The other day, I spot a young woman in jogging attire across the street, intently looking at the mural. Then she comes over and looks more carefully, reading. She does not see me watching. Her mouth slightly ajar, she is completely absorbed, with a stunned and painful look on her face. She takes her time; these are private moments for her. Besides the old-timers who talk to me about the mural and other things, most people walk briskly by these days. But there are also newcomers, or those who dare to take it all in. And then I am reminded that the mural has impact on the viewer. Like most art, which invites people to engage, resist, ignore, or be inspired. And even in the act of refusal is always the seed of having been touched…
This little episode got me to ponder some more where to take this memorial mural project. The idea for it started to pour through me 18 months ago. Honoring, remembering. And I am still listening, not done – a Justice Wall, giving dignity and context, personalizing victims. A wall that laments continuous grave injustices – eine Gerechtigkeitsmauer. A wall of mourning – eine Trauermauer oder Klagemauer. A remembrance wall. Akin to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, for which the traditional Arabic term is: Place of Weeping. My humble garage door's public art invites anybody to stop, read the names and stories, take it all in and honor the lost lives, the lives stolen. Weeping or lamenting the loss of justice, loss of decency, freedom, loved ones, lives… so we remember this to be our loss as well.
And our “prayers” can turn to envisaging a society with more justice and decency. All of the people on the wall would have most likely ended up in prison were it not for being killed by police, or being lynched. In American prisons, a high percentage of innocent people sitting on death row are Black. Last week several articles caught my eye: all were news about recent exonerations of Black men who had served lengthy sentences of 24, 36 or 48 years in prison, who never got a fair trial, all the while insisted on their innocence. For decades, so much injustice has been enacted right under our nose. Time for reckoning. (More on this another day, the truly obscene incarceration rates, highest in the world, and other exoneration cases without reparations.)
Earlier in the week, Bob – my cello teacher who also took the b&w stills of the mural – suggested to somehow highlight the names of those who actually received a fair trial of their murderers, like Ahmaud Arbery. As we talked, I mentioned the recent flurry of exonerations, and how these are also “stolen” lives. We agreed that maybe some of these cases should appear in the few still empty panels. Including those who have been falsely accused, convicted, and robbed of their lives.
I think that is a great idea about acknowledging both the potential for shift in awareness reflected in the trials of the murderers and also of the tragedy of incarceration rates and length falling most heavily on Black americans. It will give a fuller dimension to this living memorial.
ReplyDeleteyes the living and alive act of remembering... there is path forward in America, just as it was for Germans after the war... it is uncomfortable work, but also part of being human, to strive for betterment – always.... I was always struck how the young Black men in the Alchemy group were always talking about wanting to better themselves. They all were already good human beings. i rarely had heard a white person ever say those words, maybe those in the AA movement. The kind of being above it all or others, is the ugly legacy of superiority, supremacy, fascism, racism, colonialism, ad it's getting a close inspection and chance for "betterment" :) here in America, at least half of America...
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