Oak Park mural project tells residents: ‘You guys are part of Sacramento, too’

On a walk through Sacramento’s Oak Park neighborhood, you might stumble across the art.

There’s a chalk piece in Yoly Petra Stroeve’s driveway, the profile of a woman with flowing rainbow hair. Each strand is a different color, holding a different Spanish word or phrase. Or, on a fence, there’s Taylor Pannell’s self-portrait. It shows her screaming, as calls for racial justice radiate from her face: “I have to matter for us all to matter!” “Justice for Breonna Taylor!”

Over the past three months, displays like these have sprung up around Oak Park. They’re part of the Imagine a New World project, a collaboration between the Oak Park Neighborhood Association and Art of the Day Sac.

“How do you build community or encourage community interaction when we’re supposed to be socially distancing?” said Avery Hulog-Vicente, board member of the Neighborhood Association, explaining the seeds of the initiative.

At first, Imagine a New World simply encouraged residents to decorate their homes — their windows, doors, and driveways — with “messages of positivity” towards one another and towards healthcare workers. But as the concerns of the Oak Park community have evolved, so too has the project.

In light of increased unemployment and ongoing protests against police brutality, the timing was just right, said Hulog-Vicente. “Instead of just distributing chalk to the community, (it became) ‘How can we raise the voices of local Sacramento artists, especially local Black and brown artists?”

Now, the neighborhood features art from professional artists and Oak Park residents alike.

Art of the Day Sac was instrumental to making this a reality. Founded by Desaree “Duckee” Deckard, the organization seeks to promote artists, art galleries and art-related events throughout the city. As a result, Deckard knows the art scene inside and out — so when the Neighborhood Association approached her, asking where it could find artists to join the project, she was more than willing to help.

Lots of mural projects take place in midtown and Downtown, “as if that’s all Sacramento is,” she said. “So (Imagine a New World) is just like, ‘Okay, you guys are part of Sacramento, too.’”

To her, it’s important to “have the community see people of color actually bettering their neighborhood,” she said. “They need to see people that look like them giving them that inspiration that shows, ‘Oh, if they can do it, then I can do something, too.’”

Erica Jaramillo, vice president of the Neighborhood Association, says gentrification has negatively impacted Oak Park for decades. Black Sacramento residents came to Oak Park because of redlining — the practice of preventing people of color from buying houses in certain areas — and planted their roots there in the 20th century, she said. But now, rising housing prices are forcing generations of Black people to leave.

“What we’re missing, here in this community, is Black art,” said Jaramillo. “There’s a lot of rich history here. But it doesn’t get talked about.” Instead, people often focus on Oak Park’s “hyperviolence” — not the artists, the activists, the small business, and the sense of mutual support that pervades the neighborhood.

Highlighting these aspects of Oak Park is now particularly necessary, said Deckard. She wants to illustrate that, “with all the negativity that the protests and the heinous acts of the Karens and the Kens are bringing about the world,” there are still good things happening.

“Because it’s draining, it really is draining just to see it all the time, ” said Deckard. For the project, she painted a mural proclaiming that “Love is the answer.”

“So I think it’s important to have that balance, if that makes sense. Just to have that balance,” Deckard said.

This story was originally published July 14, 2020 at 11:23 AM.