An artist with roots in Wilkinsburg and known for creating murals dedicated to black history and anti-violence, Kyle Holbrook has once again broken out his paint brushes to honor victims who died at the hands of police.
Over the weekend, Mr. Holbrook’s nonprofit, Moving the Lives of Kids (MLK) Community Mural Project, with help from the Community Empowerment Association, led over 100 black artists and youth in updating the “Freedom and Liberation wall” in Homewood.
The mural now features the faces of Breonna Taylor, a black woman who was killed in her home by Louisville police serving a no-knock warrant, and George Floyd, a black man killed by Minneapolis police in May -— an incident which sparked nationwide protests, including several in Pittsburgh. The mural also includes the face of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who was shot and killed while jogging through a Georgia neighborhood in February.
Mr. Holbrook, 42, touched up the image of Antwon Rose II, who was shot and killed by a former East Pittsburgh police officer in 2018.
The mural, located on the CEA building on Kelly Street, has evolved since it was started in 2017 and also features Emmitt Till, whose 1955 lynching symbolizes the racism that black Americans continue to fight against in 2020, Mr. Holbrook said.
“It is the same issues happening when we started the mural, just like it is the same issues dating back to Emmitt Till,” he said Monday afternoon. “We wanted to add [Floyd, Arbery and Taylor’s] faces to this mural in our community because their deaths are now a part of our history.”
Rashad Byrdsong, CEO of Community Empowerment Association, and Mr. Holbrook started the mural as a way to visually tell a story of 400 years of black history and social justice movements.
“We wanted the wall to always be a museum and a capsule for the future for our children,” Mr. Byrdsong said Monday. “All the images depict a timeline within the African American freedom and liberation struggle here in America.”
Mr. Byrdsong emphasized the importance of incorporating the faces of Mr. Floyd, Ms. Arbery and Ms. Taylor as the stories of their deaths play out nationally and internationally.
“An attack against one of us is an attack against all of us,” he said. “Black folks have been collectively oppressed. So it’s not a separate incident when a black man gets killed in Minneapolis by police. It has a direct impact on black people everywhere including Pittsburgh. So it is all interconnected.”
Mr. Holbrook claims he also experienced police brutality in Cleveland as a teenager. The Miami-based artist said, while dozens of community members participated in the mural’s two-day updates, he encouraged conversations about the historical moments that were represented.
“Through the mural, I am trying to do my part,” he said. “The more important work is what people are doing on the policy level and pushing for reform. But I think art plays its role. So I am trying to play my role.”
Alexis Johnson: ajohnson@post-gazette.com and Twitter @alexisjreports.
First Published: June 15, 2020, 7:18 p.m.
