Statement from the artist whose mural was destroyed by gentrifiers yesterday at 12th & Chicon: "I'm almost speechless 😐. The misinformation and lack of civic concern is offensive, to say the least. I am a local artist, I am of African descent, and the wall that was painted over was the first mural that I did when I moved to Austin. I was pretty much broke. I could barely pay my rent, and I did that entire wall for free. It took me a few weeks, but I did it by myself with nothing but a rickety, old extension ladder and whatever paint I could find. Having been still new to the area, my initial motive was to just make a mark and get my name out into the community a bit, but as the days and weeks unfolded, my purpose began to broaden and gain enterprise. Neighborhood locals started to stop by on a regular basis to, not only to say hi and compliment my progress, but, in numerous cases, actually thank me for bringing "beauty" into their area. My art literally helped give a community something to be proud of. #chrisrogersart"
I'm tired of all of this shit, not just *this* but everything cultural. Don't use any of our stuff then ever! People take everything, and then when we create something out of nothing, they either appropriate it and throw it away when it's no longer trendy, or they spit on it, or they take it and kick us out of it. It's like they are parasites. Sorry, not sorry.
Yes. Everyone always acts shocked when I say I lived in Austin for 5 years and vastly prefer Houston.
Austin is liberal if you're white but as a black woman I found the entire experience isolating and strange.
I love Houston with all its quirks. I see black people all over and even in the Woodlands I'm seeing more and more black folks. I spent most of my time around UT and in north Austin due to school and work and if I saw more than 5 black people in a row I'd start counting them and wondering what event was going on. My entire time in Austin I noticed how even the supermarket offerings were strongly segregated. You'd have to go to south Austin to purchase anything remotely ethnic. My entire time in Houston and it's suburbs, I've been able to find familiar foods in the regular grocery stores.
This is still the case and it's because our neighborhoods are so segregated. I live in far south Austin but east of a major dividing highway. My grocery (the major chain in the area if H.E.B.) carries a ton of Mexican and other Latin American food favorites, including non-food cosmetic and drug items that are popular among Mexicans (stuff I remember my grandma buying and using on us when we were kids.)
Go west of this dividing highway and they have a HUGE bulk/natural foods section (my particular H.E.B. does not). They sell more varieties of organic produce (not at my H.E.B., not that I care. I don't routinely buy those products.) They have a bigger floral department with higher quality cut flowers (my H.E.B. has a tiny floral department with crap cut flowers). They also have two onsite sushi chefs making fresh sushi everyday. I can readily find challah and Shabbat candles at this H.E.B, but not at the one closest to me where I shop the most often (though I can find novena candles and saint candles there.)
Don't all stores do this based on what customers buy? I live about equal distance from 2 Wegmans stores and shop at both. When the one opened, it had a ton of organic and natural foods, wild caught fish, etc. But as time has gone on the selection has definitely decreased. Much less than the Wegmans in the other direction with a different demographic. What is the point of a store buying products that the customers obviously don't purchase? I don't like that they do it because I would rather frequent the one over the other, but I get why a business would do this.
Update - Looks like the mural that replaced the beautiful Mama Sana Vibrant Mural got a facelift:
The above covered up this fabulous piece:
The "replacement" is so boring.
Seriously. It's so generic - hey, did you know that Austin is the live music capital of the world?! It would be a perfectly fine, albeit predicatbale, choice to put on a blank wall, but not to replace what it did.