KALAMAZOO, Mich. — A mural created for and by the Edison community in Kalamazoo has been damaged by tire marks, and it’s going to take more than paint to fix it.
“The red is culture, the green is science and nature, and then the yellow is play," said Maya James, the artist.
However, the black streaks going through the mural represent destruction.
“I was devastated. I'm still grieving a little bit. I've never worked on a piece this long,” James told FOX 17.
James dedicated herself to the mural, working almost every day in direct sunlight and during heat waves, only for it to be desecrated twice. “You can see kind of where that person did the vandalism in July versus where they did it last week, literally almost a foot apart,” she said.
James told FOX 17 that a vehicle had performed burnouts on the freshly painted mural on Sept. 13. “It's, what, 11 to 14 tiles that have new tire marks now. And all of them, pretty much, were finished. So all of them were finished, work, ready to be sealed, edited and done, and now we have to start over,” she said.
The mural is part of a literacy trail created by the Edison Scholars and the community. The goal is to beautify what was once a dumping ground and promote reading.
“That was the goal, to be able to make something that was seen as an eyesore into something that is a space of pride," said Michael Evans, executive director of the Kalamazoo Literacy Council.
He told FOX 17 that the project costs more than $11,000. "What we've invested, we're going to need to reinvest. Again, it shouldn't cost this much to be able to redo work that we were nearly at its completion," he added.
If you would like to help finish the literacy trail or help donate, click here.
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