Artist, designer and activist Bayou: murals are 'a platform to speak the truth'
by Jill Riley
June 12, 2020
Donald Thomas, aka Bayou, is an artist, designer and activist. Bayou joined The Current's Morning Show to talk to Jill Riley about his work on murals in the Twin Cities and about the wider work to be done everywhere to dismantle systemic oppression and to uplift communities. "It really is up to every individual in their own position to fight and push for change," he says.
Listen to the interview using the audio player above, and read a transcript of the interview below.
Interview Transcript
JILL RILEY: You are listening to The Current's Morning Show. I am Jill Riley, and inviting a number of guests onto The Current's Morning Show in the past couple of weeks in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd: talking with musicians, talking with business owners, talking with community leaders. And talking with an artist this morning: I have Twin Cities artist and designer Bayou on the line. How are you today?
BAYOU: I'm doing good.
I really wanted to jump in and talk about the art that has popped up in the Twin Cities in the past couple weeks in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, especially around 38th and Chicago, but really all over the Twin Cities with a number of murals being painted. Now, Bayou, I know that you were involved in a mural that really took shape on the side of Dragon Wok restaurant. What does a mural represent? What is the purpose of a mural?
I can't speak for what all murals represent, but I guess the goal for the mural was to just speak truth in that moment, speak not only what we're feeling personally, but try to also reflect on the different things that organizers and artists in the community have been working on for the last few years. So I think that's how the "Abolish the Police" ended up on one side of the mural. Originally for that mural, we were going to put it on a different building that had boards on it, but then when we saw that Dragon Wok had already had community messages up on the side of it that were done in spray paint, but a lot of the messages had been covered up. So I'm not sure what [the messages] had said, but either someone at the business or someone else in the community decided that they shouldn't be there and painted over them with spray paint. The other half of the Dragon Wok wall still had the messages that community had put up in protest of the police and in solidarity with George Floyd, and the message of abolish the police is reflective of that work that folks have been doing in the community.
And as far as the other side of the mural, it says "Heal, invest and uplift our community." And that is just a reflection of the reality that systemic oppression has taken so many resources out of the community, and as a community of black and indigenous people of color, and especially on a business that is Black owned, I felt like it was important in that area to say that we have to invest in our own efforts, our own businesses, our own communities. We have to uplift our communities because the system is working to destroy our community every day. And so a big part of this mural was trying to speak at healing into the community, but not knowing really that 38th and Chicago was about to become a 24/7 vigil and memorial that folks from around the world would be not only paying attention to but gathering at.
At the time, the folks at Dragon Wok said that you can go ahead and paint the side of the building, just know that the message has to be positive, and that more likely it's going to get painted over soon, because I think they're remodeling. Again, so that speaks to the reality that at the time, there wasn't really this thought that this was necessarily going to become a part of this larger movement that has been going on for a long time.
I think it speaks to a mural being temporary if it's going to get painted over. It's such a representative moment of the now. But Bayou, what I want to ask is, we're in the now; this isn't the first mural that you've been involved in after the police killing of a black man. How did we get here again? What was missed? What were the signals?
I know that one thing that is happening is that white supremacy, systemic racism, systemic oppression, is something that folks have been aware of for a long time but haven't necessarily been doing the internal work they need to with themselves or the external work that they need to do with the folks and institutions around them, right? So the police department is a white institution that is created specifically for controlling black bodies, killing black bodies, all systems within the government and even connected to just our jobs that we go to every day have connections to systemic racism, systemic oppression.
And so the question that I have for folks and that I have for you right now is: What are people doing, and what are you doing, to dismantle white supremacy and systemic racism not only in the things that you do every day as a white person, but also at The Current, what is happening right now to dismantle white supremacy within the institution, and how are queer, trans, black, indigenous, people of color, how are their voices being not only uplifted within The Current, but also, is The Current or affiliated organizations historically white? Are they historically oppressive institutions? And if they are, how are the queer, trans, black, indigenous, people of color being treated now? And if they aren't being treated well, what are you doing personally to make sure that changes?
I can't speak for all the audience. I can't speak for this company as a whole. But I can speak for myself as the host of The Current's Morning Show. And it's something that I've been thinking really hard about. It's everything from: Who are we booking to be on the air in the past couple weeks? Are we doing our best to get diverse voices on the air? To talk to members from the black community. To learn. To take a hard look in the mirror to say, "Am I doing anything in this moment? What can I do in this moment?" And to take this time to learn and to understand. I'm not doing it perfectly here in the morning, but I can tell you that I'm putting in my best effort. So really, that's the best that I can answer that question right now.
There was something that you said there that I feel like is kind of at the heart of why folks are putting these murals up right now, which is that opportunity to have a platform to speak the truth; to not only push for our own collective liberation, so messages about Black love, Black joy, Black liberation; messages of queer, trans love; messages of indigeneity, this being Indigenous land, et cetera, but it's that opportunity to take the platform that you have and utilize it to make sure the liberation of others is as important as your own liberation and is as important as anything that you would want for your own self.
So I guess this is a question not only for you but for listeners out there: Are folks in their daily lives, at work and with their families, listening to queer, trans, black, indigenous, people of color? And not only listening, but waiting and pausing and then asking what can be done, and then doing that without question in terms of asking for it to be said differently, asking for it to be done differently.
Do you feel like within The Current, queer, trans, black, indigenous voices are heard and folks are being treated well?
I can say for myself, because I can speak for myself, we can do better to make sure more of those voices are heard.
So then I guess the next thing would be: Where are the spaces for our voices to not only be heard through interview but to take the lead in what is being said right now, to take the lead in what happens next? Because this isn't something that is going to be a short-term shift. Like murals can be temporary; they can be as temporary as a day or two; they can come down very rapidly. I was also a part of a group of artists that did a response mural on Lake [Street] after Philando [Castile] was killed, and it came down very quickly, but this work is long-term work; it's work that needs to happen tomorrow, next week, and the months to come, the years to come.
And so, what can people do, what can you do, in the next coming days, in the next week, in the next year, to not only make sure that QTBIPOC voices are not only elevated, but they are taking the lead in what's happening next?
Well, I guess the only thing to do is to make sure that that change isn't as temporary as a mural, right? It can't be a moment. It has to be a plan. It has to be tangible change. I really don't have the answer right now, but I know that it needs work.
The push that we have to do next with the murals is to take our time and look at the intentions we have behind our murals, connect with community to make sure that the murals are going up in places where it's not just temporary, where they can have more of a longer place to be.
The collective that I'm with is called Creatives After Curfew, and right now it's a flexible, decentralized artists' collective, so we're just sharing ideas and our resources in an effort to speak truth to power and to speak up for our own liberation. It's BIPOC led, but it also has ally artists that are putting in work to continue to fight and push for change, in not only the art world, but also all systems, because any place where you go where there is historically white-run organizations, you find the systemic racism and the systemic oppression, and you find queer, trans, black, indigenous, people of color working there, too often not in leadership positions, and also too often either being silenced or being the first ones that are let go in these harder times.
In terms of work that we're going to be doing in the future, folks can follow the hashtag #CreativesAfterCurfew and see some of the work that we've done. (View a gallery here)
I'm on the line with artist and designer Bayou. I appreciate you sharing your perspective, asking those questions, and really for coming on the show and addressing those concerns.
Thanks. Folks can also find me at donaldthomasdesign.com, and again, follow the hashtag #CreativesAfterCurfew. Also, much love and liberation to the Million Artist Movement.
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