Mural unveiled: Vibrant ideas — and paint — help St. Lawrence community heal

It was a disheartening occurrence that left many who live along The Esplanade bitter and angry.

But vibrant ideas — and vibrant paint — can go a long way toward strengthening and healing a community.

Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which installed the original court near Berkeley St., made good on a promise to resurface it, this time without tiles.

However, a cement wall at the west end of the court remained a black monolith after graffiti had been painted over.

That’s when Jamii — a not-for-profit organization formed to bring vitality to The Esplanade — spearheaded a plan to use the surface for a mural that illustrates the neighbourhood’s values. Jamii, which means community in Swahili, wanted to turn a negative into a positive.

“We didn’t want an artist to come in and out, do something in two days and be gone,” says Isorine Marc, Jamii’s executive director. “We wanted to do something that would involve the community in the process and get the community working together.”

The result is a striking piece of colourful art that was unveiled on Saturday. But, in many ways, the process was more important than the final product.

Jamii reached out to The Esplanade community, a neighbourhood that is a rich mosaic of cultures, seeking input on what themes and images should be incorporated into the mural. It then assembled 16 local youths, between 8 and 16 years of age, to plan the piece under the leadership of artists Elisa (Shalak Attack) Monreal and Julian Periquet.

For two months, the group ran art workshops every Tuesday while sharing their values and ideas. They also studied other murals in Toronto. The professional artists blocked out ideas from those think tanks on both sides of the concrete canvas before leaving the kids to paint. The pros then provided a few finishing touches.

“Doing this mural shows we’re a strong community,” said 13-year-old Jennaiya Berrotte, one of artists who worked on the mural and a frequent user of the basketball court.

“We have lots of teamwork. We showed we can come together and make what we want to happen, happen.”

That the police from 51 Division were openly involved in both fixing the court and then prepping the wall for the mural also helped cast them in a new light for some members of the community. ProAction Cops and Kids, a police initiative that brings officers and children together to create mutual respect, also kicked in $6,000 for supplies.

“There have been some tensions with youths (and the police), but I wouldn’t say this is an at-risk neighbourhood. It’s very friendly, very community-oriented; people know each other, they care,” says Marc. “(Having the police help) showed they are more just people than police officers. It changed the relationship, which I think is important.”

The mural itself is dazzling, emphasizing, as 13-year-old artist Yossef Kurdi points out, the core values of love, peace, diversity, nature and teamwork. The side of the cement wall facing the basketball court is dominated by four multicoloured hands forming a heart and holding a growing tree. The other side shows railway tracks — hearkening back to The Esplanade’s history as an industrial area — smashing through a brick wall into the sunshine.

“The breaking wall around the tracks represents a community breaking down barriers,” said Berrotte, who worked on that aspect of the mural. “I just came up with that idea because it kind of represents The Esplanade, what we were and what we are now.”

The young artists feel the legacy of their collaboration goes beyond a piece of public art that brightens the neighbourhood.

“I think showing we can make something so amazing shows we can work together, not just solving an issue where there were tags (graffiti) on something and we fixed it, but we can take on other issues like polluting,” said Farid Dastmalchi, 13. “Now we know this community can work together as one.”

Added Kurdi: “Some people may see it as just a painting. Me? I see it as something that makes things better. Maybe it will inspire other people to help the community.”