Journal:
Youth
create
a
mural
with
a
message
of
inclusivity
and
diversity
It's amazing to be standing here on this side of the project- a year after we conceived the idea - and now it's done! It has meant so much to the youth! — Alex Santana - Diversity Center Youth Program Coordinator
In March, a group of about 30 youth - along with friends, parents and family members, gathered to celebrate the completion of a thought-provoking and inspiring new mural titled “Unify, Decolonize, Thrive” located at the Louden Nelson Community Center. The mural is the first in Santa Cruz County to represent and address issues, themes, and experiences that are important to queer youth.
The theme for this new mural - at the busy intersection of Center and Laurel streets - was developed in conversation with teens at the Diversity Center and and the Santa Cruz Teen Center which is housed in the Louden Nelson Center. Local mural artists Emmanuel Garcia and Oliver Whitcroft brought the vision to life, designing the mural and overseeing the youth who painted it.
The mural represents the past, present, and future of marginalized communities transitioning from a bleak history into a vibrant thriving world. The intersections of the mural challenge and encourage the viewer to reflect on their role in the movement towards equality and to choose the path of justice.
A revolution of people unifying together emerges from the bridge of Intersectionality, a theory coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989 to describe interlocking systems of power and oppression.
Intersectional activism connects diverse movements and issues such as LGBTQ liberation with racial equity, immigration rights, indigenous sovereignty, and ending patriarchal violence in an effort to decolonize society.
The center or turning point of the mural features national and local LGBTQ history including the first opening gay Mayor of Santa Cruz - John Laird; images of the AIDS quilt and activism in Washington DC; Stonewall - a haven for LGBTQ people in the 1960s and location of the "Stonewall rights" which were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations by members of the gay community against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969; a family walking into the Santa Cruz Diversity Center and local police doing yoga - seen through the Police Station widows.
This mural is a symbol of our struggles and our resilience so that future generations remember: We exist to resist and we survive to thrive. — - Jamie Joy, Diversity Center Youth Program Coordinator
The past portion of the mural features real news stories pulled from historical archives in Santa Cruz County – about slavery, seizure of tribal lands, Chinese indentured labor, and the Japanese internment camps during WWII. Moving towards the present the mural transitions from gray tones into color, depicting local and national history – including recent Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) protests, an iconic image of a flower-wielding Black Lives Matter activist, former Mayor Tom Laird, the Washington DC AIDS quilt, Stonewall and the Santa Cruz Diversity Center. A bridge with the word “Intersectionality” sits behind a scene of protestors holding a banner that says “equality.”
Not only did this mural mean a lot to the youth, but it spurred so many conversations with people passing by while we were painting. It's a busy intersection and there is a bus stop right there. We had so many people stop and ask about the mural. For example, we had folks ask "What was Stonewall?" And we would explain that the Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous demonstrations by members of the LGBTQ community against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village. We had others ask "What does Silence Equal Death mean?" and we would tell them about the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. We even had a homeless man come by and see the image of a homeless Veteran and he said, "This mural represents me!" — Jamie Joy - Diversity Center Youth Program Coordinator
Click on photo to view gallery.
The Louden Nelson Community Center is the perfect location for such a mural - as it has always had the core mission of being a place where everyone is welcome. In fact, the other mural on the backside of the building, installed in the 1980s by Jeff Orberdorfer and Julie Heffernan, represented and celebrated the black community and neighbors of the Center and was the first mural in Santa Cruz to do so when it was installed. — Beth Tobey - City Arts Program Manager
Mayor David Terrazas noted at a previous event that the Center had a long history of inclusion and social justice. The Center is named after London Nelson, commonly as Louden Nelson, who was a black former (freed) slave who arrived in the Santa Cruz area in the late 1800s. The Louden Nelson Community Center is named in his honor and in gratitude for his donations of property to the Santa Cruz School District.
In 1860, London established a will that gave over his entire estate—$372—to the Santa Cruz School District. Although he never received an education, he wanted to be sure future children could. This generous donation would forever put him down as a local hero in Santa Cruz history.
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Please watch the video above to hear more about the project and how much it meant to the youth that created it!
We also want to recognize that the land this mural sits on is the home of the Awaswas speaking peoples that lived on these lands for over 15,000 years. We seek to honor the descendants of the Mutsun and Awaswas speaking peoples that are now represented by the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. The Amah Mutsun are present and active within their traditional tribal territory as they endeavor to conserve, protect and restore their cultural and spiritual sites and advocate for their true history to be told.
Spanish:
“Unifica! Descoloniza! Prospera!” representa el pasado, presente y futuro de comunidades marginadas en transición de un pasado nefasto a un mundo vibrante y en pleno desarrollo. Las intersecciones del mural retan y motivan el observador a reflejar en su propio papel en el movimiento hacia la igualdad y escoger el camino correcto hacia la justicia.
La revolución de un pueblo unificándose surge del puente de “interseccionalidades,” una teoría acuñada por Kimberlé Crenshaw en 1989 para describir interacciones y entrelaces entre el poder y la opresión. La “interseccionalidad” es un activismo que conecta diversos movimientos y corrientes como la liberación de los LBGTQ con la igualdad racial, los derechos migratorios, la soberanía indígena, y acabar con la violencia patriarcal en un esfuerzo para descolonizar la sociedad. Este mural es un símbolo de nuestras luchas y de nuestra resistencia, para que las futuras generaciones recuerden: existimos para resistir y sobrevivimos para prosperar.
Queremos reconocer también que la tierra donde asienta este mural es la cuna de los Awaswas parlantes que vivieron en estas tierras por mas de 15,000 años. Buscamos honrar los descendientes de los que hablan Mutsun y Awaswas que hoy son representados por los miembros de la tribu Amah Mutsun. Los Amah Mutsun están presentes y activos dentro de sus territorios tradicionales empeñados en conservar, proteger y restaurar sus sitios culturales y espirituales, además quieren cerciorarse de que su verdadera historia sea contada.