TOWN OF CARRBORO: Our First Year with Black Lives Matters Murals

By Press release submission

Feb 17, 2022

Town of Carrboro issued the following announcement on Feb. 17.

One year ago today, this video youtu.be/T6MkHBxPkbY was played at a Carrboro Town Council meeting to dedicate the new Black Lives Matter (BLM) murals.

In 2020, the Carrboro Town Council directed that the Black Lives Matter murals be installed in the community to raise the consciousness in all who view them. This Black History Month, we are once again putting a spotlight on these recognizable murals in our town.

The public artwork recognize BLM, a movement that has been called the largest civil movement in U.S. history. It also visibly highlights and advocates for values that are important to Carrboro. Our mayor at the time Mayor Lydia Lavelle explained that the murals express our community’s acknowledgment of and opposition to systemic and institutional racism.

The stars of the Town Council meeting-dedication event were the primary muralists Tyrone Smalls and Ebriyon Barrett alongside student-artists Cyani Jacobs, Theo Preston, Ash Granda-Bondurant, and Carina Rockart. They painted murals at Communityworx, 125 W. Main St. (completed Dec. 18, 2020); and at the Century Center at 100 N. Greensboro St. (completed Jan. 15, 2021).

The virtual celebration was a joyous event, with comments shared by the Mayor, Town Council, the artists and community members.

"The BLM mural done by myself and the students was a testament to what we can all do as a people if we can just put our differences aside and come together to create something beautiful and lasting forever," mural artist Tyrone Small said.

“I encourage all of you to experience it up close. Experience it with all your senses. Sit with it. Listen to it. Feel it. Go beyond yourself. It has much to say. For the many of us who have felt historically invisible and silenced, it says ‘I see you, and I hear you.’ Unapologetically. The mural empowers someone who looks just like me,” said Zaria Clark of Communityworx in an address to the Town Council at its dedication meeting.