BLM Oakland Mural

Left to right: Derrick Bell, Sen Mendez, Kin Folkz, Imani Smith, Nkosi Smith, Fiera Ferrari and Bash Baby Blue pose at the Lake Merritt All Black Lives Matter mural in Oakland. Other BLM muralists and designers who weren't present for the photo are Aala Oni, Aika Eden, Guerrilla Davis, Kahalla, Olivia Ramos, Sasha Kelley, Vee Vee, Violet Batista and Janetta Johnson. More than 300 volunteers helped paint the mural.

Left to right: Derrick Bell, Sen Mendez, Kin Folkz, Imani Smith, Nkosi Smith,Bash Baby Blue and Fiera Ferrari pose at the Lake Merritt All Black Lives Matter mural in Oakland. Other BLM muralists and designers who weren't present for the photo are Aala Oni, Aika Eden, Guerrilla Davis, Kahalla, Olivia Ramos, Sasha Kelley, Vee Vee, Violet Batista and Janetta Johnson. More than 300 volunteers helped paint the mural.

Photo: Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle

Near Lake Merritt hundreds of volunteers turned out to paint the words “All black trans queer nonbinary women’s disabled imprisoned lives matter” in a rainbow of colors along Bellevue Avenue. Kin Folkz, a.k.a. Monica Anderson, organized the effort through the Queer Healing Arts Center without going to the city for permission. Folkz realized the mural alongside Guerrilla Davis, Janetta Johnson, graphic designer Nkosi Smith, 12 other artists and hundreds of volunteers.

“We knew that if we sought out permits, it would not happen,” Folkz says. “Street art, public art, accessible art is necessary for the kinds of dialogue we need to have to save our lives.” Along with the mural, the group published a google form demanding for a more equitable future that asks for shelter, a redistribution of police funds and the end of solitary confinement.

This art, in other words, can’t be separated from the political.