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• 1 media/15-805.jpg media/15-805.jpg 2021-05-03T14:04:44-07:00 Freedom Won’t Wait 5 Noni Olabisi
  54th Street
  1992 plain 2021-05-18T15:56:49-07:00 1992 33.993441, -118.309716 Noni Olabisi’s Freedom Won’t Wait is a response to the acquittal of the police officer who beat Rodney King in April of 1992. The mural situates Black individuals from different historical periods and geographies, such as African warriors, lynched figures from the Jim Crow era, and contemporary black people engaged in different activities, including activism, in front of one red background. The juxtaposition of red and colorless black and white paint, may be a comment on the violent histories of bloodshed and loss in African American history. Besides the red, the only other splash of color is a yellow dot located on Harriet Tubman’s forehead; Olabisi often includes a yellow sun in her murals because she believes the sun connects and gives life to all beings. In attempts to further unify the Black community, Olabisi includes a Pan-African flag to the right of the mural. Through her mural, Olabisi calls all Black individuals to action to fight against racial inequities and violence, which as the lynched bodies, strangled figure, and burning buildings suggest, will keep repeating itself over time.
  
  Olabisi was commissioned by the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) to create Freedom Won’t Wait. SPARC is an organization dedicated to promoting activist artworks that serve, empower, and unify traditionally marginalized communities. Due to what some regarded as controversial content in the mural, Olabisi had to pass a neighborhood vetting process before receiving her commission and painting Freedom Won’t Wait, the artist’s very first mural, located outside her old day-job at a hair salon. Olabisi’s ability to be fearless and unapologetic is what allows her artworks to be extremely powerful, moving, and canonical within the Los Angeles area.
  
  Written by Mia Fagin, c/o ‘24