MIAMI – The walls of Wynwood are world famous for the eye-popping art that can be found on nearly every street.
A new mural has been painted, with a strong message about the many lives lost to gun violence.
Think of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C. Tens of thousands of names signifying those lost during the conflict. People go there and pay their respects.
The new mural in Wynwood is very similar, except the victims displayed at this memorial are casualties of a different war.
“Gun violence, and the toll that it takes on communities, people of all different backgrounds, economic status,” said visual artist Vanta Black. “It’s important to not look at a person as a number. It’s important to see a person’s name, and to say their name aloud.”
Whether you speak English, Spanish or Creole, the message is simple.
“I didn’t want to conflate the issue. I didn’t want to confuse people. I think it’s self-explanatory,” said Black. “To think about all the people that love that person, the life that that person lived, all of those things are connected to their name, and I want people to say names as they come to this place.”
Black is an artist and an activist, and this mural, her latest project, takes up an entire wall on the west side of the Bakehouse Art Complex in Wynwood.
Painted black, in white letters: victims' names who were killed by gun violence, domestic violence and police brutality.
The work started in July. New names are filled in and added almost daily. It’s got more than 350 names, and counting.
Megan Hobson was just 16 years old when she was shot during a drive-by shooting in Miami Gardens.
“I’m no different, they’re no different from me,” Hobson said. “I could’ve easily been a name on the wall.”
She has been helping with this mural and says it has been, both, traumatic and therapeutic.
“I know these names because when I was healing in my own journey, some of these people’s stories flashed on the news,” Hobson said. "The last time, I worked on Breonna Taylor’s name. Just now I finished Joaquin Oliver’s name.
From Parkland to Pulse, in South Florida and beyond; so many lives lost, but never forgotten.
“It’s ‘Say Their Names’ and nothing else, you don’t need to say anything more, or less,” said Hobson. “Don’t ask too much, if you don’t need to know it. Just say their names, honor them.”
As word spreads, people have already started coming by the mural, finding their loved ones' names or just paying their respects.
The artist hopes to also include a QR code once the wall is filled so that people can literally scan, find the names and see each and every story behind the names on the wall.
The artist also hopes it will perhaps inspire others to act and help minimize the ever-growing list of names.
“If there are things that affect you, that affect the people around you, there are things that you can do about it,” said Black.