Wall of Respect

August 27, 1967

 

white people can’t stand / the wall...Black beauty hurts them—

Haki Madhubuti, The Wall

 

picasso ain’t got shit on us8

 

so said the nine who portrait-ed:

Malcolm & Muhammad,

Nina & Bird, Marcus & Amiri

at 43rd & Langley.

 

a few weeks after

the bird/woman sculpture

revealed politicians don’t know

much bout anything, ‘specially art.

on the side of a tavern

next to Johnny’s tv & radio repair

a store that fixes the image, the wall

a shrine to Black creativity.

 

a 24-hour gallery where little girls

could see women who looked

like their mother. the people

came, a Black stampede.9 a gathering

spot, an outdoor museum, no entrance

fee, free. a Black festival of chromatics

body & hue.       from here

street art & public mural

movements. walls & spray cans

will sprout, a people’s art.

the city, a canvas.