Milwaukee Artists for Racial Justice and Friends Honors George Floyd on His Birthday
MKE-ARJ and the community celebrated George Floyd’s 43rd birthday. (Picture provided by Robert Agnew Jr.)
Since June, Milwaukee Artists for Racial Justice has used protest art donations and invested them back into the community. They call it direct reparations. This organization is a collective of artists that sparked from the brutal murder of George Floyd.
“We were a group of people who started as protestors, now we’re initiators,” said Co-Founder Robert Agnew Jr.
MKE-ARJ has continued to honor Floyd’s life by most recently celebrating what would have been his 43rd birthday on Oct. 14.
The celebration featured speakers, drummers, musical performances, an art installation and a candlelit tribute. The event may have been hosted by MKE-ARJ, but Agnew said it is the community’s support that keeps the movement going.
“It takes all of us to commemorate his life. This is an individual we never knew [who has] impacted all of our lives,” said Agnew. He added that we all saw the last few minutes of Floyd’s life, so it’s only right to celebrate him.
“The birthday celebration of George Floyd turned out great,” said Agnew.
Vaun Mayes, Milwaukee community activist and leader, supported Agnew’s vision and came out to partake in the celebration. Mayes is known to be on the front-end, speaking up against injustices and reporting live on Facebook so the community is always informed.
Mayes has been doing this type of work for years, and he said these last few months the people have been a lot more hands on, which has been helpful in the overall movement.
“I just want people to find their roles,” said Mayes. “We can all work together, so all of the work doesn’t have to be on one person.”
“The movement has to move,” he added.
MKE-ARJ started off handing out stencils posters depicting different faces and messages at protest, which lead to them selling the art pieces to donate the funds to fight for racial justice in the city of Milwaukee.
In August, MKE-ARJ donated $3,000 to Kim Motley Legal Services who represents the Jay Anderson, Antonio Gonzales, and Alvin Cole families. In September, MKE-ARJ pledged donations made during that month would go to the Legal Defense fund for the Joel Acevedo family. The Acevedo family asked if the donation could go towards the youth in the Milwaukee community, so MKE-ARJ donated $500 each to Urban Underground/ Youth Justice Milwaukee and Youth Chapter of Breaking Barriers Mentoring Inc. The two organizations were invited to the Floyd celebration to receive their donations personally from the Acevedo family.
“If we stop, it’s easy to fall back into old habit and what we consider old habit is the status quo, and the status quo has not been delivering us justice,” Agnew said. “Officers who murdered Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Alvin Cole, Jay Anderson…they’re walking the street like me and you.”
“We are weeks away from the 2020 presidential election, so we need to go to the polls in record number because racial justice is on the ballot,” he added.