We worked with community artists from the Million Artist Movement to complete a community mural. Before we began the mural, we created a poem inspired by community members reflections, stories, artifacts and expressions of the cultural legacy of Africa in America.

We designed a community space for spiritual connections between Africans and African Americans in Minnesota. This was a community-led process initiated by the City of Minneapolis’ Division of Race and Equity. The mural project, an art piece commissioned  by the Cultural Wellness Center, integrated the voices and cultural artifacts and imagery collected from the community to create public art expression to honor the 400 year Commemoration of Oppression, Resistance and Liberation of African Americans. We organized a mural dedication ceremony in collaboration with the Cultural Wellness Center.

The community gathering included a blessing ritual, art making activities and discussion with Kente Circle owners and staff, mural artists, program facilitators, and community members. The discussion centered on the community-led process of creating the poem partly written on mural, exploring the meaning of the African symbols on the mural and how we can continue to build relationships between Africans and African Americans.

This mural, as a cultural reclamation project, reflects our deep commitment to using arts as a vehicle to connect people to cultural experience and each other.