MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota – Repainting the names of individuals lost to systemic oppression, running community gardens and sharing culture via fashion with a mutual aid clothing stand. These are all vital parts of the fourth-anniversary commemoration in George Floyd Square where community members and other guests came together to honor the deep-rooted sense of resilience and interconnectedness in the community.
Those in the community emphasized the camaraderie inside George Floyd Square even before his murder in May 2020.
Once organizer Jennie Leenay got involved with The People’s Closet, a community-driven clothing operation, she knew that fashion was a way for the Black community to have full control over something.
“I just started taking over more of a leadership role because people respected my expertise as a fashion designer and the things that I knew,” Leenay said.
Jay Webb, community gardener in George Floyd Square, discussed the significance of everything that’s happened since Floyd’s murder and what it means for people.
“It started at George, but this is for anyone who’s ever died at the hand of oppression,” Webb said.
The artist credited with painting the names on the street leading into George Floyd Square, Mari Mansfield, noted her experience being in the community the first few days after everything happened, and that’s when she started painting the names on the street.
“It was pretty shortly after the area got closed down and people started making it a community space when I started painting things,” Mansfield said.
Maria Hernandez, a new business owner in George Floyd Square, discussed her perception of the city in the immediate aftermath of Floyd’s murder, saying it was ‘insecure and scared’. She came into the George Floyd Square community three months ago, offering support through health such as offering Zumba classes and balanced nutrition.
Regarding how she got into design work and what ultimately led to her taking over The People’s Closet, Leenay discussed how she first got involved with fashion design by volunteering with the costume department of her theater group in high school. She was diagnosed with cancer at 18 and her friends from the group came together to support, so she decided to give back by helping them make clothing items for theater.
“I went and I volunteered with their costume department and I just fell in love with the work,” Leenay said. “I loved sorting all the looks together and making people feel like their character.”
Leenay noted that people getting into mutual aid work need to understand that it’s going to take and that you have to build up the relationship with the community and not look down on the people you’re working with.
“(The People’s Closet) is helping by bringing us together, reminding us of the dignity and the humanity of each other,” Leenay said. “Instead of going on Nextdoor, you go next door.”
Mansfield spoke on how the process of painting all the names happened organically, where family members would ask her to write names and she would add them to her list.
“I had community support, and the first year I painted all 116 names myself, but I certainly didn’t do it alone. People would bring me paint and donate paint,” Mansfield said. “People would also just watch and guard and help me.”
Leenay emphasized the importance of understanding that nothing in the community surrounding George Floyd Square is done by a single individual, it’s a group effort in everything that is accomplished.
“Nothing here was built, it was us coming together that ignited the fury of the entire world together,” Leenay said. “People are continually inspired and in awe by what we do.”
New businesses are choosing to show support for this yearly commemoration. Hernandez, business owner in George Floyd Square, had a stand Saturday promoting her products. Hernandez has been in Minneapolis trying to grow her health and nutrition business.
“I’ve been here for three months,” Hernandez said. “People talk… but I really like the community here.”
In her time in Minneapolis she has come to understand the community and culture that comes with moving to a city with so much history. Her expectations of this area were proven wrong, she said.
“I’ve been here for three months and it’s completely different from what people say,” Hernandez said. “It’s calm, it’s quiet, and the only thing they want is to have their equality as a human being.”
Mansfield discussed how she wouldn’t repaint the names every year if there wasn’t so much community support. She takes the small wins and accepts them as they come regarding social change.
The system of oppression was built up in layers over hundreds of years whether it be small municipal laws or federal policies, so you have to ‘chip away at the layers,’ Mansfield said.
Webb highlighted the resilience within the community in George Floyd Square before and after Floyd’s murder, not just in Minneapolis, but the Black community everywhere.
“There is no other way to survive 400 years without resiliency,” Webb said. “That garden there has 400 years of roots, so the resiliency, that’s just the foundation of our DNA, of our whole mind, makeup, body and soul.”
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