Education & Youth | Public art | A Broken Umbrella Theatre Company | Arts & Culture | Westville | Youth Arts Journalism Initiative | Artwalk
Mural displayed at Creative Me Daycare, featuring signature character Joy the Black Boy. Abiba Biao Photos.
Paint and bubbles trail Joy the Black Boy, the star of a new mural installed at Creative Me Daycare. A broken umbrella sits in Joy’s right hand, a nod to A Broken Umbrella Theatre. To the far right of the display is an array of blue, orange, and pink handprints, showcasing the contribution of kids from Creative Me.
That mural made its debut Friday afternoon at 446 Blake St. in Westville, during an unveiling from artist Isaac Bloodworth, Creative Me Daycare staff, artist Edmund "BWak" Comfort, and members of A Broken Umbrella Theatre (ABUT). ABUT is an ensemble group that shares 446 Blake St. with Creative Me Daycare and occupies a separate portion of the building.
Earlier this year, it commissioned multiple public art projects for the building and surrounding neighborhood. It has held workshop days at "The Shack" nearby and on site in Westville.
Mural artists Edmund BWak Comfort (far left) and Issac Bloodworth (far right) with Creative Me worker Dymin Ellis (middle).
Bloodworth, lead mural artist and member of A Broken Umbrella Theatre, said the concept for Joy the Black Boy originated from his college senior thesis project which focused on police brutality. In his project Joy was murdered by the police—a callback to the killing of Tamir Rice. In the years following college, Bloodworth revived Joy, giving him a childhood in murals on City Hall and in New Haven's Hill neighborhood. He said he decided to use this project with Creative Me as another outlet to revive Joy.
“I created a realm where he [Joy] didn’t have to deal with racism and in this realm I’m going to expand it so other Black kids are physically represented and also don’t have to deal with ableism, homophobia, sexism and things of that nature,” he said.
Bloodworth’s favorite part of creating the mural was making the paint dripping at the top because of its vibrancy and use of colors.
His work is a bigger representation of what he’d like to achieve, saying he wants to, “create a world where Black kids can do more art and live freely.”
Ellis: “Just seeing other people around, reacting to their [the children's] art and having fun in the environment of their own art is really special."
To Dymin "Dyme" Ellis, who works at Creative Me and is also a multimedia artist in the city, the mural represented the “creativity of the children” at Creative Me. Their artistry, Ellis noted, is still thriving after months of quarantine and social isolation.
“Just seeing other people around, reacting to their [the children's] art and having fun in the environment of their own art is really special,” Ellis said.
Ellis was in charge of directing the children’s involvement with the project and the opening of the mural. They remarked on Bloodworth’s direction behind the piece and its reflection of Creative Me.
“He [Bloodworth] portrays Black joy and young joy through his art and he wanted to bring that story here to Creative Me where the majority of our children are Black, Indigenous, and POC,” they said.
The mural wasn’t the only art to go up in the area this weekend.
The Blake Street bridge installation, directed by Edmund BWak Comfort.
A Broken Umbrella Theatre also invited Comfort to be the lead artist on a series of paintings installed on Blake Street. The artist said that his favorite part of the project was the “community collaboration” with kids at the daycare, from teaching them painting techniques to giving them pointers.
When he’s not painting, Comfort is running his organization the Shadoh Boxx Theatre, where new artists shadow professional artists to build inclusive theatre practices. They learn to produce talent shows, fashion shows and model exhibitions.
To Comfort, the bridge installation represents the community engagement and “unison” of Westville and West Hills, highlighting two of New Haven’s own neighborhood treasures.
“We decided to bring the Hollywood to New Haven and we created our New Haven style of Hollywood,” he said.
Comfort added that he hopes that viewers see the installation and realize that New Haven is an “art town” and recognize the contribution of local artists to their surrounding community.
Learn more about A Broken Umbrella Theatre here. This piece comes to the Arts Paper through the fifth annual Youth Arts Journalism Initiative (YAJI), a program of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven. Read more about the program here or by checking out the "YAJI" tag. Abiba Biao is a senior at Achievement First Amistad High School.