Micaela Levesque is working on making another non-descript building in Hartford less boring. The side of Community Renewal Team (CRT) is being painted with the likenesses of several former and currently influential women in politics: Michelle Obama, Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Ella Grasso, and Kamala Harris.
It’s about time.
There is only one outdoor statue in Hartford portraying a specific female (not a Goddess, religious symbol, or other kind of symbol) who is allowed to take up space on a pedestal without sharing it with a child or man. That may seem like asking for a lot until you see how many specific men are or have been given monuments.
Maybe murals are where we can make up for some of that lack of respect and attention. On one wall, we have the first woman elected governor, in both Connecticut and the United States; there’s the current and first female vice president, along with two Supreme Court justices, and the first African American First Lady.
How is a female in politics different from a male? She gets blamed a year after her death for a decision she did not make, while those alive and actually stripping Texans of their abortion rights are not being blasted by the fury of random men on Twitter. That’s how.
Richard Nelson
I have never been one for a lot of murals decorating our cities, but I must agree I like this one coming from a full understanding of the omitting, denying, erasing, and suppressing of our celebrations of women and their contributions to ourstories. (may I add here LGBTQI+ folks included)
I was sent a startling fact the other day from friends who write for Hyperallergic an on-line forum for contemporary art. The city of NYC had promised for quite some time to erect a bust of Marsha P. Johnson, our communities Black, radical, drag queen liberationist who fought at the Stonewall rebellion. The statue was to be in the park across from the Stonewall Inn. (they never did) Well, thank goodness for our underground artists as on Marsha P. Johnson’s birthday a beautiful bust appeared in the park making her, Now Get This, only the eighth women to have a statue in their honor in all of NYC parks. How many men have statues 800. I bet most of those old white Joes where nasty tyrants.
Anyone who tells me that even in these troubling times we still don’t have to go about smashing the patriarchy is crazy. Even if it is only one paint bush and a bucket of paint at a time. Nothing to me is insignificant in this process. That small balanced weight on the other side is so important.
Thank you again Kerri for another excellent article.