‘Mentoring Murals’ shows off generations of Black artistic talent
When it comes to art, movement matters. At the unveiling of his latest work on Blue Hill Ave. last week, artist Paul Goodnight said that “good art anywhere has to move or move you.”
His most recent mural does just that. “No Strings Detached,” a collaboration between Goodnight and artist Larry Pierce, pulses with dance and music. With its yellow, red, cobalt, green, and brown colors, it feels like a melding of the ancient and contemporary. Brown bodies writhe as they play stringed instruments while younger, more sharply defined modern figures sporting hoodies and sneakers burst from sun-colored circles.
When it comes to art, movement matters.
At the unveiling of his latest work on Blue Hill Ave. last week, artist Paul Goodnight said that “good art anywhere has to move or move you.”
His most recent mural does just that. “No Strings Detached,” a collaboration between Goodnight and artist Larry Pierce, pulses with dance and music. With its yellow, red, cobalt, green, and brown colors, it feels like a melding of the ancient and contemporary. Brown bodies writhe as they play stringed instruments while younger, more sharply defined modern figures sporting hoodies and sneakers burst from sun-colored circles.
Larry Pierce, left, and Paul Goodnight kicked off the project with a temporary mural called "No Strings Detached."MATTHEW J LEE/GLOBE STAFF
With 'Code Listen,' A Violinist Brings Police And Citizens Together To Address Gun Violence And Race In Boston
Shaw Pong Liu ‘s "Code Listen" project is a civic arts initiative that leverages the transformative power of music, storytelling and performance to support healing and spark dialogue around gun violence, race and law enforcement practices in Boston.
On the third floor of the Center for Teen Empowerment in Roxbury, more than a dozen people, including youth, local police officers and moms who’ve lost their children to gun violence, gather in a too warm room. In the bright, cobalt blue and brick-walled space, they embrace, devour pizza and chat easily before the official agenda. Once it begins, smaller groups form to recite poems, monologues and stories around grief, forgiveness and motivation.
"I became a police officer so there’d be one less of those [kinds of cops] on the street," says Jeremiah Benton, as he recalls getting harassed by police as a teenager in Dorchester.
Benton, a member of the force for nearly 30 years, and the others have been working together — with classical violinist and composer, Shaw Pong Liu — to find common ground through the "Code Listen" project.
Liu's civic arts initiative leverages the transformative power of music, storytelling and performance to support healing and spark dialogue around gun violence, race and law enforcement practices in Boston.