Black Lives Matter Street Mural, New Haven, CT

The Black Lives Matter Mural is located on Temple Street, in front of the City Hall, in New Haven Connecticut. It was designed by artists Carlos Perez, Jesse Wolfe, and Marsh, who are local to New Haven. The mural was organized by Black Lives Matter New Haven (BLMNHV), the City of New Haven Department of Arts and Cultural Affairs, local businesses, and the artists (McFadden, 2020) (WTNH, 2020). The mural is one of eight organized by the city of New Haven. The objective of the art installations is to bring awareness to social justice causes (McFadden, 2020). The organizers and artists recruited more than one hundred volunteers to help paint the mural. The artists added their own designs to the first letter of each word in “Black Lives Matter.” Perez painted the “B” and included words painted in white like “justice”, “inclusion”, and “freedom” within the letter itself. Marsh painted the “L”, which includes a floral design with a heartbeat moving through the letter. Finally, Wolfe painted the “M”, which has an image of a hooded individual with their hands up, one open and the other in a fist (Mcfadden, 2020). The entire mural is painted in black and yellow.  

The painting of the mural turned into a festival, featuring a DJ, dancers, black-owned businesses, a voter registration booth, and speeches by predominant members of the Black Community in New Haven (Pineda, 2020). Sun Queen, a founder of BLMNHV, spoke of the shooting of Stephanie Washington and Paul Witherspoon, two black individuals who were shot by police officers on April 16th, 2019, in Hamden, CT. “Black trauma is real and if there is anything BLM NHV can do to support you we are here.” (Pineda, 2020). Wolfe also spoke about being racially profiled at the hands of police, which served as inspiration for his design. “Police brutality here is just swept under the rug and not televised.” (McFadden, 2020). Wolfe also said “Cops have to pass by it, I hope they think twice and remember Black lives do matter and take more caution.” (Pineda, 2020).  

Overall, the mural has been a huge success for the community of New Haven and has brought a significant amount of progress for the Black Lives Matter movement. As of June 28th, 2022, the Mural was still located on Temple Street (Google Earth, 2022). 

Sources

McFadden, M. (2020, October 4). Temple Street Painted "Black Lives Matter". New Haven Independent. Retrieved March 16, 2023, from https://www.newhavenindependent.org/article/blm_mural_2  

Pineda, A. (2020, October 4). Black lives matter mural lands on Temple Street. Arts Council Greater New Haven. Retrieved March 16, 2023, from https://www.newhavenarts.org/arts-paper/articles/black-lives-matter-spreads-its-message-to-temple-street  

WTNH.com. (2020, October 3). New Haven's second black lives matter mural painted onto Temple Street. WTNH.com. Retrieved March 16, 2023, from https://www.wtnh.com/news/connecticut/new-haven/new-havens-second-black-lives-matter-mural-painted-onto-temple-street/