One of the picnic table murals.

/ Courtesy of Main Street Takoma

A woman appears to have defaced two murals in Takoma Park, Maryland this week, scratching out the face of a Black woman featured in the work. The murals were painted on picnic tables located at the Takoma Park Gazebo by local artist Tenbeete Solomon, featuring Black women and the words “CHANGE” and “JUSTICE,” respectively.

In a video posted to Twitter Thursday by Solomon, who is also known as Trap Bob, a woman can be seen scraping the paint off one of the tables at the bottom left-hand corner, where the artist’s signature had been. (Disclosure: DCist has hired Solomon for illustrations).

“I’m livid,” Solomon wrote in the tweet. “An artist friend of mine confronted + recorded this woman literally defacing my murals because she ‘doesn’t like them’ and doesn’t believe I was hired to create them.”

In the clip, a man can be heard telling the woman that Solomon was hired to paint the murals on the table. “But not this kind of things on the table,” the woman says. “On the table, you should put food.”

In a second video, the face of the woman depicted in the mural is completely scratched out, as is the word “JUSTICE.” In that clip, the woman defacing the mural declines to give her name or place of residence. Wiping paint off the table with toilet paper, the woman tells the man filming, “You did bad things,” pointing the table. “It’s ours. It’s not yours, it’s ours.” By the end of the clip, she gathers her belongings and walks away.

A second nearby mural was also defaced, with Solomon’s signature on the table scratched out, though no video has been posted of the woman vandalizing that mural.

Solomon, who is 28, tells DCist that the incident is about more than just her two murals – she feels it’s emblematic of racism in the community more broadly.

“This moment is even is a lot bigger than me,” she says. “It was of course hard for me to have my art attacked like that, but it was just a reflection of the issue I’ve dealt with my whole life.”

Solomon says she’s glad her work being defaced can be an eye-opener for people, “instead of assuming that after a couple months of protests and hashtags and murals, thinking that everything is fine now.”

The murals were indeed commissioned by the Old Takoma Business Association and its Main Street Takoma program, executive director Laura Barclay tells DCist via email.

They approached Solomon after seeing her work during protests against racial injustice in D.C. this summer. One of the murals is a variation of another work by Solomon outside the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Solomon calls the women featured in the murals “my girls.”

“They’re kind of my medium to use in any of my activism art or even political art,” she says. “I think they’re a good representation of … the energy I feel behind the movements that I represent. Especially as a Black woman, I think it’s important to always create representation for Black women.”

The tables were installed in September, and Barclay says the community response was extremely positive.

“We are appalled by this act of vandalism which was quite targeted – specifically the Black woman’s face, message of social justice and the artist’s signature,” says Barclay. “We have committed as a community to repair and return the tables.”

Barclay says Solomon contacted her shortly after the incident took place. She saw the damage first hand and reported the vandalism to the police.

The Maryland-National Capital Park Police did not immediately respond to DCist’s requests for comment. Barclay says many people have reached out to make donations toward the repairs, and Takoma Park spokesperson Donna Wright says the city has also offered to help with the cost.

Solomon says she’s hoping to finish repainting the murals by the end of January. She says she’s going to continue painting no matter what.

“When someone can be filled with so much hate that they react to beautiful artwork like that, you know it’s a reminder that it’s needed, and we need more of it and we have to continue fighting,” she says.

This story has been updated to include an interview with Tenbeete Solomon.
Filed Under: main street takoma, takoma park, trap bob, twitter,