A post by Deb Kent on a social media site caught my eye. She was soliciting the interest of artists that belong to The Eastside Art Collective to address an incident of vandalism that occurred two blocks from my house. I belong to that arts group, and within minutes of seeing the post, I grabbed my camera and walked up the street to take a few pictures of the vandalized fence. When I returned home, I sent an e-mail to the contact person that Deb listed in her post. I stated that my interest was twofold: as an artist, and as a columnist for this paper. Kori Williamson responded, saying that either she or her husband would call me.
Brent Williamson called me on Monday, June 8, and I sat on his back porch and spoke to him about his fence. Brent is an English teacher in Franklin Township and Kori is a social worker; their 7-year-old son attends an IPS-affiliated school, the Center For Inquiry 2. At their son’s school, there have been discussions about racial tensions in the country, and the students were shown a video about how to address those issues. For exercise, Brent runs through the neighborhood, and on his runs, he saw signs supportive of the Black Lives Matter movement and decided to utilize a fence on his property as a tool to show the family’s desire to “be a supportive ally.” Brent and his son chalked their 6-foot high, 72-foot long fence with this statement: “Black Lives Matter.”
“We chalked it on Tuesday, June 2nd,” Brent told me, and sometime during the night of Saturday, June 6th, a vandal (or vandals) defaced the fence with a racial slur. The family found the ugliness on Sunday morning, June 7th; and immediately chalked over the insult, which is why I did not see it when I took pictures of the fence that Sunday evening.
Brent is an English teacher in a school that he described as “one-third non-white,” with that third a mixture of African Americans, Hispanics and Asians; his son’s school is headed by an African American principal. Brent and Kori grew up in Noblesville, Indiana. A DataUsa report notes that in 2017, Noblesville was 86.5% White, 4.54% Hispanic or Latino and 3.93% Black or African American. Brent and Kori have been in the Irvington neighborhood for 5 years, and he likes being close to the diversity of downtown Indy. “There have been stores and restaurants I’ve entered where I am in the minority,” he told me. He likes that, for it had been easy, in a homogenous place like Noblesville, to “get trapped in a bubble,” a bubble that contains only those who look like you. He seems to prefer a richer and more diverse salad of human interactions. The couple have a 6-month-old boy, also, and have taken an impassioned and principled stand that is a teachable moment for their older son, and a legacy for his brother to grow into.
The family wants to make a bigger statement, though. They have contacted the Indy Arts Council in addition to the Eastside Art Collective, soliciting artists to “paint a mural on the whole fence with a message of inspiration and hope.” Brent told me that three or four artists have responded to his offer to “supply the space (and) paint“ for the mural, which they then plan to clearcoat with Sherwin-Williams anti-graffiti protectant. In an e-mail to me, Kori Williamson wrote, “we put the sign up for the community,” and believes that “the painting to come will also be for our community to enjoy (and will) spread an important message.” In her earlier e-mail to Deb Kent, Kori wrote that the family was going to “paint a mural on the whole fence,” with “a message of inspiration and hope.” Brent told me that he envisioned 8, 6’ x 9’ panels. Kori’s e-mail added that they want “images of black (and other minority) leaders.” Brent indicated that the proposed new mural on their fence will make a definitive statement that, when it comes to issues of equality, they are “not on the fence.”
cjon3acd@att.net
