BareBones 2020 · OFFERINGS: Artists Respond to the Mourning, Grieving and Fires on Lake Street
Mina Leierwood
Chalkboards of Remembrance
Artist Mina Leierwood made 13 chalkboards from scavenged plywood, a remnant of the distress our city experienced after the murder of George Floyd, when businesses were boarded up all over my neighborhood. They are mounted on telephone poles close to Lake Street, with stanzas from the Jewish Passover poem entitled We Remember Them by Rabbi Sylvan Kamens and Rabbi Jack Riemer. This poem is used as a meditation and prompt to ask our community to write down the names of the Beloved Dead in memorial and gratitude.
photos: Paul Irmiter
One chalk board with the complete poem was mounted near the rubble of the 55406 post office. Some of the chalkboards were translated into Spanish and Somali, two languages commonly spoken in the neighborhood. The two Ancestor Acknowledgement chalkboards give thanks to the Indigenous people, living and deceased, who share this land with our Southside Minneapolis community, and specifically the American Indian Movement that protected the cultural corridor and two grocery stores during the riots. Migwech.
The chalkboards are staying up, washed by wind, rain, sleet and snow, until taken down, some removed by neighborhood businesses, some by utility or state workers. Mina said, “I travel by bicycle and by foot to check on them, refilling chalk supply as needed. And they are needed, because I see added names every time I visit them.”
Complete Poem: 31st St. and Minnehaha Ave.
#1: Minnehaha Ave and E Lake St
#2: 27th Av. and 27th St – The Ivy Building/Greenway
#3: Old RR tracks crossing Lake St. – Behind Target
#4: 21st Av. and Lake St. – Pioneer Cemetery
#5: 28th St. and Greenway Crossing
Ancestor Acknowledgement with gratitude for AIM: 2611 Cedar Ave
#6 / 2938 18th Ave S. -The Crown Block
#7 Powderhorn Park / 3329 14th Av.S
#8: 31st St. and Bloomington – Powderhorn Post Office
#9: 15th Av. and Lake St. – Heart of the Beast/Qaribuni
#10: 14th Av. and 29th St. – City Mural
Ancestor Acknowledgement with gratitude for All Our Relations -11th and the Greenway – Ancestor Mural
#11 Robert’s Annex at Chicago-Lake
#12: 3100 Portland Av. Alley – Gratitude for the Southside BATTLETRAIN
#13 2924 4th Ave – Cristo Rey High School (Removed)
About the Artist
Mina Leierwood is a street artist and art teacher, especialista in Art Bikes, Art Cars, Mural Street School and a follower in the Church of the Divine Outfit. She celebrates the Art Shanty Projects in Winter, the May Day Parade in Spring, Road trips and Bikeways in Summer, and BareBones in Autumn. She gives thanks to the Earth, the Universe, and all living creatures, the ancestors and friends no longer with us but who still inspire ~ Let Us Remember and Never Forget ~
