More than 40 volunteers spent hours Saturday refreshing the massive Black Lives Matter street mural that is sprawled along Center Street in front of Santa Cruz City Hall.
Traffic, weather, vandalism and wear-and-tear has left the five-year-old bright yellow mural faded and chipped.
Painting the mural was part of nationwide protests for racial justice and police accountability after George Floyd, a Black man, was killed by Minneapolis Police in 2020. The officer, Derek Chauvin, who was found guilty in the murder of Floyd, was sentenced to more than 22 years in prison.
Headed up by Santa Cruz Equity Collab, the day-long effort drew in Elaine Johnson, president of the NAACP Santa Cruz County Branch and Executive Director of Housing Santa Cruz County, alongside dozens of people across a spectrum of ages. Erika Rosendale of Watsonville, a big name in outdoor murals around the Central Coast, Abi Mustapha, one of the artists who worked on the original mural along with roughly 500 community members, Curtis Reliford, local activist were also among the restoration crew Saturday.
“It’s all about group effort,” Rosendale said. “It’s a lot of work and it’s about the third time we’ve come out to restore that amazing mural.”
For Elaine Johnson, President of NAACP Santa Cruz County and Housing Santa Cruz County Executive Director, the repainting event was a reminder of the importance of everyone working together.
“It was an opportunity for the community not just to come together, but to continue to collectively support each other as a community,” she said. “Don’t just come together when we’re celebrating something. It’s how we show up with each other afterwards.”
The mural was painted in September 2020 by Santa Cruz artist Abi Mustapha, with help from Arts Commission Vice-Chair Sean McGowen, artist Taylor Reinhold and Yoga for All Movement Founder Shandara Gill.
But while intended to be a symbol of community support and anti-racism, it has twice been thrust into the news. The first in 2021 when two men left skidmarks across it and the second in 2024 when a man splattered it with paint.
Suspects have been arrested in both cases.
“I know there are people in this community and this world that don’t align with the Black Lives Matter mural, but the only thing we can do is not buy into those narratives and the stories of what it means and what it doesn’t mean and who we’re leaving out,” Johnson said. “Because the intention is not to leave anyone out.
You don’t invite people to the table to change their mind, you invite them to the table to engage in a dialogue so they can change their own mind.”
Center Street was closed to motor traffic throughout the day to allow for the project to unfold.
