The “Black Lives Matter” mural painted with giant yellow letters on DC’s Black Lives Matter Plaza that leads to the White House during last year’s George Floyd protests has been removed, but it will come back, according to the mayor’s office.
Black Lives Matter DC shared a photo of the repaved street on Twitter, saying the art installation was a “BLM performance” by Mayor Muriel Bowser, and it was now over.
Bowser’s office, on the other hand, says the iconic letters were temporarily erased during Pepco’s construction work on the street and will return permanently.
This morning at Black Lives Matter Plaza in DC. @MayorBowser’s BLM performance has come to a close and set strike completed.
We now return to her regularly scheduled performances. pic.twitter.com/WZ1soLghwR
— Black Lives Matter DC (@DMVBlackLives) May 11, 2021
“In fact, right now we’re undergoing a process to make the installation more permanent, and with lighting and landscaping, and all the things that you expect an iconic art installation … to install this piece of art with a very affirming message that not only our residents needed to hear, but people around the world needed to hear. And they really appreciated that Donald Trump couldn’t avoid it,” Bowser told the Washington Post.
It is not clear yet when the updated mural will be painted.
Black Lives Matter Plaza was established on a section of 16th Street in June 2020 by Mayor Bowser, following the beginning of nationwide demonstrations in response to the police killing of Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25.
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