Update to story:
By Dan Murphy
In an update to our story from the July 31 issue of Yonkers Rising, here is an update on the effort to paint Black Lives Matter mural in downtown Yonkers. Since our story, we spoke to Ray Wilcox, from Yonkers Arts Inc., who corrected several pieces to our story.
Wilcox designed the rendering above, and while we mentioned a few possible streets where it could be painted, Wilcox said that he is raising money for BLM to be pained along Main Street, from Warburton Avene down to Market Place.
Wilcox also clarified that the project is being privately funded, with help from Yonkers Arts and the Yonkers Downtown BID. No city funds, or taxpayer dollar will be used for the project.
The actual painting of the mural is expected to be done during the evenings and early morning hours to avoid closing the street during normal business hours. Wilcox did make one correction to our initial story, that he hopes the mural to be worked on in August and competed in September.
We had been told that the mural would be completed during Yonkers Arts Weekend, YAW, which is temporarily scheduled for Oct 3 and 4, but the mural is not connected at all to YAW and should be completed before YAW.
Calling it a “100% Grass Roots effort,” Wilcox is currently raising money for the project. Anyone interested in helping to fund this effort can email him at rayw@yonkersarts.org.
We wrote this story for several reasons. First, there was no other coverage of this story. Second, it was only a matter of time before some community in Westchester moved forward with a BLM mural. If it could happen in NYC then it can happen in Yonkers.
We thank Ray Wilcox for reaching out and helping us tell the whole story.
