By BRIAN WHITEHEAD | bwhitehead@scng.com | The Sun PUBLISHED: June 18, 2020 at 10:32 a.m. | UPDATED: June 18, 2020 at 11:36 p.m.
All Josiah Bruny needed was a wall somewhere in the Inland Empire.
Luckily, David Friedman has those in spades.
Redlands-based Music Changing Lives and Viva La Boba in San Bernardino are set to bring a Black Lives Matter mural to the heart of downtown San Bernardino.
And they want your help painting it.
On Saturday, June 20, artists Duan Kellum of Skool Boiz and Christopher Perez of Sonofaperez Art will lead a group of community members in outlining and painting the mural on an E Street wall near the historic Breezeway and Friedman’s popular boba shop.
Stenciling is to begin at 10 a.m. Painting will start around 1 p.m.
All painting supplies will be provided.
“As artists, we hope this mural can bring a little peace to the community,” said Bruny, who owes his life’s work as founder of Music Changing Lives to the second lease on life he found in San Bernardino County. “We hope it can bring unity and real discussions for change. We’re trying to deem racism a public health issue within our communities and also trying to get individuals to start speaking up against police brutality and reduce that the same way we’re trying to reduce crime and gang violence in our community.
“We shouldn’t have to fight with police brutality as well.”
Designed by Ana Cervantes, the Black Lives Matter mural will feature colorful artistic renderings of Tyisha Miller, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Talyor and George Floyd, whose death late last month in Minneapolis police custody sparked a wave of protests near and far calling for an end to police brutality and systemic racism.
In addition to their respective profiles, six Black and brown fists in the air and the phrases “Know justice, know peace,” “The revolution is now,” “Say their names” and “All BLM” will be set against a black backdrop.
“This really is just to commemorate all the lives that have been lost and so many more that aren’t going to be on the mural,” Friedman said. “So many lives lost to inequality and injustice and racism. This can be a very powerful message, especially in San Bernardino where the minority is the majority.
“I hope this mural becomes a treasure to them.”
Friedman, who earlier this year helped plant a living wall garden near his Fourth Street shop, commended Bruny and San Bernardino-based nonprofit SistersWe for bringing such an impactful project home in less than a week.
“I hope this brings light to the fact that people just really want to live,” said Bruny, a Fontana High grad who founded Music Changing Lives in 1998. “We also hope it opens up a discussion about reducing police brutality and wrongdoing to different individuals.
“Of course, this isn’t something I wish we were painting … but we have to bring some sort of commonalities to people.”