Vision Quilt Banners

Vision Quilt Banners Bring Peace to Oakland

As part of the Peace in the Streets Neighborhood Beautification Project, the Vision Quilt banners serve to uplift the voices of community members impacted by gun violence. Learn more.

 

MACARTHUR BLVD. BANNERS & ARTISTS STATEMENTS

 

Adrianna Adama’s portrayal of Johnetta Elize, was created in partnership with the San Francisco Poster Syndicate

This image featuring activist Johnetta Elzie, created to highlight her powerful voice, strength and resilience, is a collaboration between myself and Michelle W., originally printed by Sun Night Editions. This image was one 38 prints created and printed by different artists for each activist in the Women of Resistance Portfolio through Poster Syndicate. The creation of this portfolio was a partnership with the Women of The Resistance mural in Balmy Alley that highlights women activists from the Bay Area and beyond.

This image of Johnetta Elzie and the text below that states “ Black Lives Matter” is particularly relevant given the global impact and resurgence of Black Lives Matter Protests during the 2020 pandemic that were reignited by the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by police, as well as numerous recorded acts of police brutality and murder towards many other unarmed Black citizens both locally and nationally. Black Lives Matter is described as a political and social movement protesting all racially motivated acts of violence against Black people, advocating for and promoting  policy reforms to end police brutality and promote Black liberation.  

Image Inscription: An American civil rights activist. She is among the leaders in the activist group We The Protesters and co-edits the Ferguson protest newsletter, This Is The Moment.

Gabe Babaoye, in partnership with the East Oakland Youth Center

I wanted my illustration to correspond with the overarching theme of peace, compassion, and love without having to include any of those words in the composition directly. In high school, I used to draw hands basically everyday, as a way for me to practice my ability to capture form and gestures with a pencil and pad. Hands are universally recognized as an essential part of our daily lives and hold many functionalities, whether good or bad. For this particular project, I chose to magnify the good, by illustrating two hands embracing one another. The green hand on the upper half of the composition represents sincere purity and everything that promotes life in this universe. With this hand uplifting the other hand from the bottom of the composition, it’s apparent that hope stems from compassion, and with compassion any form of violence is bound to deteriorate.

Art was and will always be a personal outlet for me to express myself through. However, the older I become, the more I realize that the true therapy begins with the healing of others through my work. This panel is an ode to any and every family that’s ever lost a loved one to gun violence. My vision for preventing gun violence in my city is to establish programs and initiatives that mentor and groom underserved young men and women that may have a talent that’s been overshadowed by their circumstances. With positive influences and distilled discipline, pain corresponds directly with wisdom. However, losing loved ones to gun violence is the only form of pain that comes with no good derivative. Love is the only way.

The panel named Antoinette Garcia is from sixteen 911 call operators through the Oakland Police Department

We are 9-1-1 Dispatchers. We are here to help, to serve. We are heartbroken due to gun violence. We hurt with our community. We hear your pain through our headset, the thin gold line. We live & work in the city, our families live in the city. We feel your pain. 

OPD's 9-1-1 Dispatchers:

  • A. Garcia

  • K. Ingram

  • M. Taylor

  • S. Taylor

  • I. Ramos

  • J. Fregoso

  • J. Gonsalves

  • M. Ta

  • M. Abate

  • N. Pierre

  • S. Gray

  • E. Oliver

  • R. Cortes

  • E. Ventura

  • A. Trinh

  • J. Montgomery

Title: We Hear You And Our Hearts Break With Yours

 

Reimagine Safety was created by Whitney Humphries, in partnership with the San Francisco Poster Syndicate

The San Francisco Poster Syndicate grew out of the crisis around higher education – student debt and the abuse of adjunct faculty.

We create and screen print original images, continuing the rich history of posters as a form of political messaging. We print the posters “live” at political actions, exhibitions, and on the street, giving away the work for free in order to target a variety of current social and economic justice issues. 

Our mission is to bring art and design to many different people’s movements in hopes that their message can be heard and seen more loudly.

Keena Romano, in partnership with the Catholic Charities and the Attitudinal Healing Connection

My art piece is about transforming trauma. Generationally our people have experienced trauma and currently we live in a city that is constantly traumatizing.. I don't have the answers yet, but I hope to contemplate the question, how can we transform trauma? how can we transform trauma together/collectively and individually?

We can reach out to healers and we can become healers ourselves.

I hope this panel inspires people to choose healing over pain.

Title: Transform Trauma