The first BLKOUT Walls Mural Festival, an all Black-produced event, took place from July 24th through the 31st in Detroit, Michigan. It was founded by Sydney G. James of Detroit, Thomas “Detour” Evans of Denver and Max Sansing of Chicago in response to their past experiences of participating in mural festivals where there had been a lack of racial diversity among the participating artists and too many expenses incurred by the artists themselves.
Each of the artists participating in the inaugural BLKOUT Walls Mural Festival was provided with a fee for painting, as well as free lodging, meals and transportation. In addition to live mural painting, the inaugural festival hosted artist talks, panel discussions and pop-up exhibitions.
The image featured above was fashioned by Detroit-bred and based visual artist Sydney G. James. Several more murals that surfaced last month at the BLKOUT Walls Mural Festival — all captured by travel and street photographer Karin du Maire aka Street Art Nomad — follow:
Nepali artist Sneha Shrestha aka IMAGINE
Chicago-based Max Sansing and Roxbury, Boston native Rob Gibbs aka Problak
West Coast born and bred Jamaican-American artist “JUST” Giovannie
Bay Area based artist and singer Zoë Boston
Mexican artist Victor “MARKA27” Quinonez at work
West Coast-based, self-taught artist Rachel Wolfe-Goldsmith aka Wolfe Pack
Photos: Karin du Maire aka Street Art Nomad
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Beautiful work and beautiful shots!
Thank you for covering this event and getting the word out.
Hi, I’m trying to find the journalist or correspondent that wrote this piece but I do not see a name listed. Could you help me with this information?
Thanks!
I, Lois Stavsky (loisstavsky@gmail.com) did the writing and the photos are by Karin du Maire aka Street Art Nomad