Title: Proposal for Black Lives Matter Street Mural in Downtown Wilmington, NC
To: Mayor Bill Saffo and City Council Members
From: Janna Siegel Robertson (UNCW), Cedric Harrison (Support the Port), Greyson Davis
(GLOW Academy)
Request: At the suggestion of and with support from city councilman Kevin Spears, we request
permission to paint the words “Black Lives Matters” on Third Street in downtown Wilmington in
support of our city’s black residents. The preferred locations would be in front of the 1898
Memorial or in front of the courthouse. The height of the letters would comprise two
northbound lanes of Third Street. Included is a mock up as if it were in front of the 1898
memorial. We also provide a photo of the Charlotte BLM mural because we are modeling our
mural off of their idea of having different artists decorate separate letters. We will encourage
black artists to participate but will include everyone who wants to be involved.
Our group would like to complete this mural as soon as possible. We understand we need to
coordinate with the city transportation department to ensure street closure safety. Therefore,
we ask the city to close down the northbound lanes of Third Street for 72 hours, pending poor
weather conditions. Our volunteers plan to draw the letters and paint the base colors in one
day/night, while our artists will need two more days/nights to paint the details. We will practice
social distancing to protect all participants’ health. We also will clean the location before we
leave to make sure it is accessible to the public.
Description: Each letter will be painted to depict local African American history as interpreted
by local artists and community volunteers. No one will be paid for their contributions. We
estimate the costs to be approximately $2000 in paint and supplies. Though we would be
grateful for any supplies contributed from city transportation surplus, or any city contributions
that are available, we will raise money outside of city funds.
Who We Are: Janna Robertson led the Forest of DREAMs mural project, directing over 600
volunteers to paint the 240 foot mural at 10th Street and Fanning Street. She has successfully
led community volunteer murals over the past four years including two murals at Eldershaus,
several at DC Virgo and one at Mosley PLC. Cedric Harrison, the founder of Support the Port, is
a communtiy activitist who promotes local black artists. Greyson Davis is the art teacher at
GLOW and a well known local black artist. All three collaborated recently on the “Wilmington
N.C. in Color: History in Action” coloring book in stores around town.

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