"I am a mother, and when George cried out for his 'mama' as he was taking his last breaths, I also cried," Strong tells BBC Culture. One particularly moving piece was created by local illustrator, muralist and teacher Melodee Strong entitled Mama after Floyd's dying plea, it depicts grieving black mothers, against a backdrop of the US flag. In South Minneapolis, US, the Cup Foods convenience store, where a 911 call led to George Floyd's police killing, is now emblazoned with memorial art. Even after protests have dispersed, graffiti stands as a testament to the protestors' collective voice… The graffiti may soon be washed away, but not before it is documented, becoming part of history." Writing in the LA Times, academic and author Susan A Philips (whose books include The City Beneath: A Century of Los Angeles Graffiti) recently argued: "Political graffiti is a critical intervention in urban space, especially as municipalities and police attempt to shut down the streets. Graffiti has both an ephemeral quality, and an enduring power. In Karachi, truck artist Haider Ali painted a portrait inscribed with English tags ('#blacklivesmatter') and Urdu song lyrics ("This world doesn't belong to white or black people, it belongs to the ones with heart") in Idlib, northwestern Syria, Floyd appeared among the war-ravaged ruins in Nairobi, he was depicted alongside the Swahili word " haki", meaning 'justice' (in a work by Kenyan artist Allan Mwangi, aka Mr Detail Seven) Palestinian artist Taqi Sbatin painted Floyd on the West Bank barrier in Berlin's Mauerpark, Floyd was portrayed on the wall by Dominican-born artist Eme Freethinker, alongside an array of iconic black US figures: Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Angela Davis, Jean-Michel Basquiat and the musician Prince.
Thousands of miles from the US, protests numerous graffiti tributes to Floyd appeared in European cities and in Asia, Africa and Australia. Most of these portraits were based on Floyd's 2016 selfie, taken from his own Facebook account many referred to the torment of his killing, and his final words. Over the summer of 2020, a portrait recurred on city walls across the world: an image of the black American George Floyd, who was brutally suffocated to death by police officer David Chauvin on 25 May, 2020.
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