“Black Lives Matter,” reads the new mural painted on the pavement outside of University Commons. After months of preparation and a long weekend of painting, Black Student Alliance (BSA) hosted a mural unveiling last Monday evening. 

Celeste Thomas, Director of Multicultural Services, as well as senior JD Richardson and sophomore Merry Yirga, BSA co-presidents, gave a welcome and talked a bit about the mural’s origins. Back in July, Shannon Dycus, Dean of Students, approached BSA to request the use of their Barber Shop for a COVID-19 testing site.

Since its opening on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2019, the Barber Shop has been a space where Black students can feel comfortable. Losing the Barber Shop meant losing an important space for Black students, so in exchange for giving up the Barber Shop, BSA had a list of demands. “In light of everything that is continuing to happen in the BLM movement, the students felt galvanized—they felt they needed to make a statement,” Thomas said. The idea for the mural came about through the creation of that list.

“When we got the okay which was back in July, we were excited but it just didn’t seem like it would happen anytime soon,” said Yirga. “But as the school year approached, JD [Richardson] took the initiative to start the process. He made some calls, got permissions and we started planning.”

And so over the course of last weekend, the painting began. BSA collaborated with students from the art department and theater departments to paint all day Friday through early Monday.

BSA was very intentional about making it a community effort, Thomas said. This included the unveiling—EMU President Susan Schultz Huxman and Mayor Deanna Reed also spoke at the event. “The City of Harrisonburg is so proud of our BSA students who had the courage to work on this,” Reed said. “We know that EMU students are leaders and we know that you are our moral compass for the city…you lead the way…I want you to know that you are standing on our ancestor’s shoulders, that by you doing this, it is speaking for them, so always know that and honor that.”

After the speakers were finished, BSA students placed candles for Black persons who have been victims of lynchings, shootings, police violence, and other acts of racism to #SayTheirNames. Some of which included Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Emmet Till, Sandra Bland, Philando Castile, Tamir Rice, and more.

After placing their candle, BSA members all took their places around the tarp-covered mural and played the song “Hell You Talmbout” by Janelle Monae ft. Wondaland Records, a song dedicated to the movement #SayTheirNames. When the song ended, they pulled the tarps off to reveal the mural publicly for the first time. Audience members were invited to take a Black Lives Matter pin or bracelet as they left the event.

Ezrionna Prioleau, a graduate student at EMU, drafted the design for the mural. “The design inspiration for the mural was the one in DC,” Prioleau said. “I wanted to do something unique and fun for the EMU community. Once we started working on it other ideas emerged and became a fantastic part of the mural. Having ‘Lives’ using negative space was a way to make the mural pop and look like the BLM flag and signs that you see around.”

Yirga expressed her gratitude for Prioleau. “She was amazing,” said Yirga. “The mural would not have happened without her and she deserves so much recognition. She works in the theatre department and has worked there for years so she just knew how to do everything. She and her brother outlined her design on Thursday, I think, and then it was painting time … Ezrionna was there for all of that [weekend]; I don’t know how she did it.”

While there were many technicalities involved in the mural’s process, the art is a symbol of so much more. 

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Thomas. Thomas has been involved in the process since the beginning, and voiced her support for the mural. “What a brave and courageous endeavour for BSA and the members of the EMU community—to not only envision such, but also to implement the vision that they had. I see this as something that is a very spirit-led endeavour. I think that they are doing exactly as EMU says—to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God… What better way to show their support of a social justice movement that is so much about righting wrongs within, in particular, the African American community.” 

“I’m just so excited and very proud,” Yirga said. “I’m glad that we now have this bold and big statement to show where EMU stands…[T]his mural has potential to gradually change things for the better. I’m sure more Black prospective students will feel more comfortable with the idea of coming to EMU. And it’s definitely a reminder for us Black students to always make our voices heard because we deserve it. I love our mural and it reminds me that no matter what, I have a family here.” Yirga also said that BSA is working with administration to implement real and effective anti-racist changes at EMU.

The mural is steeped in meaning for Prioleau too. “To me, the mural means just what it says: Black Lives Matter,” she said. “I think of this in all ways, not just in the streets when dealing with violence but everywhere—in the classroom, government, curriculum, key positions of the workplace, and in the workplace in general. I also see the mural as a conversation starter about all people of color and equity and inclusion in the world today.”

Thomas shared similar hopes for conversation. “We need to be aware of the dominant culture changing narratives of people of color in general,” she said. “This was a movement that came out of a place of ‘We need to do something nonviolent to protest for men, women and children being killed.’” 

Thomas wants people to recognize that this movement’s “intention was never and is not to bring harm to anyone, but to highlight murders that have happened and have gone unpunished. I could not go to someone’s house and shoot them and not be charged—while they are lying in their bed or sitting on their sofa—and not be charged. That will not happen to me as an African American woman in this country. And so the movement was constructed to keep in the forefront that this continues to happen over and over.”

“To people that feel that this Black Lives Matter mural and movement is about not caring about all lives,” Thomas concluded, “Do your homework.”