In recent months, Black Lives Matter Plaza has evolved into a place with different meanings for many people. For some, it’s a place of protest, togetherness and hope. For others, it’s pain.

Under some scaffolding on H Street, steps from the giant, yellow block letters, a gallery of protest art sprung up depicting messages and images connected to the cause.

When much of that art was taken down earlier this week, the Palm Collective, a regionally-based coalition of grassroots, Black-led organizations, sprang into action to make sure that space remained filled with inspiration, calls for change and homegrown works of protest art.

On an unseasonably cool and rainy August Sunday, families and activists have come to paint, create, be with one another, and “reclaim” the H Street Art Tunnel. There’s a DJ spinning tunes. Water and snacks are plentiful. A toddler runs around with paint-covered hands. Messages of unity, change, and remembrance are created as the smell of spray paint wafts through the air, chatter echoes, and gold glitter flies.

“This space is a place to come together, heal, talk to one another, and read all the messages,” says Palm Collective co-founder Bethelehem Yirga, who is also a middle school teacher in Ward 8 and from Prince George’s County. She said that creating art is a healthy outlet for expression at a time when it’s very much needed. “Mental health and self-care is a huge component of the activism that’s been going on on the front lines this year.

“So, we wanted to showcase alternative ways [for a] community-built mental health space.”

For weeks, the southern wall of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce headquarters, which is currently under renovation, had been a gallery wall for a wide array of protest art.

On Monday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced they were taking it down due to “wear and tear from exposure to the elements” but would preserve the art for future display and caretaking. They were collaborating with local institutions like the DC Public Library and Howard University. They were also installing banners with photographs of the messages and artwork that had been taken down as a sort of a temporary way to acknowledge the organic way that the art had gone up.

This also happened approximately at the same time that the District Department of Transportation paved over the “Defund the Police” message written by activists back in June at Black Lives Matter Plaza. Until this past week, D.C. officials had let it stay. The street had been on DDOT’s paving plan this year, but so was the street with the Black Lives Matter art created by the city, which wasn’t touched.

But the removal of art and the message made Yirga realize they needed to act quickly.

“The fact that piece of the mural was missing and then all of the organic art here was gone, it was a double blow,” she said. “It caused us to mobilize even quicker.”

Yirga got in touch with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce about figuring out a way to not only preserve this temporary installation but create more art. That’s how this event and the agreement to continue to use a section of the headquarters’ exterior walls for new art came to be.

Arianna Evans of Bowie, Maryland, says this was her 45th day protesting, though she admits she has lost count. She keeps protesting because she thinks that the steps that the city and the nation have taken so far are largely symbolic.

“All of this was to placate,” Evans says waving towards the large yellow words, “We keep (getting) distracted by small things… and Black Lives Matter Plaza was small. We didn’t get any real reforms… We didn’t get any of the things we were begging her for.”

She’s here today to reclaim a space that was an outlet for protesters, like herself.

“We are going to make D.C. beautiful again. We want to make H Street beautiful again,” Evans said. “We want to take back this public protest space that was very violently taken from people that were here.”

As rain falls at a steady clip, artists under the covered scaffolding are meticulously creating. This includes 10-year-old Zoë Smithen.

Taking a quick break from glittering, she says she’s here with her mom, dad, and six-month-old sister because it shouldn’t just be adults who are speaking up.

“One day, children will grow into people. And people who used to be children are dying,” Smithen, who lives in Ward 7, said. “[We] can make a difference.”

She loves creating art, she says, because it’s her preferred way to express her message. “It’s a different story with pictures. Because a picture is a million words,” Smithen said.

She goes back to her work. Pulling out white spray paint, Smithen quickly and neatly writes four letters. She hands the canvas to her mom, Lauren Grimes Smithen. Even while wearing a mask, it’s clear that the 10-year-old is proudly beaming.

Her mom asks what the four letters mean.

“B. K. L. M.,” Zoë says. “Black Kids Lives Matter.”

This story has been corrected to reflect that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is not a federal agency, the spelling of Zoë Smithen, and to clarify that Bethelehem Yirga is from Prince George’s County.