By Sophia Chang | June 14, 2020
An aerial shot of the large BLM street mural in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn | Gothamist
YES. Take charge Bed Stuy represent!
Taking inspiration from the gigantic Black Lives Matter street painting near the White House in Washington D.C., community leaders and volunteers painted a street in the heart of Bed-Stuy with the same message Saturday.
Volunteers spread yellow traffic paint into letters 28 feet tall, spanning a 375-foot-long stretch of Fulton Street in Restoration Plaza.
Volunteers paint a massive Black Lives Matter message on Fulton Street in Bed Stuy.
City Councilman Robert Cornegy Jr., who represents Bed-Stuy, said his district was the natural home for the street project.
“Similar to what was done in Washington DC, we saw that it helped boost the morale of not only the demonstrators, but of the ancillary community to it,” Cornegy said in an interview Saturday. “And we thought that since this community has been historically Black, and it’s the last bastion of Black homeownership, the last bastion of Black small business, this will be the right place in New York City to begin the Black Lives Matter mural movement.”
In addition to the Black Lives Matter message, the names of victims of police brutality are also memorialized in the artwork.
The project is a joint effort between the Billie Holiday Theatre at Restoration Plaza and Cornegy, who originally reached out to artist Dawud West to commission a mural for the plaza.
“I suggested that I do something a little bit more statement-making as opposed to just painting something on the wall,” West said, adding that the Bed-Stuy project joins the DC artwork and a similar project in Charlotte, North Carolina to show unity across the country.
Dr. Indira Etwaroo, the theater’s Executive Artistic Director, added that situating the art project in Restoration Plaza itself was a deliberate message.
“This is Restoration Plaza, and this is the first Community Development Corporation in the nation, founded by Robert F. Kennedy and Jacob Javits along with community activists who were rising up during the 1966 race riots (in New York),” Etwaroo said. “And so here we are full circle again.”
Taken outside of its transportation context, the yellow paint represented urgency and action, said Nicholas Love, an artist and volunteer.
“It’s just so bold and in your face. The black pavement under the traffic-yellow, it’s like caution: be aware”
The Saturday kickoff of the project started with Spike Lee, Reverend Al Sharpton, and the state Attorney General Letitia James hoisting paint rollers together. The street art was dedicated with Cornegy’s Soul Sunday event with local church leaders.
State Attorney General Letitia James, Rev. Al Sharpton, Councilman Robert Cornegy Jr., Billie Holiday Theatre's director Indira Etwaroo, Spike Lee, and artist Dawud West, at the kickoff of the BLM street art project. |Courtesy of the Billie Holiday Theatre
“I think the mood here is very celebratory, which gives us a break against the stark reality of being black in this country,” Cornegy said of the project. “So, it hasn't changed the mood overall but for one moment in time, we're able to celebrate the community coming out and painting — if you notice, most of the painting is being done by community residents, which means that they have a stake in this. This is not something that's happening to them, but being done for them. And that's the difference. A lot of times what we feel is Black Americans, whether it's policy or legislation, you feel that is being done to us as opposed to being done for us. This is one of those days where the community gets to come out and actually participate in the painting.”
Another aerial shot of the BLM street art in Bed-Stuy | Filip Wolak
This week, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that a street in every borough would be named after the Black Lives Matter movement. Though the initiative was supposed to commence near City Hall, West said the Bed-Stuy mural was a bonus.
“Bill de Blasio wanted one of these in every borough,” West said. “So if he wants it in every borough -- here’s one right now.”