Love and Protect: Mural Series in Oakland Chinatown

 

This past weekend I had the distinct pleasure of painting alongside some OGs and young artists of both African American and Asian descent. We were organized by Cece Carpio (TYS Collective) , Tommy Wong (Civic Design Studios), and w/ the help of hella folks like Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ). We got down to show solidarity and to demonstrate to our local community that we cannot be divided by white supremacy. We have long had each others backs, and we will continue to. Both Black folks, Asian Americans, and the organizing or artists community all need a reminder sometimes and this was therapeutic to make some dope art around the idea of solidarity.

Here's the official statement from the flyer. 

Love and Protect: Mural Series in Oakland Chinatown

Bay Area visual artists of Asian and Black descent are producing a series of mobile public art murals in Oakland Chinatown for those impacted by Asian hate crimes. On Saturday, April 10th local artists will gather at Madison Park starting at 10 am to paint large canvas works that can travel for community events and public display. This project is in collaboration with Chinatown Coalition and we are outreaching to seniors and community members in the neighborhood. We acknowledge that the global health and economic pandemic are amplified by systemic injustices that disproportionately hurt immigrants and communities of color.  Love and Protect is a condemnation of violence and a commitment to uplift, nourish, fortify and pay homage to our communities so that when we rise, we rise up together. 

Artists Cece Carpio of Trust Your Struggle Collective and Tommy Wong of Civic Design Studio and Good Good Eatz have brought together local artists who are deeply rooted in the fight for racial and environmental justice. Emory Douglas and Joan Tarika Lewis, who are revolutionary artists and historical members of the Black Panther Party, bring visibility to the long history of Black and Asian unity.  Robert Liu-Trujillo, Elaine Chu, Miguel “Bounce” Perez, Eric Norberg, and Karen Seneferu & Malik Seneferu are contributing their art and deep ties to social justice work. Ming Mur-Ray and Elokin Orton Cheung who are art teachers in Oakland’s Chinatown are bringing their students to help paint. Youth artists Deanna Brownfield and Lauryn Marshall from from the Black Cultural Zone are also bringing their vision and perspective. 

Check out these photos from Barni Qaasim of Curyj

Emory Douglas & Cece Carpio

Karen Seneferu

Elaine (Twin Walls Mural Company)

Lauryn Marshall

Pieces by Cece Carpio & Elaine Chu

Harrison Street Senior Art Workshop

We couldn't make it happen w/o the help of homies volunteering time & support. Here are folks from Curyj, Oakland Chinatown Coalition

Follow Civic Design Studio , Cece Carpio, or myself for more fotos!

Here are a few more from Joe Keefe

Night time packing up the canvases

Close up of the two women (Asian & Black standing together)

Madison park was poppin w/ a bunch of artists

Here's the crew of artists and homies helping to document and take down the art. Shout out to Han and his crew, Kerri, etc.

Dig this? Check out Asians for Black Lives

Mural: Black Lives

Before/After

I painted this in collaboration w/ artist & business owner Binta Ayofemi. She came up with the design and Paint The Void commissioned it. Haven't painted a big wall (30' x 50') in a minute so it was nice to get back up on the lift. It was painted with house paint, brushes, rollers, and Montana Spray.Shout out to Nisha K Sethi (TYS) who hooked this up for me. 

Affirming Black Lives w/ the words "Reparations" and "Transformations" is a powerful statement. Despite the circumstances it felt good to collab with Binta and hear from every day folks. There were so many beautiful pieces painted in downtown and East Oakland since George Floyd and Breonna Taylor were murdered. This is not the first time I've painted a wall, banner, or painting in response to police terrorism and I know it won't be the last. But, i'm encouraged by how many more artists (OGs and youngsters) out there taking control of the narrative w/their work.

The work we all create is part of a legacy of resistance. Keep creating young artists! Marathon over sprint. And please take care of each other. We got a long way to go. 

Check out some of the process and close ups. 

Binta's sketch

Mask ready

Sketch

Adding gold

Cleaning it up

Adding gold

Almost there

Binta wanted to let em know

Done

Signed

Dig this? Did you see this post? Police Brutality Over The Years

Murals at Chapter 510 office

Just finished these two murals. They are replicas of illustrations that I created recently for Chapter 510's "Make Believe" campaign. Ok, so I painted because I was commissioned to, but I believe in the work that the organization does. What do they do? They engage young people in learning to read and write. If you can read, you can see "poison" in the ingredients of the food you are eating. Feel me? And if you can write, they cannot write you out of history. 

If you are in the Bay Area and are down with that (as many Bay Area organizations are) come through to the next First Friday October 2nd in Oakland at 2301 Telegraph ave.

TYS Collective- Sunnydale mural

These are some photos of from the mural creating process me and Miguel Bounce Perez painted these past couple of weeks in the Sunnydale projects in San Francisco. We painted this as a collaboration with Hope SF, Housing Authority, and many other organizations such as Mercy Housing. You can see more photos from this mural project on the Instagram or Facebook accounts of Trust Your Struggle Collective.

Mural 1- Youth Speaks Office

Got a chance to work on this wall for the national headquarters of Youth Speaks. If you've ever been to Life is Living in Oakland, Brave New Voices, or one of their regional events you know that if these walls could talk the conversation would be impressive. I would post some process shots but my phone passed away :) The theme? Well, I had a day and a half to paint it and get it done, so a simple pattern I chose.

Youth Radio Mural-Oakland California (Video)

In case you didnt catch this, Dignidad Rebelde, Youth Radio Staff and Youth, Various Community artists, and The Trust Your Struggle Collective (My crew!) collaborated on creating this mural in downtown Oakland in the exact same place on the same boards that the Oscar Grant mural was painted. The youth in the piece are youth from the center. In the video you can see some people talking about their feelings/thoughts and you can see some process shots of the wall being painted.
Here is a video of Yoshi (TYS Collective) and Maevan McGovern (Youth Radio) talking about the process and reasoning behind it on KTVU channel 2.

Here are some other articles about it as well in the Oakland Local by Eric K Arnold and San Jose Mercury News

New Mural in SF "Tuloy Po Kayo"

Tuloy Po Kayo from Pueblo Nuevo Gallery on Vimeo.

I had the pleasure of adding a few brush lines on this one. Cece Carpio and Miguel Perez were the quarter backs, I am super proud of my sister, comrade, crew mate Cece because she was the one who ultimately oversaw the production of this HUGE wall. Give thanks to Miguel on the beautiful job shooting and editing the video, while painting some dope #$@%.

RYSE Center in Richmond w/ Alejandra Perez

Peace yawl, been grinding away on several projects out here in the bay town. The two foremost are for 7Stylez.com for the homie Hagar.Check him out, he's working on positivity in the clothing industry....and Roger Hall's film "Holding on to Jah". . Please check them both out. Working hella hord!

On another note, one of my objectives when I came back to the bay town was to connect with some of the artists and writers who have contributed their beautiful work and energy to Come Bien Books. I got a chance to sit down and rap with several up and coming artists & writers these past few weeks, whom you will be seeing more of soon. The talented, up and coming artist/ youth activist Ms. Alejandra Perez was nice enough to give me a tour of the new RYSE Center in Richmond,Ca. Almost 3 years ago, myself, Skot La Rockwell, and Bounce from the Trust Your Struggle Collective painted a large mural on the front of their building. Check out Ryse here: http://www.rysecenter.org/index.php?topic=supporters
The youth and staff their are hella nice and have been putting in serious work to enrich the lives of families in Richmond. Props to yawl!