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The Student News Site of Saint Louis University

The University News

The Student News Site of Saint Louis University

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Painting hope over a broken neighborhood

Courtesy+of+Cristina+Flagg+Cousins
Courtesy of Cristina Flagg Cousins
Courtesy of Cristina Flagg Cousins
Courtesy of Cristina Flagg Cousins

In the wake of protests around St. Louis, some of which have turned violent, communities have come together to clean up their neighborhoods and support each other. These protests were incited by the grand jury’s recent decision not to indict police officer Darren Wilson for his fatal shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 9.

The South Grand neighborhood, only a couple miles away from SLU’s campus, is now home to dozens of beautiful murals that decorate the boarded-up windows of shops and restaurants that were damaged as a result of the protests in the neighborhood. The damage consists mostly of broken storefront windows, costing the owners between $3,000 and $25,000. Cafe Natasha’s, located at the intersection of Grand Boulevard and Wyoming Street, witnessed nine windows broken as stones and even a trash can lid were thrown through them.

Courtesy of Cristina Flagg Cousins
Courtesy of Cristina Flagg Cousins

The neighborhood community, however, has come together to rebuild their home and show that riots are not the only reaction to the grand jury’s decision. Business owners in the area put out a call to artists to come paint the boarded up windows of all the storefronts that had been damaged. Volunteer artists responded en masse, filling the street with colorful and hopeful images and quotes to improve the bleak mood of a city in distress. An ongoing fundraising campaign is raising funds to offset the cost of replacing the storefront windows.
Natasha Bahrami, who runs Cafe Natasha’s, explained, “We thought that the boards needed to express what was going on in St. Louis with a positive spin … it was powerful to see it in action.”

Members of the South Grand business district created an organized effort to “corral artists and make sure that all businesses had artists allocated to them,” Bahrami said. A Facebook page titled “Paint for Peace StL” also organized and recruited volunteers and artists to paint boarded up buildings around St. Louis. The page shows an image of colorful paint brushes with the caption “Our weapons of choice.”

These murals have shown the power of art to a community both broken and strong at the same time. Residents and business owners in the neighborhood have found comfort and hope in these paintings and the solidarity they represent. A press release from the neighborhood association begins, “South Grand finds itself overwhelmed. Not by the destructive nature of a few, but by the love of our community. Thank you. … When boards covered windows, neighbors painted them.”

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Bahrami echoes this gratitude: “The murals will continue to represent to us how the community came together to turn a disaster into a beautiful movement of support and positivity … We are proud of our community for coming together and showing us and other damaged businesses a level of wholehearted support so that we feel blessed instead of victims.”

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