At the Inaugural BLKOUT Walls Mural Festival in Detroit, Michigan with: Sydney G. James, IMAGINE, Max Sansing, Problak, JUST, Zoë Boston, MARKA27, Wolfe Pack & More

August 25, 2021

The first BLKOUT Walls Mural Festival, an all Black-produced event, took place from July 24th through the 31st in Detroit, Michigan. It was founded by Sydney G. James of Detroit, Thomas “Detour” Evans of Denver and Max Sansing of Chicago in response to their past experiences of participating in mural festivals where there had been a lack of racial diversity among the participating artists and too many expenses incurred by the artists themselves.

Each of the artists participating in the inaugural BLKOUT Walls Mural Festival was provided with a fee for painting, as well as free lodging, meals and transportation. In addition to live mural painting, the inaugural festival hosted artist talks, panel discussions and pop-up exhibitions.

The image featured above was fashioned by Detroit-bred and based visual artist Sydney G. James. Several more murals that surfaced last month at the BLKOUT Walls Mural Festival — all captured by travel and street photographer Karin du Maire aka Street Art Nomad — follow:

Nepali artist Sneha Shrestha aka IMAGINE

Chicago-based Max Sansing and Roxbury, Boston native Rob Gibbs aka Problak

West Coast born and bred Jamaican-American artist “JUST” Giovannie 

Bay Area based artist and singer Zoë Boston

Mexican artist Victor “MARKA27” Quinonez  at work

West Coast-based, self-taught artist Rachel Wolfe-Goldsmith aka Wolfe Pack

Photos: Karin du Maire aka Street Art Nomad 

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

Dave August 26, 2021 at 11:34 am

Beautiful work and beautiful shots!
Thank you for covering this event and getting the word out.

Reply

Rachel March 15, 2023 at 10:38 pm

Hi, I’m trying to find the journalist or correspondent that wrote this piece but I do not see a name listed. Could you help me with this information?

Thanks!

Reply

lois March 22, 2023 at 2:16 pm

I, Lois Stavsky (loisstavsky@gmail.com) did the writing and the photos are by Karin du Maire aka Street Art Nomad 

Reply

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