 Okay well good morning, good morning viewers and thank you all for being here to support Gina Carrera, the muralist whose artwork is underneath the Everybody Loves a Parade installation. My name is Keshia Rahm. I am here as a community member and supporter of people of color, muralists, artists and folks in the area who would like to make several requests of the city of Burlington as they move forward with the plan for the Everybody Loves a Parade installation. First it is it has been determined and the city council voted I believe 11 to 1 to remove this mural from this particular wall. That is supposed to happen on August 30th and this group of people gathered supports the removal of the Everybody Loves a Parade installation. There are words from others about why it has been painful and harmful in the erasure of many Black, Indigenous and people of color identifying Vermonters who are not represented as people worthy of being on a mural that's supposed to represent important figures in history and in Vermont's current culture and cultural offerings. You know I have often given talks where I speak first about the fact that we are on Abenaki land and if anyone should be represented first in depictions of Vermont it should be the people who are of the First Nation here, the Abenaki people. I also want to reflect on some Black Vermonters and Black Burlingtonians who have been very important to the city of Burlington. One worthy of noting from history is Mr. Hallway. We have a block called the Hallway block close to the waterfront. Mr. Hallway had a bait and tackle shop and married an Abenaki ship captain and they owned a large part of the waterfront and it's now named the Hallway block but many people don't know that he identified, he was identified as Black even if it wasn't the right time to do that for him. We see Alexander Twilight here in this depiction. Alexander Twilight's fame was in Middlebury and the Northeast Kingdom but I also want to recognize Richard Kemp, the first Black man to be on the City Council in Burlington and I want to recognize Big Joe Burrell who has a statue on Church Street but there are many other artists of color who are not represented in this mural, people who've contributed in public and civic life so we want to honor some of those people as we begin our event here today. As well I want to start with two statements, one from an Indigenous woman named Beverly Little Thunder and one from Vicky Garrison, a woman who identifies as Black who grew up in Burlington. So I'll start with Beverly Little Thunder statement. The land we stand upon was home to the Abenaki people for so long this state tried to erase them but they are now recognized and are rebuilding their communities so long separated. The mural tried to create a false image of Indigenous people, many other tribal peoples live in this state also. Each time they viewed the diminutive and subservient representation of an Indigenous person on their knees it spoke to how this town viewed all Indigenous people. It celebrated racism. As we uncover the painting beneath it we have an opportunity to celebrate artistic talent of a woman who is also erased by this mural. The city has the ability to recognize her and to pay her to restore her original mural. Rather than celebrating this removal of a racist mural I want us to see it as a step, a step towards the City Council recognizing the mindset that colonialism has taught them and working towards educating other members of the white community about the impact of racist actions intentional and unintentional on the people of color who live in this state. I want to see our elected officials create a new paradigm that honors and respects all people of all genders, of all ethnic and cultural beliefs, and of all abilities or physical challenges. That for me will be a huge step in showing their commitment to the people. The words of Beverly Little Thunder. Before I read the words of Vicky Garrison I also want to state the other requests that this group of people have for the city. We have the muralist arriving at Gina Carrera and the piece many people who've just visited Church Street recently don't realize that this is a wooden paneled piece that is covering a mural that was done in 1992 by artist Gina Carrera. The wall has been damaged by putting the paneling up and we ask that the city repair the damage that it caused to the wall of a private business owner a private property owner and make it so that Gina can restore her rainforest mural that's underneath this piece. It's a rainforest mural that many families and children have loved it's very vibrant still. She wants to touch it up as the season ends to be able to create a new mural and making it difficult to create a new mural this season as this comes down August 30th. Our request of the city is that they then step back and allow Gina and the property owner to restore the relationship that they had previously so she can put up a new multicultural mural in the city of Burlington as a muralist of color which is unfortunately too rare to have to see and to support in downtown Burlington. I'd now like to read the statement of Vicky Garrison a black woman who grew up in the Burlington area. I was born and raised in the downtown Burlington area within blocks from the Everybody Loves a Parade mural. The mural reinforces everything I knew to be true growing up and that was that people of color in Vermont didn't matter. That our worth our strengths our abilities our successes our contributions and our humanity did not matter. To experience and feel the pain of this reality is one thing and terrible enough but to see the reality of this experience proudly and prominently displayed in the Everybody Loves a Parade mural serves to reinforce intensify and even mock the pain which is completely another thing and this other thing is even more terrible than the first because it boldly erases people of color while upholding the problem of white supremacy culture in our community. I firmly believe that when people know better they desire and can do better removing the Everybody Loves a Parade mural is an opportunity for our shared community to know better and do better it's an opportunity for us to center unity and demonstrate value for diversity equity equality and inclusion. Let's do this and in a way that begins to repair the harm while uplifting the best of what we can be the words of Vicky Garrison. I'd now like