Protesting America Day with BLM Art

This Independence Day, I set out to put up one more reminder that Black Lives Matter. Now as you drive around the corner on Oakland highway 13, you first see a heart on the fenced sidewalk over the road. Then the letters BLM, written in giant block letters, written with thousands of skinny strips of fabric flapping in the wind.

I’m the kind of person who draws hearts on dirty windows, who has a pair of socks for every holiday, and ironed rhinestone sparkles onto my COVID-19 face mask. But in this post Obama America, I haven’t wanted to pull out my red, white, & blue knee highs. I don’t feel patriotic and I don’t feel like celebrating. I don’t like what it means right now to be a member of this divided and systematically, horrifically unfair society.

I’ve been out of work since March, and have been spending a lot of time reflecting on what I can do to make the organizations I’m a part of more welcoming. Professionally, I’m a leader in many different communities of hobbyists. Talking circles around and around, I feel they always come back to larger political problems that are out of my reach. By nature I’m a do-er and really want to do something and make this world better right now. Conversations are a starting place, but don’t seem to add up to enough.

A part of this reflection has also been taking a long look in the mirror to…