Hollywood Boulevard ‘All Black Lives Matter’ street painting will stay permanently to honour the Black queer community
The words ‘All Black Lives Matter’ painted on Hollywood Boulevard (Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty)
The huge, LGBT-inclusive ‘All Black Lives Matter’ installation on Hollywood Boulevard is being made permanent to commemorate the history-making march in Los Angeles.
Tens of thousands of people joined the march on June 14 to protest the brutal murders of two Black trans women, Dominique “Rem’Mie” Fells, 27, and Riah Milton, 25.
The block-long message between Highland Avenue and Orange Drive was completed the day before with the help of hundreds of volunteers, who painted the powerful words in the colours of the transgender, non-binary and LGBT+ Pride flags.
The iconic street will now be closed for a week to restore the paint and make it a permanent street art fixture dedicated to the Black LGBT+ community.
“Today, after years and years of violence against our Black and queer communities, we are creating the first memorialised space in Los Angeles dedicated to transgender people of colour,” said councilman Mitch O’Farrell, who is openly gay.
“As the site of the first nationally recognised Gay Pride Parade in the nation, Hollywood must be and will be the safe space designated for this landmark distinction.”
The artwork was a collaboration between march organisers Black LGBTQ+ Activists for Change, or BLAC, and Trailer Park Group, a local entertainment marketing company.
The hope is that a new permanent installation “becomes a symbol not just to the city, but to the world,” BLAC board members Gerald Garth and Brandon Anthony said in a statement.
Luckie Alexander, who helped design the painting between Highland Avenue and Orange Drive, said the piece “spoke to the intersections of being black, sexual orientation and gender identity that are included in this racial movement.”
“As a black trans man, our specific community has been continually overlooked and this gives me hope that we will continue to be heard here in Los Angeles,” he said.
