Pages
Stay In Touch
More
© 2021 The Somerville Times. All rights reserved.
— Photos by Bobbie Toner
By Toby Sklute
A local organization has created a Black Lives Matter mural in the middle of Magoun Square. Work will began on Saturday and was completed by Sunday afternoon.
The group, Just Us, consists of approximately 50 members, and was formed in June of this year as a direct response to the civil unrest that has permeated the country and the news. Initially, events put together by the organization were limited to candlelight vigils as a form of both acknowledgement and peaceful protest against police brutality.
“We started having candle vigils at the East Somerville Library,” said Nelson Salazar, co-founder of Just Us. “Then we had a march and a rally, and a Juneteenth event. So, we’ve had a series of events.”
Magoun Square was chosen as the location for the mural due to the area’s presence of businesses owned by people of color, and because it is a spot that Salazar believes deserves more attention in the community.
“At Davis Square there are a lot of events, a lot of events in Union Square, but Magoun is ignored. By doing the mural here, hopefully we can generate more events here,” Salazar added.
The crew working on the mural, consisted of roughly 70 volunteers, but for safety 
purposes related to Covid, were broken out into smaller groups for an allotted period of time mapped out and scheduled. The work took place from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. The project has the full support of both the Mayor’s Office and the Somerville Police Department, with officers on location to direct traffic in the busy intersection.
The community reaction surrounding the event appears positive. Cars honked their horns in support as they passed the fenced in enclosure where the bold, bright yellow paint color that has become synonymous with the BLM movement began to take shape. However, the occasional jeer of derision from passers-by was unmistakable and do not go unnoticed.
Steve Flythe, a Somerville resident who was originally approached to create the concept of the mural, instead opted to help spearhead an effort to locate and hire muralists whose talents are in line with what he considers appropriate for a task of this importance.
“We wanted a local, black indigenous person of color to create the mural. There are some really talented muralists who do that full time, and we wanted the mural to be very professionally done, and managed,” Flythe said. After bidding out the project, local artists Anthony Araujo and Zahara Butt were hired to create the design.
Just Us doesn’t intend for the mural to be their last endeavor in working to draw attention within the community to racial injustice. Future plans for the organization will be discussed soon. What Flythe defines as a “listening session” will be held in the coming weeks to discuss the next steps.
“We haven’t framed it all out. Marches. Vigils. Finding ways to create resources for 
classrooms for virtual learning. I told Nelson, rest up Sunday, because Monday we’re right back at this.”
As he got up to return to the task at hand, a woman on a nearby bench asked if we knew what they’re painting. “Black Lives mural,“ Steve responded.
“That’s good,” the woman said.
If you found this article of interest, please consider sharing it.
I was wondering why I had to divert my route last Saturday. I thought something was wrong. Glad it wasn’t. It was worth the minor detour, and I’d gladly be inconvenienced again for something like this.
The city cost was $15,000 and now it is somewhat washed away now anyway. There is more to this. The idea of having it in Magoun Square was for the small Black and minority business owners. This by the group who robbed and looted more small business of Blacks and Minorities than anyone else. Many with no insurance put out of business forever. Also for those who had insurance was the biggest amount of money paid by the insurance companies amounting to over one billion plus and counting heading towards two billion. And to add to this the expert of killing small business being at the head of it our mayor. What a slap in the face towards the black and minorities here.
More of the usual hogwash. There is no way this cost $15K. Made up crap. The rest of your spiel just spotlights your racism. Sorry you’re so unhappy with the mayor. You get one vote like everybody else.
I applaud the Somerville Community for supporting this important Artistic expression and what it represents. If the city contributed 15k, it was 15k well spent as far as I’m concerned. Cheers to Somerville for having a voice against racial injustice.
In regards to the mural in Magoun Square, most of it has washed away or whatever. Wondering how much money the city spent supposedly out of free cash for police details, DPW workers to set up a perimeter to keep the painters safe. It is amazing that the councilor(s) possibly made an approval of this while monies were defunded from the police department.
I drove over it today and yes it’s mostly just random splotches of yellow now – good effort there guys. I guess it was more about getting brag photos for social media accounts than actually creating a lasting statement.
A posting on Somerville’s web site along with a letter to the news outlets would have freed up $15,000 of taxpayer money to spend on education.
It’s funny to have to look hard to find a person of color involved with this movement now. Talk about white privilege! What you have is a bunch of snotty liberal rich kids that have taken over a legitimate movement for some odd reason. I think these kids need to back off and let the people who are actually affected run the show, but money is involved so that won’t happen.
And yes… most has been washed away.
It is amazing how money is spent. Was in Davis Sq. and the sidewalks and crosswalks are a disgrace it has been like this for several yrs where is the alderman or whatever they are called unless they are with the rats hiding
it is a safety hazard maybe they can put up poles around the hazard like they have in the streets to avoid twisting the ankle or falling down