and around November 2020 had began to fade, leaving little to no trace of it standing today. The location, Magoun Square, is amongst the most diverse areas in Somerville, and the intersection is one with heavy traffic. A decision to ensure that the mural is easily seen by the people of the city has also caused it to quickly fade away from public view, physically and figuratively, as there has been little to no effort to preserve the mural despite the speed at which it was losing intelligibility.
Luckily, the piece did not leave without a major impact on the communities of color. In early June, Mayor Joe Curtatone declared racism a public health emergency, and Just Us came together to ensure that the people's voices were not spoken on behalf of them, but rather by themselves. The group also advocated for support of businesses owned by people of color, and a civilian review committee.
Sources
Wonderland, Greg Cook, 09/28/2020 - ‘Black Lives Matter’ Street Mural Painted In Somerville – WONDERLAND (gregcookland.com)Links to an external site.
Researched by Tri Phan
Image URL
News Coverage by Wonderland
Tweet by Keith Sawics on September 27, 2020
Post on Behance by Anthony Araujo
Facebook post by The Boston Calendar on September 30, 2020- Rights
- Artists: Xerxes Butt and Anthony Araujo-Amaral
Photographer: Keith Sawicz (Twitter: @KeithASawiczPhD)
Images are collected in this archive for educational purposes and are not intended for commercial use. Reproduction rights for all images remain with the creators/photographers when we are able to identify them.
We seek to identify artistic creators when they want to be identified, and we respect their rights to protect their identity should they choose to remain anonymous. Please contact us if you are the creator of work in this archive and you wish to be identified or if you wish for your work to be removed from the archive. - Publisher
- Urban Art Mapping Research Project
- Date
- 2020-09-27
- Contributor
- LA
- Spatial Coverage
- Located in Magoun Square, the intersection of Broadway, Dexter St. and Metford St.
- Is Referenced By
- Stephen Larrick, Black Lives Matter Street Mural Census
Files
