Stories Behind the State Street Murals Reporting Project
In the face of social injustice, political unrest, and an unprecedented global shutdown, artists of color took to downtown Madison’s State Street, transforming boarded-up businesses into a breathtaking revolution through the medium of paint and color. The project only took two weeks, but it kickstarted a wave of murals and ideas throughout Madison. I had the privilege of speaking with artists involved in the State Street Mural Project and learning what fueled their work.
UW Student Isha Camara illustrates the revolution within
Camara’s contribution to State Street murals seeks healing in a time of anger and upheaval
UW student Isha Camara poses before her finished mural on the Overture Center in downtown Madison. Camara’s work emphasizes the importance of internal healing during times of revolution. Photography by Gretchen Carvajal
The moment a 12-year-old girl approached artist Isha Camara to tell her the color she painted onto a board covering an Overture Center window was her favorite shade, Carolina blue, Camara knew her intended contribution to the State Street Mural Project was realized.
Camara is a fourth-year student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Although the university is interested in helping students connect to activism through artwork in her First Wave program, Camara does not call herself an activist because she believes the fight for social justice is a “human condition”.
“People can call me an activist if they want to but I don’t think my work is [activism] because my work is self-indulgent,”Camara said. “My work is a part of my person, it’s an extension of myself.”
Amidst the power and intensity coming from the Black Lives Matter movement and tragic events fueling it, Camara recognized a need for public awareness and commitment to the process of grieving and healing. She says this recognition is critical for sustaining a lasting commitment to social change. In fact, Camara’s concept of recognition of self-love in the revolution is so radical that the message is frequently lost on her peers.
“When everyone feels this sense of urgency, where everyone is putting out these really important messages … sometimes it’s really hard to find a place for your art because it’s not seen as that important message,” Camara said.
As a poet inspired by Gil Scott Heron’s ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’, Camara posed a question in her mural: “will my healing be televised?” Camara said Heron’s poem criticizes society’s focus on the physicality of social movements instead of the intimate change that happens within those fighting for change.
“We see that [change] when [people] come into the streets, when they do these protests, when they’re speaking about the change that happened for them,” Camara said. “The reason I think [my] question is important is because we don’t care about all of the work and exhaustion that happens to people when they do this work.”
Camara’s experience attending protests throughout high school and organizing food drives supporting protesters following the death of George Floyd in her hometown of Minneapolis opened her eyes to how physically and emotionally exhausted people are.
“So my question is, do we prioritize the health and wellbeing of these people who are making change?” Camara asked. “I personally think one part of the revolution and social justice and radical change and thought has to be healing, has to be sustainability.”
Camara’s mural features a young girl facing away from flames toward a patch of flowers,allowing herself to grieve. The piece represents her commitment to her personal healing through her artwork and her hopes for her peers to take time to heal their wounds so they stay strong for the long battle ahead.
Since childhood, Camara has used art to process her feelings in an ever-changing world. It is where she takes her anger, sadness and joy.
“[My artwork] inherently comforts me and is always gonna have my back when no one does,” Camara said.
Camara said her most challenging moments as a student at UW-Madison were in academic settings when her peers have failed to stick up for her.
“Specifically, as a Black woman, I think a lot of people read off my annoyance or frustration or just boldness across many things as aggression,” Camara said. “In those spaces, when things are said that are harmful, I am upset, but because I don’t want to react, I know how to pose questions and speak in a way that’s still inviting to make conversations within that correction.”
For lasting change to occur, revolution must occur within. Self-care is radical for everyone but especially for Camara as a Black woman. Camara inspires people to make room in the revolution for their grief, for their healing, so that our transformation as a society is ultimately sustainable, everlasting, and continuing on all levels, one person at a time.
So, as Camara allowed the girl whose favorite color is Carolina blue to add a flower to the mural, she recognized this child may one day join a battle for lasting change, whether the revolution for her will be within herself or for the world. Camara hopes it will be both, she says, because, you can’t have one without the other.
Keysha Mabra
Artist Keysha Mabra joined the State Street Mural Project after receiving an invitation from Madison Arts Director Karin Wolf. Mabra worked on multiple murals including A House Full of Love, a collage piece on Urban Outfitters, and You Can Take The Fish Out of the Water, but You Can’t Take the Fish Out of the Sea, a larger collage on the Overture Center for the Arts. Before the project, Mabra said she had never painted a mural. Now, she continues working on mural projects around the city. I visited her while she painted her A Wish for Change mural at 1444 East Washington Avenue.
Transcript:
When I first met artist Keysha Mabra, she was covered head to toe in paint splatters, working on a mural outside of Warby Parker on State Street. Warby Parker and many other businesses commissioned Mabra to create murals after seeing her contributions to the State Street Mural Project in early June.
Mabra: “The project … opened up a lot of opportunities for me to recognize my strengths as an artist and areas of need for development … I started branching out and realizing the importance of networking and showing gratitude for all of … the help that I’ve had along the way and I’ve been able to find a greater confidence being able to start a business.”
When I called to interview her, she had just finished working on her East Washington Avenue Wish for Change mural for the day and was in the McDonald’s drive thru for an ice cream cone, a treat she rewards herself with daily for staying sober. Mabra includes her story battling addiction in her artwork.
Mabra: “I think addiction in so many forms is such a strong part of our culture that is so closeted. It reaps a lot of anger in people and resentments that aren’t talked about and a lot of that ensues violence and I just want people to be able to have conversations about addiction more openly.”
Mabra’s largest piece in the State Street Mural Project was on the Overture Center, entitled You Can Take the Fish Out of the Water but you Can’t Take the Fish Out of the Sea.
Mabra: “That was a recovery piece for me … dedicated to helping inspire people to find … love for themselves again and to help encourage people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol to find another way to handle those issues.”
Mabra has struggled to find her place in the world as a biracial woman and has used her work as an outlet for more rarely recognized issues.
Mabra: “The issues that we face are really deeper than racially driven. In addressing the issues that we faced today … socially and politically we need to … take a look at ourselves and take a look at what it is that makes us who we are … and try to remember that other people are going through struggles as well.”
