Graphic by Karina Wu ’22
By Hiba Nawaid ’23
Arts & Entertainment Staff Writer
Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser made headlines last week as she commissioned a large-scale street mural in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. On the morning of June 5, 35-foot-tall yellow letters spelling out “Black Lives Matter” were revealed on 16th Street in front of Lafayette Square. Alongside the mural, black-and-white signage designated two blocks of 16th Street as “Black Lives Matter Plaza.”
The New Yorker explained that the mural was a part of Mayor Bowser’s effort to reclaim the street in front of Lafayette Square — which leads to the White House — and for protesters to feel safe in exercising their right to assembly. Two days prior, President Trump authorized the use of tear gas to clear protesters from 16th Street for an impromptu photo op at St. John’s Episcopal Church. In a tweet, Mayor Bowser's Chief of Staff John Falcicchio said, “There was a dispute this week about whose street this is. Mayor Bowser wanted to make it abundantly clear that this is D.C.’s street.”
The words were painted by the Department of Public Works staff, who were directed by a group of eight artists. The artists were contacted by the department the day before the mural was to be revealed; they convened over Zoom to plan the piece and arrived on-site at 3 a.m. to begin painting. Keyonna Jones, the group’s only artist to go on record, spoke to Robin Wright of The New Yorker about the process.
“The first ‘B’ took us three hours,” Jones, who is the executive director of Congress Heights Arts and Culture Center, stated. “I kept saying, ‘Oh, my goodness, are we going to make it in time?’” As the sun rose, passersby volunteered to help fill in the letters. Met concurrently with uncertainty about accepting the help and the 11 a.m. deadline looming close, the artists decided to hand roller paintbrushes to the volunteers. “The community took over,” Jones said. “I don’t know how many there were in the end.”
The artwork was met with a mixed response — some applauded Mayor Bowser while others adopted a too-little-too-late perspective. Over the weekend after the reveal, protesters painted the stripes of the D.C. flag into an equal sign, followed by the phrase “Defund the Police.” The D.C. chapter of Black Lives Matter called the mural “a performative distraction from real policy changes” on Twitter.
“Bowser has consistently been on the wrong side of BLMDC history. This is to appease white liberals while ignoring our demands. Black Lives Matter means defund the police,” wrote Black Lives Matter D.C.
Historically, Bowser has been at odds with the demands of the Black Lives Matter movement. Far from defunding the police, she has proposed to increase the budget for the Metropolitan Police Department and supported the expansion of the police force. In a conversation with NPR's Mary Louise Kelly, she defended her budget proposal for 2020-2021 in light of demands to defund the police, remarking, “My budget doesn't fund [the police] a penny more than we need, and certainly not a penny less.”
Additionally, Bowser has been at odds with President Trump. As the mayor of Washington, D.C., she presides over federal territory, including Trump’s headquarters. After the president’s church photo op, Bowser requested to pull out-of-state National Guard troops deployed by the administration from D.C. Many have posited that the mural is another political move under the guise of reclaiming public space on Bowser’s part.
While Bowser’s political stances compromise the artistic integrity of the mural, not all responses have been negative. In the weeks following Bowser's reveal, similar street murals appeared in Sacramento, Oakland, Raleigh, Charlotte and Denver. Many of these murals were painted by local Black artists and have involved large-scale community support.
In Sacramento, City Council member Steve Hansen contacted local muralist Demetrius Washington — known professionally as BAMR — through the local art collective “Atrium” and asked to commission a mural near the city’s Capitol. Given the task of covering three grassy areas each the size of a football field within four hours before curfew, BAMR put out a call for help on Instagram. Soon after, 300 volunteers showed up to the site. They brought along various goods to help, including rakes and blowers to remove dead grass, an airless sprayer, a generator, a turntable and a snack booth. The large-scale collective effort created heavyset black letters spelling “Black Lives Matter” leading up to the Capitol.
The immediate engagement of the nation in the creation of street murals in support of Black Lives Matter illustrates the value of the murals as public art. For those that were commissioned by government officials, volunteer involvement was not mandated; the community naturally participated in and elevated the projects. Consequently, BLM street murals across the country have become symbols of collective effort in the face of injustice.
The existence of the murals during the ongoing demonstrations against police brutality memorializes this era of political movement. The cry of the mural’s slogan, its position in relation to the Trump-led White House, the calls for police defunding and the collective power of the protesters who march over them all immortalize the nationwide drive for the end of police brutality against Black people. That is, so long as the murals persist past the initial moment of protest.
While Bowser’s involvement in the creation of the mural detracts from the piece’s artistic integrity, the mural — along with others across the country — still serves as a prominent marker of the historic anti-racist protests that have seized the country following George Floyd’s murder. What remains to be seen is how long the painted words will last on 16th Street and what further policy changes the BLM protests will bring around the country.