ARTS
Mural artist keen to keep the conversation on racism going
Sydonne Warren designed her mural in Kensington, Don’t Shoot the Messenger, to encourage passersby to consider the positive intent behind the Black Lives Matter movement. PHOTO: TINA AMINI
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isual artist Sydonne Warren remembers being picked on in school for her hair and the colour of her skin. Growing up, her classmates told her things like “your skin looks like poo” and “you have a hell of a sunburn.” The teasing also included throwing up gang signs at her when she had her hair in braids. But the most embarrassing moment for her happened in eighth grade during “crazy hair day” while attending Annie Gale School in Calgary. Students were allowed to come to class with their locks twisted, tied and coloured in unusual ways. That day, she arrived at school in a traditional Jamaican hairstyle, something she would never deem crazy. “Are you participating today?” her teacher asked. Warren, then just a pre-teen, said no in disbelief. But her peers didn’t know that. Afterward, some of her classmates put on fake Jamaican accents to make comments on the appearance of her hair. “That day was hell,” she says. “I felt really awkward and different. Even now, if I get comments on my hair, I’ll remember it.” Warren didn’t start speaking up about her own experiences with racism until this year, but her artwork has
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MARCH/APRIL 2021 CALGARYJOURNAL.CA
TAMMIE SAMUEL tsamuel@cjournal.ca always centered Black people and their culture. She’s now used her self-taught skills to complete a Black Lives Matter mural in Kensington in the hopes of making an impact in the community. Warren, who was born in May Pen Jamaica in 1992 and moved to Calgary when she was three years old, says, in the past, it was easier to act like the microaggressions she faces didn’t happen. “I just kept it moving, kept it pushing,” she says, noting that some Black people don’t always speak out about what happens to them. But now Warren says, “What aids the problem [of racism against Black people] is not ever addressing it.” That’s exactly what her mural, Don’t Shoot the Messenger does. It was finished in Kensington Oct. 6 and directly addresses racism against Black people. Warren was commissioned to do the mural as a response to the backlash that art production company Pink Flamingo faced for their plans to paint over the 1st Street and 7th Avenue S.E. mural with art condemning systemic racism. The backlash on social media included racially-charged language and death threats to the artists, forcing Pink Flamingo to postpone the project.
“It was crazy because this is just a painting and people’s lives are getting threatened over this. It’s escalated too far,” Warren says. Warren felt the aggressors were trying to silence the Black Lives Matter movement and designed her mural to reflect that. “I decided to use myself to represent an artist and a Black person. [In the mural] I use my hands to make a dove symbol, which would be a call out to the other mural that they were going to cover up which also had a dove to show that we as artists are being targeted for just sharing a message.” Warren also included in the mural the words, “Black Lives Matter,” painted boldly in yellow. She says that’s the main message she wants to get across, and it will always spread despite any opposition. While the mural has been well received by the broader community, some disapproving members of the public have messaged Warren on social media saying the mural should read “all lives matter”. “They just don’t understand what Black Lives Matter means. This is not an angry thing we’re doing. It’s more of an empowerment thing,” says Warren, adding that
