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A memorial was set up by the Brooklyn community this past weekend to raise awareness of the vast scale of Black people killed at the hands of police and other racial injustices.
The tribute, called "Say Their Names Memorial," which lines the fence of Bushwick’s Inlet Park, consists of 186 portraits of Black people who have been killed. Blooming flowers were added to the space this weekend, and New Yorkers can come to pay their respects for the next month.
The memorial features portrait pictures including 1960s civil rights leader like Malcolm X, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Organizer Joyce Kam explains on Instagram that that the memorial is also to honor those who have died beyond the names who have made national headlines, such as Floyd and Taylor, too.
"There are so many names here that I’m just starting to say. Their stories are painful. Their lives mattered," writes Kam. "Like Charleena Lyles, pregnant mother who called to report a robbery in her home but ended up being killed by Seattle police in front of her 3 young children. She was shot 7 times, twice in the back. Bullets cut through her uterus and hit her fetus. Both mother and baby dead. She was unarmed. Police not convicted."
The North Brooklynite and a group of friends in the community came together to make it happen in the heat on Saturday. The portraits, were donated by Californian firm Richard Photo Lab and flowers were donated by several Brooklyn and Manhattan florists to install onto the fence.
Kam, a local wedding photographer, who spurred the idea here in New York, was inspired by a similar shrine-like memorial done by Joy Proctor (a wedding planner and friend of Kam’s) in Portland, Oregon, reports the Brooklyn Paper. Since then, similar installation have popped up in cities across the country including Santa Barbara, Seattle, and Dallas.
The city's Parks Department approved the memorial to stay on view for one month, to see it in person.
Check out photos below:
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