Twin city landscape12/11/2023 ![]() But this honest debate among well-meaning professionals tells me that our definitions of history and memory are important questions right now in the Twin Cities. I still feel guilty about being so contrarian. The Limits of Mainstream Historic Preservation I pointed out that we have long, harsh winters here, and they will not be. Others argued that some works of protest art could be included in the tours if they become permanent-or are at least still up next summer. Others questioned why Floyd’s death and the social uprising were even relevant in a tour focused on historic landscape architecture. One reason, of course, is that such street works are inherently temporary unlike most of the creations by recognized artists, architects, and landscape architects. Some members of the committee couldn’t see how landscapes of protest art could ever be interpreted in a design tour. ![]() Or perhaps we should postpone the event itself. In our first Zoom meeting after Floyd’s death and the protests, I suggested that this event had a global impact and that we had to include it somehow in our tour sites and stories. In the days that followed death, the public art was fluid and changed every day as people left mementos and personal statements. Street art with food offerings near the site of George Floyd’s death at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue. And then George Floyd was killed, and the city exploded. A book will be made about the tour sites and residents will be invited to attend.įrom the start, I was skeptical about mostly limiting this cultural landscape event to landscape architecture and the vague discussion about how to include indigenous and minority stories. The event is part of an ongoing series of city tours sponsored by a national preservation organization for its members to visit. Shortly before Floyd’s death, I was invited to take part in planning a weekend of historic and contemporary landscape architecture tours in the Twin Cities slated for the summer of 2021. Symbolic raised fist protest sculpture in the intersection where George Floyd died. But none of this artistic outpouring was ever meant to be permanent. They grew into momentary streetscapes expressing the full range of emotions swirling at the moment. Taken as a whole, these murals, stencils, portraits, paintings, graffiti scripts, and photographs are the most powerful grassroots public art that Minneapolis has ever seen. He worked with members of the Gordon Parks High School in St. Local artist Seitu Jones created stencil portraits of Floyd that people could apply in their neighborhoods. Verbally and visually George Floyd’s memory and name were everywhere. High school art students painted many of the plywood window coverings in the Uptown area with depictions of other police victims and calls to “Say His Name”. In the days after Floyd’s killing, you could see the employees of restaurants and shops coming outside to paint their boarded-up storefronts. ![]() Artist Seitu Jones and neighbors applying George Floyd stencils at Gordon Parks High School in St. But the city residents who experienced these days and nights will long remember the outpouring of bold and colorful works of protest art that bloomed along the damaged streets. Much of the television coverage focused on the “loss of property” and the perceived threats of chaos. Reporters came from around the world and broadcast images of the burning Third Precinct police station along with the hollowed-out shells of stores. Perhaps, because of the clarity and cruelty of the videos recording Floyd’s death, the incident became a global tipping point. Although generally under-reported, the vast majority of the damaging arson incidents were instigated by outside white agitators. Paul were damaged or destroyed in the week of protests following Floyd’s murder. Roughly 1,500 buildings across Minneapolis and St. Lieutenant Bob Kroll, the chapter’s elected president and Trump spokesman, is a bad boy cop straight out of Central Casting. We’ve lived for years with a militarized police force that is largely white, often incompetent, and beholden to its union chapter, the Minneapolis Police Federation. This was only the latest event in a chain of police killings of Black citizens over decades, one that sparked protests across the country and around the world.įrom the ground here in Minneapolis, the initial news of Floyd’s killing seemed like more of the same. On May 25, 2020, 46-year-old George Floyd died on a sidewalk while in the custody of the Minneapolis Police.
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