“I often hear from the non-BIPOC community that this series helped raise their awareness on the reason for the Black Lives Matter movement and its call for justice. That raised awareness is a simple step toward inclusive thinking, especially for many of us who have the honor to serve on juries, manage staff or act as gatekeepers of opportunities for others. Each of us needs to do better at being inclusive and empathetic toward others in all that we do.”
Radha Mehta, artist,
#SayTheirNames project
Like many since the start of the Black Lives Matters movement, Marin-based multimedia artist Radha Mehta was moved to action after discovering how many lives have been needlessly lost due to police brutality, and so was born her Say Their Names series.
“After I’d learned of the deaths of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, I decided to paint those portraits as a way to learn about who they were and to honor each of them with a moment of silence. And in the process, I found I wanted to know more about the Black Lives Matter movement. I came across the NPR podcast Code Switch and an article titled ‘A Decade of Watching Black People Die.’ Although its list of deaths since Eric Garner was not comprehensive, I was aghast to see how many names (at least 1,500) it did mention. I researched those names, one by one, and started painting. I have done nearly 50 portraits,” says Mehta.
The hand-drawn watercolor paintings are being displayed indefinitely throughout San Francisco in storefronts and galleries. Mehta is currently working with Illuminate SF on including the series as part of a larger Bay Area project in partnership with the San Francisco Bayview Opera House launching in the spring of 2021.