to invite up two elected officials in our community representative Kurt McCormick chair of the transportation committee and representative Brian Cina of the hill section of Burlington. So I'm representative Brian Cina I live in the actually live in the old north end my district covers most of the hill and then part of the old north end I'm here today in solidarity with the artist Gina and with the community to replace this mural and restore what's underneath this mural is a symbol about our culture and our society this mural is yet another example about how you have to pay if you want to play people spent large sums of money to be included in this mural especially essentially creating a massive advertisement that some might even argue violates the state's billboard laws in terms of its size and its impact this mural on the surface it's a representation of our downtown church street marketplace everyone is smiling happy shopping that is if they have the money to participate it's a little bit deeper into this mural this imagery and the process behind its creation we see that this is a symbol of our economic system it's a symbol of our extractive way of life which is focused on exploiting labor and on extracting resources from the many and concentrating wealth in the hands of a few and what is really going on down here on church street what is really going on down here that's what this represents we have a city in which many people who work here can't afford to live here is that the way it should be this mural like our society was created through a process of exclusion and it has reinforced a culture of exclusion it represents the very real history of oppression in our city in our state in our nation and there are lessons to be learned from this mural it belongs in a museum at this point to be studied it doesn't belong in the center of our city now more than ever here in the heart of our city we need symbols that celebrate everyone in our community and we need public processes of inclusion you see the problem here is so much bigger than this mural and it's even bigger than that whole over there the problem is that the heart of any community should be a place where all people are welcome regardless of their ability to pay and we should honor all kinds of contributions that people make to our society not just the contributions of people who have wealth or political power or family connections and people should be given more power over the decisions that directly affect their lives and people should be included in the way that they are represented how can we build symbols that celebrate our community in ways that actually build a world of peace love and justice so we should take down the mural restore the mural that's underneath and build more symbols in our community that represent the world that we want not the world that we live in where people are not free and until everyone is free no one is free thanks thank you thank you for inviting me and for organizing this i'd like to first of all we'll put out that it's not to try to up one figure speaker but we're in the middle of my district and i just have the greatest district one can imagine the old north end all down down so right in the middle of it right now and that's one reason obviously i'm taking great interest in this effort to have this people move i'm also a former artist myself and we'll imagine when it's like a new one coming and i also use the sign of easements when they were used to the other land to put more solace is the one so i'm very happy to have an attorney here because there are questions about easements that the rest of us can't handle so i'd like to first thank the city council for its action in may the earlier resolution was not only odd it really didn't make sense and it was wrong to to try to write a wrong acknowledging that this is wrong and then taking two or how about yours wasn't it far down these two years off it was a plastic and it had to be moved for two years that doesn't make sense you don't want to phase out something like this you want to eliminate it you discover even in yourself that you've been racist and you don't phase out the racist and then now we have a similar situation with the city continuing to to to fight the obvious and fight what's right and i'm very glad that again the chair is here to help us with that with that situation i just hope that it doesn't wind up in court if it does it would be the city's doing even if it's not the city that brings the case force the case really shouldn't do that we should do it's right and do it now and allow girl who needs it to be restored and have this carara do it kind of thank you representatives curtain kormick and brian chena i'm now going to invite up a group of artists including jena carara a number of artists have come out today to support her and to support her vision and artistic integrity those include jim lockridge a big heavy world and mary lacey another prominent muralist in downtown berlington and beyond and so i invite anyone who identifies as an artist to come up and stand in support of jena and say a few words after jim and mary i'm happy that this mural is going to be seen when supporting this it's what we want as a community we want racism taken down immediately and we've all shared from zero to 100 it's been something that people from all over have admired and appreciated and related to that's what community art is it's inclusion you know as a as an artist of color the reality is um i feel a lot of times like i'm standing alone i don't feel like it right now um but i did for a long time you don't see a lot of people of color putting murals up in brolington you should we should all get a chance at this this is racial equity this is what we're here for we're here to share all our experiences and share our views and our lives and that's what that's what ends racism don't you think sort of nipping that ignorance and how do you do that you do that by talking to people by seeing where they live what they eat what they do relating to each other having a conversation i think that it's it's time it's time it's really time that is that is fully inclusive and by fully inclusive i mean it should have people with disabilities in there it should have her monsters in there it should have people from all different walks it should be just a diversity beautiful diversity treasure it should be something that people come and walk by and are