Redwood City unveils equity mural

Community members are invited to join city officials, the artist behind the project, Rachel Wolfe-Goldsmith, and other speakers to celebrate the completion of the mural 10 a.m. this Saturday, Nov. 19, at City Hall, 1017 Middlefield Road.

The project is in direct response to a historic demonstration in Courthouse Square in May of 2020 during which thousands of community members gathered to protest police brutality and racial inequality. Similar demonstrations occurred across the world in response to the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black Minneapolis.

Heeding community demands for a city response, councilmembers first adopted a resolution affirming the city’s commitment to advancing racial equity and directed the Arts Commission and a Racial Equity Steering Committee to lead a public process around the creation of an art piece.

Community surveys and public workshops helped lead the city to Oakland-based muralist Rachel Wolfe-Goldsmith, one of two finalists vying to bring the community’s vision to life. Wolfe-Goldsmith is an artist of Nigerian, Jewish and European descent, founder of Wolfe Pack Arts and creative director at the Bay Area Mural Program, a nonprofit dedicated to creating public art.

Roughly 4,700 square feet of wall under the Jefferson Avenue underpass became Wolfe-Goldsmith’s canvas. Her goal, she said during community meetings, was to create a powerful piece that spoke to the polar sides of history and stood out from a distance as cars passed by but revealed more to those passing by on foot.

“After years of steering committee meetings and extensive community conversations, we were able to select an artist that was able to make our vision into a reality,” Quintana said.

Details in the mural have evolved since Wolfe-Goldsmith initially presented her idea. It remained nonlinear with modern representations of minority groups threaded in with historical aspects of their culture such as an empowered Asian woman juxtaposed next to reminders of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and chrysanthemum fields they nurtured but were forced to leave.

Women carrying signs saying “Asians are not viruses, racism is,” — an homage to racism experienced by Asian residents during the COVID-19 pandemic — a letter pinned to a cork board at the San Mateo County History Museum detailing a woman’s experience being undocumented despite living in the country since she was a baby, a child in Aztec regalia and a blue-collar worker are all details depicted in the mural.

From the beginning, Wolfe-Goldsmith has also planned to incorporate leaders of significance into the project and, after fielding input from the Planning Commission, landed on a few with direct ties to Redwood City.

Those leaders include Byron Skinner, a civil rights activist of the 1960s and member of Redwood City’s Citizens Against Racism organization; Kotoharu Inouye and Nobuo Higaki, the starters of the Redwood Nursery Co., now known as Sequoia Nursery, who experienced firsthand the reaction to Japanese Americans during World War II; and Dr. Jonathan Cordero, an activist, educator and founder and chair of the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone, the indigenous tribe native to the area.

Paying tribute to the collective action that led to the mural’s creation, Wolfe-Goldsmith has also incorporated images of protesters outside the Fox Theatre in the piece along with the African proverbs, “I am because we are.”

San Mateo County’s poet laureate Aileen Cassinetto will speak to the Filipino version of the same phrase, known as Kapwa, during Saturday’s celebration when she will also perform a poem inspired by the piece. Erin Ashford, a photographer and former Arts Commissioner who helped lead the Racial Equity Mural Steering Committee, said the phase speaks to “a moral obligation regarding your responsibility for others.”

Buttons and stickers with the phrase will be distributed during the event as a call to action around the concept, Ashford said. Ramaytush Ohlone, Gregg Castro, will offer a blessing followed by a few words by Mayor Giselle Hale.

“Creating an equitable world requires telling an honest recount of history and sharing our hopes and dreams for the future,” wrote Wolfe-Goldsmith in her submission to the city. “My design is a balance of these ideas, illustrating historical travesties alongside accomplishments and visions.”

Visit redwoodcity.org/departments/parks-recreation-and-community-services/racial-equity-mural for more information on Redwood City’s Racial Equity Mural and celebration.

sierra@smdailyjournal.com

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