Unity

Themes: black and brown pride, unity, solidarity

The Unity Mural on 18th Street spans nearly three stories across the side of Pilsen Vintage and Thrift shop. It was created as a collaboration between many Chicago artists in August 2020 as a response to the covering of another unity mural in the city. Originally striking for its bright colors, heavy contrast, and large scale, the Mural speaks a message of unity and love among black and brown people.

The mural contains seven human figures organized diagonally across a multicolored blue and yellow background. Each figure is done in a different style, as they were created by different artists organized by The Mural Movement. Artists collaborating on the mural include Sent Rock, TubZ, Cujo, Rahmaan Statik, Dred Ske, Gape One, Nikko Washington, Reko, and Milt Coronado. While each artist was allowed to paint in their own style, each artist kept the overarching theme of Black and Brown unity in mind when creating the mural, and as such it depicts a wide variety of Black and Brown people of all ages and styles.

At the very top of the piece, artist Milt Coronado painted Maria Félix in black and white. Félix was a Mexican film actress and singer, widely considered one of the most successful figures of Latin American cinema in the 1940s and 1950s. Next to Félix is a skeletal figure painted by Rico Chingas. On the middle right edge of the painting is artist SentRock’s depiction of US Representative Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez, who the artist said will be “the first woman president.” In the center of the piece is a young woman. When asked about her, the artist Joe Nelson (known as Cujo) says: “I painted a young, indigenous, afro futuristic character. Similar to many of my paintings she is no one in particular but meant to represent the hearts and soul of everyone. Beyond the skin tone we are all the same. Sure there may be some sadness and longing in the expression but there is always joy and love being young and optimistic, fire in your eyes and the galaxy around you.”

Nikko Washington & Dred Ske also both painted vibrant Black figures in the center of the painting, both using different bright colors in the skin and hair to highlight the figures. On the bottom right, a Black woman and a panther represent the Black Panther movement, and next to that is a woman in a Mexican indigenous mask. Surrounding the figures is “Calligraffiti” in artist TubZ’s traditional style.

The Unity Mural on 18th Street in Pilsen was actually created as a redo of the original Black and Brown Unity Mural. The first Unity Mural on the Near West Side created in June 2020 included Breonna Taylor, Benito Juarez, and a Black man and a Latino man with their fists together. The mural was painted over in white paint less than twelve hours after it was finished. Frustrated by the covering of the mural, Chicago artists from the Mural Movement collaborated to remake the mural at a different location. Delilah Martinez, the owner of Vault Gallerie began a GoFundMe to finance the project, which covered the costs for for materials, videography, photography and any other necessary equipment. The new Unity Mural was completed in August 2020, only a few months after the creation of and destruction of the first.

This description was written by Kaitlyn Barbour, Notre Dame Class of 2022.