proud of it should be something that a child this high looks up and sees himself in a positive way and says you know i love this my favorite thing about coming here in the alley on days when i had a tiny bit of downtime was i would sit right over there and watch and i would see children hugging hugging i didn't and sometimes kissing which i was like but you know i have gotten letters emails texts from people all over saying i grew up with your mural and i want to see it come back and it was important to me and parents would walk their children past and it was a pleasant walk from here to there it's a few seconds a few minutes to just kind of decompress from all the pressures that are around and just relax i don't find this i i see this myself as a vanity plate it does not make me feel comfortable a lot of people feel very uncomfortable and upset with this and the right thing to do is to remove it it's designed to be removed and reinstalled somewhere else and like like it was said earlier museums are a great place to study there's a lot to study about this on so many levels but it's time to bring my mural back out let me replace it let me let me repair it give me some time to work with the community and the city council and all the beautiful people and we can design something just amazing together that you know wouldn't it be nice to sort of do something positive in this incredibly oppressive times that we're living wouldn't it be great to be able to do something positive where you feel good about yourself for for that time that you spent making something beautiful happen and then think of the thousands of people that covast here day after day after day it will affect them too in a positive way and if there's any any way that i can do that that's my mission this is this underneath here is a project of love i i did this out of love not i did not receive a hundred thousand dollars to do this and i want the opportunity to fix it and repair it restore it and then really come out something incredible that everybody will actually love thank you very much my name is mary lacey i'm from for the geno career i believe in like a constant evolution of public art and ongoing conversation between the public you know back and forth uh but i also like i think myself um i'm speaking for myself here i'm almost 30 i i've been making art here for about six years publicly and i think i i um entered pretty fast with a lot of urgency and i was not aware of i wish i had been more aware of the history of public art in burlington prior and personally i opportunity to honor gina and like just what she did for many decades before i was aware i remember passing that uh your mural when i was a child i began and out of the parking garage so maybe you saw me and potentially it had some subconscious effect on me long ago um so i just i'm grateful for gina and i want the opportunity for her to have the shine right now for her to have to be really honored and celebrated um and see what she can make now and and what you would have to say now with with all of your decades of experience right here here and yeah it's time for this advertisement to come down beautiful leave it up there i'm james lockers it takes work to grow it's an unsteady process and it requires that we have commitment to values the city counselors who supported removing the mural are champions for taking down a source of pain to members of our community i expect that they will also have the grace to welcome gina carrera to rightfully bring her vision of inclusion and diversity to the wall again where her art can restore the dignity and belonging that should never have been overwritten so my name is finessa and i don't know you gina but i'm here in support of your vision of your work your vision past and what how it might change in the future and like mary i have memories of walking by your original mural as a little girl i grew up in vermont but i've recently moved to burlington and i'm a collage artist and my work is deeply informed by social injustice and oppression and the ways that i see it just persevering in our culture and we have an opportunity to do right i really believe that culture is that respect and support artists our resilient cultures they're powerful ones and art has an opportunity to convey nuance and difficult issues in a way we've already like in our meeting right here i've had people come by and be in support of the mural and there's a lot of different emotions and i think some people struggle to understand why when people walk by this mural they might feel pain they might feel rejected they might struggle to understand how it is a symbol of white supremacy but i'm here to say that as artists i support you and that i'm so excited for hopefully our town our culture our nation our world to take an opportunity to do the right thing okay well um we will have more opportunities for anyone to speak artists and community members alike i wanted to give the press that's here that might have to leave sooner than later to answer questions of jenna attorney president jaren carter see if you have any questions thus far before we went to community members to speak okay great so we'll have time it sounds like for interviews later from the press i have two statements that i will read at the end which will close us out but in between that time i'm going to offer for anyone an additional artist someone from the community who'd like to thank you where it's the port of jenna to be able to do that while cctv and other press is present so i'll invite you up to do that now hi jenna thank you for coming today i'm karin i'm from the old north end i'm also an artist in town uh and i just want to say it's curious that the visual arts uh rights act applied to in defense of this mural but not for jenna i don't think it's surprising to see that uh obviously it's not surprising to see a white male artist prioritized over a person of color and it's not just that a person of color it's also a mother you know raising children and we have to think about um the kind of barriers that exist not just for people of color to make artwork but to live in this community in general and we see right now with covid how that is affecting people disproportionately um i think we have to view this in the context of bigger history it's not just this mural it's not just jenna's work it's the bigger issue of erasure in our community i'm a community member i live just about