Completion Date: (Sept 14th)
Location: 1812 W Main St
Richmond, VA 23220

Lead Photographer: Brenda Soque Assistant Photographer: Katrina Taggart-Hecksher

“If you are silent about your pain they will kill you and say you enjoyed it”.  This brilliant quote by Zora Neale Hurston serves as the overarching inspiration for the creation of this mural aptly entitled “Silence Isn’t Golden”.  For too long the struggles of injustice and our basic human rights have fallen on deaf ears and were completely cast out into a sea of misunderstanding.  This deafening silence has continued to plague the communities of the black and brown for centuries but having the strength to stand up and be vocal about the injustices that continue to occur is what continues to motivate and inspire us that change will come.

Flanked in a beautiful serene but chaotic abstract representation of water a figure emerges from the very source that brings life to all.  This striking image of a protester is none other than local musician and activist Aaron Brown (photo inspiration from Patience Salgado).  Serving as the anchor piece this image portrays a protester passionately shouting from a megaphone refusing to be silent about his pain and frustration.  Stripes flow downward from the figure and transition into prison bars that create a barrier as two hands emerge from behind the bars, which begins a conversation about our failing prison system of mass incarceration and the protesters that have been wrongfully imprisoned for their American right to protest.  To the far right two other figures are shown.  A Native American girl (depicted as Autumn Peltier – water rights activist) with her arms raised up high balancing a bowl to catch water as an African American woman with a shirt that reads “Flint” hovers above in search of clean water that a system has failed to provide her community with.  The message to the far left of the mural reads “Water Rights For All”  which is a basic and necessary human right.  Next to it stands a totem pole that speaks to heritage and legacy which also happens to be the family totem pole of artist Meme.

This mural is a true depiction of the layers of conversations that were held during the artists time together that resulted in the highlighting the issues impacting Black and indigenous communities and how systematic racism results in placed barriers that has greatly impacted our lives and resources.