The murals spoke out: Reflecting on protest art in the wake of George Floyd's murder

The murals spoke out: Reflecting on protest art in the wake of George Floyd's murder

After George Floyd’s murder, a group of Minneapolis artists formed Creatives After Curfew to process grief and demand justice through murals — work that once drew wide support but now faces fading interest and shifting cultural priorities.

Backlash: The Murder of George Floyd

Five years ago, George Floyd, an African American, was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest made after a store clerk suspected Floyd had used a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill and called the cops. When the cops arrived, they pulled Floyd from his vehicle and, during the arrest, threw him to the ground, where Officer Derek Chauvin put his knee into Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes 46 seconds and ignored pleas of…