Statement

The Summer 2020 George Floyd/Black Lives Matter protests in Minneapolis and throughout the United States continued the long struggle for Black lives. In Oakland, California, the protests led to further community mobilization against police violence. For instance, Black organizers won victories to end Police occupations of Oakland schools. Like many of the social movements that paved the way for the current moment, the circulation of struggles ushers in a splash of cultural production centered on amplifying the call for justice and the building of solidarity across communities. Oakland, California in particular is the location for a resurgence of political mural art. This mural art during the 2020 George Floyd/Breonna Taylor summer protests emerged from art collectives that for a long time have been of service to the many trans-local and transnational communities that they come from.

In most cases, these displays of solidarity art, similar to the protests, are temporary. They are taken down and whitewashed, forgotten from the collective memory of a city, or erode through time. The use of plywood for the murals became a significant trait of the George Floyd/BLM murals in 2020. The spontaneous painting of murals on plywood placed along walls, windows, and storefronts in Downtown Oakland, represents these new temporary cartographies of struggle. For close to a year, the plywood murals brightened the grey of the city with a multiplicity of colors. Reminding people of the continuous and important struggle for Black lives. During the early period of the protests, we saw plywood placed across building entrances and storefronts in cities across the country. Fearing looting and property destruction, business owners covered their storefronts with panels of plywood. This became a perfect canvas for artists in solidarity to walk alongside the dignified rage of Black people marching in streets across the country. Recently, these plywood murals were taken down, some donated to local non-profits and museums, and others lost as businesses opened up after a year of protests and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. We ask: what happens to this collective show of solidarity, of dignified rage, once the plywood is removed? How can we continue the insurgent practices of communities in resistance, protesters, and artists fighting for dignity and justice, fighting for Black lives?

There have been several mapping projects dedicated to locating the various plywood murals across the United States and abroad. The George Floyd and Anti-Racist Street Art Collective have started this important task, archiving murals in Minneapolis, MN. They also have an important list of articles and references to the plywood murals. Similarly, the Mapping Street Art Inspired by George Floyd website created by the University of Saint Thomas in Minnesota also has started mapping the murals using GIS tools.

Our contribution is to amplify the solidarity and community work produced by artists and community members over the last year through their plywood murals. In a city that is historically one of the arteries of the Black radical tradition, whitewashing Black insurgency and solidarity art on walls is a common occurrence. Our multimedia image gallery is a response to these recent developments in Downtown Oakland. We attempt to accomplish this through the storytelling of some of the artists who painted plywood murals in Downtown Oakland and through the use of augmented reality. The gallery attempts to do three things:

1. Remember the powerful tapestry of creativity and art that are the Downtown Oakland George Floyd/BLM murals through an incomplete mapping of the murals across Downtown Oakland, California.
2. Amplify the work of several mural artists who contributed to the plywood murals in 2020 through a podcast series called, "Plywood Stories: A Podcast Series Dedicated to the George Floyd/Black Lives Matter Murals in Oakland, California."
3. Respond to the removal of the murals through the use of Augmented Reality embedded in many of the images taken by us over the last year.

We hope this gallery can be a place of encounter for our collective liberation!

Special Thanks

A special thanks to the artists who agreed to be interviewed and be included in our podcast series: "Plywood Stories: A Podcast Series Dedicated to the George Floyd/Black Lives Matter Murals in Oakland, California." We hope to interview more artists. If you painted any of the murals in Downtown Oakland and wouldn't mind a short interview, we would love to hear from you. Our email is: ssbc@berkeley.edu

We would also like to thank the students of the Future Histories course summer 2021 who produced the AR effects and conducted the interviews.

Finally, we would like to thank the Ethnic Studies Changemaker Project "Scaffolding Stories/Building Communities" at UC Berkeley and in particular, the photographers who took pictures of the murals during the summer 2020. Thank you to Cynthia Ledesma, Pablo Gonzalez, Abraham Ramirez, and Diana Negrin.

Questions/Contact

If you have questions, you can email us at ssbc@berkeley.edu (the Ethnic Studies Changemaker Project @ UC Berkeley)