Uplifting Newark, NJ Through Culture | Mike Bloomberg

Culture is a weapon, right? It can either be used for you or against you, and that's basically what we try to do. We use culture as a means of upliftment, informing, driving people in a certain direction. Public art is essential to the vibrancy of our cities. In Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Raz Baraka is supporting a public art initiative that calls for racial equality and justice. We have a director of art and culture, Fayemi Shakur, who pulled together the local artists and activists in the city, and with the city's support and help, began to push this idea. I said we needed to make sure that we made the point that all Black Lives Matter, and the idea of abolished white supremacy, which I thought, well, you wouldn't have to say Black Lives Matter if white supremacy didn't exist. The street malls were really exciting. It was kind of our first time after the protests that we were able to come together for a community project. It was just such a life-affirming day. It just gave people so much joy and such a release of so much tension and pain that we've had to endure. It was really an amazing sight. Everybody was out there with their mask on, and it looked like a Beyoncé video or something like that. Even when we took pictures, people took socially distanced pictures. People think the art is for the rich, you know, in these museums and different things that people don't get to go into. But art is made for public consumption in my mind, and we put it out there in order to focus people, to make them think about larger issues, to help them discover the interconnectedness of things that are going on, but also to put messages out of community, of family, of hope, of struggle, and I think it's important to do that.