Artists create sculptures using recycled plywood from boarded-up stores during Black Lives Matter protests

Record ID: 1627593

  • Title: Artists create sculptures using recycled plywood from boarded-up stores during Black Lives Matter protests
  • Date: 20th July 2021
  • Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (FILE - JUNE 6, 2020) (REUTERS) BOARDED-UP STORES AT COLUMBUS CIRCLE GUARDS WITH DOGS STANDING OUTSIDE BOARDED-UP SAKS FIFTH AVENUE STORE BOARDED-UP MACY'S STORE SIGN FOR SAKS FIFTH AVENUE STORE WITH BOARDS BLOCKING WINDOWS BOARDED-UP STORE WITH BARBED WIRE
  • Embargoed: 3rd August 2021 17:04
  • Keywords: Black Lives Matter Neil Hamamoto RockIt Black Tanda Francis The Plywood Protection Project boarded-up storefronts justice protests race racial
  • Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
  • City: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,United States
  • Reuters ID: LVA002EMNCHTZ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: For New York artist Tanda Francis, the Black Lives Matter protests during the summer of 2020 reflected a historic movement. So she jumped at the chance to create a permanent reminder and homage to those who took part.
    Francis took plywood used to board up storefronts across the city last year and turned it into a sculpture "RockIt Black."
    "To transform this plywood that was on the streets during the Black Lives Matter actual uprising is like... it's amazing," Francis told Reuters. "In my work, I actually use the color black and actually try to elevate it, kind of contrast to how it's been sort of stigmatized in our culture. So, I just, you know, show it in the most divine light. And here we go, like, this is like what we have here, "RockIt Black."
    Francis was one of five artists chosen to participate in the The Plywood Protection Project organized by worthless studios (note: lower case on both names), a New York not-for-profit created to support artists by supplying materials.
    "It was, you know, I think just sort of a reaction to my environment," said Neil Hamamoto, founder of worthless studios, standing next to "Be Heard" sculpture by Behin Ha Design Studio at Thomas Paine Park in Manhattan.
    "New York City was covered in this plywood during COVID shutdowns and, you know, the peak of the Black Lives Matter protests. So as a sculptor myself that used this material, to me it felt important to recycle the material because of its power and rhetoric and also to upcycle it, to not waste the material."
    The sculptures were installed in May 2021.
    The summer of 2020 saw the United States' biggest protests for racial justice and civil rights in a generation. They were triggered by the death of George Floyd, a Black man gasping for air and calling for his mother as a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
    Floyd's death in Minneapolis on May 25 forced a new national reckoning about racial injustice and gave a global profile to the Black Lives Matter movement that has emerged in recent years to protest the deaths of African Americans in police custody.
    Despite a worsening COVID-19 pandemic, tens of thousands took to the streets to demand change - first in Minneapolis, and later in New York, Washington, Portland and elsewhere - many of them chanting Floyd's dying words, "I can't breathe!"
    The demonstrations were largely peaceful, but as anger boiled over, some protesters clashed with police and stores were looted or set on fire. Plywood boards were meant to prevent that.
    Skylar Barnes, who works and lives in the Bronx near the "In Honor of Black Lives Matter" sculpture, said the artwork reminds her of the reasons why people went out to the streets.
    "That there needs to be justice in the community for all Blacks and not just only Blacks of color, in general, because there's still a bit of injustice here and there that hasn't been fixed and that needs to be fixed," said Barnes. "I see that the sculptures are speaking out that we need some more justice and that laws need to be fixed. So there could be equality for everyone."
    Lorenzo Pace, the author of "Triumph of the Human Spirit" sculpture in Manhattan's Foley Square, a gathering location for the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, and Brooklyn resident, works out near the "Miguelito" sculpture in McCarren Park.
    "And I just happened to walk by when the artist was putting it up, and I just like say, "Wow, man, what a beautiful idea and how you recycled things from old and bringing in something new," Pace said.
    Brooklyn resident, Jason, agrees.
    "I'm black myself, so I think it's a good idea to have something right here in the front of McCarren Park and leave it as a symbol, as you know, as this was a pretty historic event in our recent history."
    The Plywood Protection Project's sculptures will stay on display until November 1, 2021.
    (Production: Aleksandra Michalska, Andrew Hofstetter)
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