the other side of city hall park and when i i grew up in brahmat moved back here four years ago and walked by the mural with a very different mindset than i have right now i saw it is you know it is superficially okay um i'm on a learning curve about white supremacy about myself as a racist and i trust the experts on this one and the experts of the people who this doesn't represent our city council voted 11 to 1 to take it down take it down why is it still here why is it still here every day flaunting people who are not represented i'm a i go to the first unitarian universal society of burlington one of my values is the inherent worth of dignity of every human being every human being does not represent it on this take it down thank you yeah so my name is jared carter i'm an attorney here in burlington um and i've gotten to know gene over the past couple of years looking at this issue and from purely a legal perspective this is an easy case this is an easy opportunity for the city of burlington to do what's both morally right and fundamentally legally right the visual artists rights act as a federal law that protects the legal rights the authorship of all of these artists over here including genus and all the city needs to do to do the right thing is give her the opportunity to exercise those rights and to protect those rights that sends a message not only to the community to gene of its artists across the state of vermont and so i really see this from a legal perspective as a terrific opportunity for the city to meet that's moral and legal obligations i appreciate folks talking i appreciate kasha organizing this and i'm happy to chat about the legal ins and outs if i can be helpful after i'm just gonna close out our program thank you all for being here thank you as community members for coming i think you'll hear in these statements a call for the city to do some work some training some soul searching and perhaps offer an apology to genea for her experience in the process of having her mural covered up which was not in any way a pleasant one for her and had a lot of trauma associated with it first i'd like to read a statement from a new north end resident community advocate lee terrien council has voted 11 one to remove the parade panels by august 31st the phrase or cover up was added to the resolution and bca burlington city arts has proposed covering up the racist parade mural with a billboard map advertising marketplace stores the building owner wants the parade panels removed the wall repaired and the carerum mural restored enough of covering up racism council has admitted harm now they need to apologize to our multicultural community do the work to deconstruct racism literally the parade panels could be deconstructed and stored to be displayed in a white supremacy museum someday and restore the mural of the artist a woman of color whose work was covered without her permission the parade artist agrees in fact he respected the carerum mural underneath and pointed out in a letter to the city that he did not damage it and his mural was installed to be removable jenna carerra is available to refresh and update her mural and she is supported by a cadre of local artists it is a good example of reparative justice the time required of the city not by the city in burlington the concept of restorative and reparative justice is based on the premise that a misdeed represents a debt owed not only to the state but to the victim the victim's family and to the community as a whole in addition the offender is to acknowledge responsibility for the harm that has been done so the words of lead to review and finally words from melinda molten a prominent building owner developer a businesswoman in downtown burlington i am sorry i cannot be here in person today but i'm honored to share my deep gratitude and enthusiasm to the burlington city council who voted 11 to 1 to remove the existing parade mural and return the wall to artist jenna carerra to create her vision that honors our diverse community and promotes our commitment to racial and social justice to our city counselors who voted for this you understand that fighting for racial justice and human rights begins in our own backyard for the past eight years that i've walked down this alleyway and looked at the parade mural i saw many familiar faces mostly white mostly men and what always struck me was the empty feeling that i felt in this painting it did not represent the people of our city it was a mural that represented the famous the well-known the fortunate and the popular there are over 27 languages spoken by the citizens of our city what i love about burlington is that it has such a diverse interesting and engaged citizenry the greatness of our city is kept alive by the heartbeat of the daily life of our diverse citizenry who contribute to the threads that create the magnificent colorful fabric of our society all the greatest cities in the world are made great by those who do not make the news who do not sit in positions of power who do not hold the wealth and who are not the decision makers cities are made great by the people who are not the decision makers not the wealthy not the powerful not the well-known but the human beings who generate the everyday pulse that keeps the wheels of a city turning moving forward and it is their humanity that makes the city great the artist jenna karera understands this she's part of this community and she wants to celebrate this humanity jenna envisions a mural that celebrates people of all races ethnicities and physical abilities she wants to paint a mural which truly represents our community her working title is we are vermont i want to walk down this alley and see jenna's mural and see the faces of our neighbors i want to feel and see in their faces the hope of an inclusive society that embraces and celebrates individual individuality while honoring our togetherness i salute all of you here today and those who could not make it for stepping up and speaking out to provide the opportunity for jenna to return to this alley and bring her vision to life and to our city council bravo for seeing and believing in the power of the people to fight for racial justice and human rights and create the space for jenna karera's art to reflect the vision that we hold in our heart for this wonderful city we call home thank you all so much for being here thank you to those who spoke much appreciated yet thank you