New Black Lives Matter mural on Columbia’s Main Street to be unveiled Friday
After a year of planning and months of design and work, a new Black Lives Matter mural will be formally unveiled Friday evening along Columbia’s north Main Street.
The mural has been painted on the side of Sweet Temptations Bakery at 2231 Main St., which is just north of Elmwood Avenue, near neighborhoods like Elmwood Park, Earlewood and Cottontown. There will be a celebration at the unveiling of the mural from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday at the bakery. Refreshments will be served and DJ Preach Jacobs will be spinning tunes.
State Rep. Todd Rutherford, a Columbia Democrat, owns the bakery and said he was glad to have the mural adorn an outer wall of the building.
“Black lives matter,” Rutherford said in a statement. “What these talented artists have done is take that message and bring it to life. Public art can have such an impact on a community, so we were happy to help bring this street mural to Columbia.”
Community activist Jared Johnson spent the better part of a year coordinating a location for the mural, and visual artist Robb Kershaw and muralist Ariel Flowers ultimately created the piece. One Columbia for Arts and Culture, the city-backed arts advocacy nonprofit, also helped bring the project to life.
The new mural is a vibrant, bold, colorful piece with comic book and anime flair. It carries a message that not only do Black lives matter, but Black arts, voices and joy matter, too.
