About The Black/Brown Unity Mural
It is a joy for Allen Temple to partner with the American Friends Service Committee's “67 Sueños” project in the creation of this Black/Brown Unity Mural. 67 Sueños is a project of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker religious organization "that promotes lasting peace with justice, as a practical expression of faith in action". Dating back to the mid 1700’s, the Quakers were the most active Christian community in the movement to abolish Slavery; and they have continued throughout this nation's history to champion the cause of social justice.
The Black/Brown Unity Mural is the product of a youth led process of participatory action research in the community, listening and brainstorm sessions, and finally five weeks of hard work painting the mural itself collectively.
According to Pablo Paredes, the mural creation process began with the youth at 67 Sueños choosing in the early spring for the coming summer mural project. This year, the Latino immigrant youth at 67 Sueños decided it was important to focus on Black and Brown unity and the over-incarceration of both communities. 67 Sueños had been involved in work to raise awareness around the brutal murder at the hands of Immigration Customs Enforcement and Border patrol agents of Anastacio Rojas. Rojas was killed the same year as Oscar Grant. So, our youth made connections between the two cases. The youth of 67 Sueños also learned together about Private Prison Corporations that run both private prisons and immigrant detention centers and therefore profit from the incarceration of Black and Brown men in large numbers. The youth heard Michelle Alexander speak on her recent book The New Jim Crow and realized that Black and Brown folks are being targeted and incarcerated as a matter of business. All of this was behind the choice of this summer's theme.
Once the theme was chosen, the youth designed interviews and outreach in the community for interviewees who are relevant to the theme. This year, it was decided that the youth would interview 5 African American men who have been incarcerated and 5 Latino men who have been locked up in immigration detention centers. We carried out the interviews, led by youth in the program. Then, 12 listening sessions were held where the youth heard the interviews and discussed reoccurring themes and potential ways to visualize them in a mural.
The youth of 67 Sueños also began searching for a wall. There were many visits and potential sites that were explored; however, when we met Isai Hurtado and the folks at Allen Temple, we were very clear we found our community partners. Isai heard about our group and offered his walls in front of the Iglesia Bautista. However, our grant required a larger project. He immediately contacted the larger parent congregation of Allen Temple and we had a meeting within a week to discuss a Black/Brown Unity Mural on the empty lot on 86th and international. The wall was perfect. One 90 by 25 foot wall as the main canvass and a second 35 by 25 foot wall as a complimentary piece. Allen Temple became very engaged in the process.
Three preparatory meetings were held in preparation for our final brainstorming process, which would produce the vision that would guide our hired artist to sketch a draft of the mural for our approval. At the Brainstorm session, we had roughly 60 people, mostly Black and Brown youth with some adult allies. We had rich discussions in small groups, and with the larger group about the struggles of Black and Brown people, the commonalities and the things we are most proud of. This rich discussion and idea "heart"-storm led our Lead Artist Francisco Sanchez to draft a full composition incorporating all of the feedback from the Allen Temple and 67 Sueños communities. One week later, he arrived before the same group with a sketch that we instantly fell in love with. We made some small recommendations for improvements and additions, but in general endorsed the vision.
We began painting during the following week (July 14, 2014).
About the Vision
The mural is large and covers many themes, concepts and details. In general, the idea was to portray the legacies of pride, resistance and culture that Black and Brown people come from on the ends of the left and right end of the mural. This includes portraits of the late great Maya Angelou, Pastor Emeritus J. Alfred Smith, Sr., a Zulu Warrior, a Black Panther Party member, and an actual black panther. On the left side of the Mural, this was represented for the Latino community as Pastor Ruben Hurtado, an indigenous elder, a Brown Beret, An Aztec Warrior, and a Jaguar.
Along the border of the mural, we placed Indigenous Meso-American and African symbols with a legend explaining their meanings on the adjacent wall. The mural includes painful images - of family separation, Police violence, incarceration, Alcohol, Slavery and wage slavery. It also contains symbols of resistance, power and beauty such as the Scarab Beetle and the Monarch Butterfly, the Sankofa, and the Hummingbird.
The mid-right side of the wall contains the most painful images of incarceration and exploitation, and the mid left side contains families around a bonfire with Black and Latino women braiding their children's hair. Out of the smoke of the fire we see silhouettes of Senegalese Dancers and Aztec Dancers. Maya Angelou's poem, Still I Rise, is quoted on a ribbon flying across the right over the images of violence.
The centerpiece of the Mural is a Scarab Beetle with an African/Meso-American floral arrangement. In the middle of the Beetle, a dark fist symbolizes resistance, and it comes out of the spinal cord on a race-less figure and eventually becomes a tree whose roots reach out throughout the mural pulling back the hands of oppression. Below the roots and the centerpiece are the words: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.
Week 3 - The work continues in preparation for the unveiling on August 10.
Click here to see more photos at the Photo Gallery!
Week 2
A lot of amazing work has gone on since last week. Click here to go to Allen Temple Facebook and see the extensive gallery of photos taken by Javiera Torres of 67Suenos and Calvin Walker, on the progress made by our young artist. Powerful!
Week 1
According to Tajianna Okechukwu , that was the daily question last week when 14 young people from Allen Temple partnered with the 67 Suenos organization (www.67suenos.org) to transform the walls at the corner of 86th Avenue and International Boulevard into something beautiful and meaningful. Under the guidance of Rev. Daniel Buford, Trustees Gwendolyn Thomas-Knight and Robert Turner from Allen Temple and Jonathan Bromfield, Yoxeli Romero Santos and Pablo Paredes from the 67 Suenos organization, the project involves young people from two cultures, coming together to learn what is involved in creating a work of art. The idea for a mural was initiated by Rev. Hurtado and his son, Isia Hurtado in collaboration with Pastor Smith.
Quotes from a few Allen Temple youth working on this project:
"The name of the mural is Black and Brown Dreams. The left side will be the history of the Mexican people, the right side is the history of African Americans. This is deep history and urban history that moves from the past at the bottom and becomes urban as you move up. The mural moves up through history. It is positive as you move up. On one wall there will be a side where movies can projected and community events can happen." ----Dominick Hall, 14
"I thought it was really cool and a great impact on the community. A way to show how we feel, relate, understand it and look deeper. I'm really excited; there is a buzz. It will get bigger. People are looking every day, just looking and waiting." ----Marlonie Williams, 12
“The mural represents the idea of not fighting back with violence. Violence is not always the answer. We’ve been treated badly for so long. Martin Luther King, Jr. is an example. This project will change the community; before anything was there, they past the corner and they say ‘nothing is there’. I hope people minds change towards young people when they see this mural.” ----Tajianna Okechukwu, 16
"People expect African Americans to fall into a certain pattern. Males to be in jail, women to be baby-moms. People see us and the stereotypes are negative that are built for us. This mural has already made an impact even with just the white walls. People stop. It is a 'positive' distraction to the community. They will look at the details and see not only how pretty, but the reality. This will be a gold chart for Oakland; how we can get better. Every day we work on it is more meaningful. We've been called the lost generation but my hope and prayer is that this mural will speak loud to people and change minds." ----Aliya Hall, 16
Here are just a few pictures showing the progress. The expected completion date is early August. Watch this space for more details on this project, pictures, testimonials and history.
