Mural celebrating black lives unveiled

By: Antho­ny Zepperi
Sep­tem­ber 4, 2020
The Bloom­field Messenger

A cel­e­bra­tion Tues­day fea­tured  a “Black Lives Mat­ter“ mur­al being unveiled at the town hall with 15 local artists from Bloom­field and Greater Hart­ford who worked on it tak­ing part in the festivities.

Among the themes high­light­ed in the mur­al was “Black Pan­ther” star Chad­wick Bose­man, who died trag­i­cal­ly last Fri­day from colon can­cer, fol­low­ing a secre­tive hero­ic four-year bat­tle with the dis­ease. He inspired a num­ber of the pan­els that reflect the pos­i­tive and affirm­ing light he cast on all black men and women.

The murals also hon­ored oth­er notable black fig­ures like the late John Lewis, the his­toric civ­il rights leader, who passed away in July at 80 and had key roles in the civ­il rights move­ment and its actions to end legal­ized racial seg­re­ga­tion in the Unit­ed States. The mur­al was also ded­i­cat­ed to the men and women who have died at the hands of the police.

This art­work, sup­port­ed by a $6,640 grant by the Hart­ford Foun­da­tion for Pub­lic Giv­ing, is the first of three that are planned for Bloom­field, all fund­ed by the Foun­da­tion. It is a 360 degree paint­ing in front of Bloom­field Town Hall, each let­ter dec­o­rat­ed with a dif­fer­ent theme.

The team for this mur­al was led by Hart­ford artist Khai­im A.K.A Self Suf­fice and Stephen Rich­mond, own­er of Paint­ing with A Twist in Hart­ford. The team includ­ed also edu­ca­tors Zaz­zarro Decar­ish and Sacha Kel­ly, mural­ists Michael Bor­ders and Chris Gann as well as sev­er­al well-known and new­er artists includ­ing Aariyan Googe, Che’ La’Mora and Trae Brooks.

There was a wide vari­ety of top­ics illus­trat­ed at the mur­al such as “Black Women’s Lives Mat­ter,” “Respect Exis­tence or Expect Resis­tance,” “Black father­hood” as well as homages to slain men and women and, of course, a trib­ute to Boseman.

The three sites the Bloom­field Town Coun­cil vot­ed to host Black Lives Mat­ter murals include the Town Hall, a loca­tion on the East Coast Green­way and a third loca­tion that has yet to be determined.

“The Black Lives Mat­ter mur­al is a strong state­ment that we are stand­ing in sol­i­dar­i­ty when injus­tice hap­pens to Black and Brown lives,” may­or Suzette DeBeat­ham-Brown said dur­ing the cer­e­mo­ny. “We don’t want to for­get what has brought us to this moment as a com­mu­ni­ty and we will con­tin­ue to have those con­ver­sa­tions that will help us to do bet­ter and live bet­ter and these murals help to remind us of that commitment.”

LaM­o­ra, one of the artists, explained why he decid­ed to hon­or Boseman.

“I already was going to paint my part as a king,” LaM­o­ra not­ed, “but after the King of Wakan­da died, it was only right to inter­pret that into my design. We’ve been mourn­ing for three days as of now.”

Rich­mond said that the dif­fer­ent works of art serve as a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the hor­rors inflict­ed on black lives to help to bring aware­ness to the issue.

“Like all the Black Lives Mat­ter murals pri­or to this one, this one serves as a silent protest and a reminder of suf­fer­ing of blacks in Amer­i­ca and is a sym­bol of hope through the art dis­played in the indi­vid­ual let­ters,” Rich­mond said.

The Hart­ford Foun­da­tion grant cov­ers stipends for the sten­cil­ers, super­vi­sors and artists, and the cost of sup­plies and gift cards for youth assist­ing on the project.
DeBeat­ham-Brown said that the murals have been embraced by most of the res­i­dents of Bloom­field, although there are few who crit­i­cized them.

“There are some peo­ple out there, but that com­men­tary speaks exact­ly to who they are,” DeBeat­ham-Brown com­ment­ed. “[For us] It was impor­tant to be able to vote on a move­ment that is going to speak to what side of his­to­ry you want to be on.”