‘Life ... always imitates art’ | Mural brings message of peace to Youngstown amid deadly shootings

YOUNGSTOWN — Along Glenwood Avenue is a message of peace, mere blocks from the scenes of at least three city shootings this year — one of which was fatal.

A new mural depicting fingers splayed in a "peace" sign and reading "Stop gun violence," painted by international artist Kyle Holbrook, is set to be unveiled at 11 a.m. today at 2622 Glenwood Ave. It's part of Holbrook's 50-state tour, using street art to spread awareness of increasing gun violence nationwide.

"You think of it as something regional. … But every city in America's talking about that right now. This is an epidemic going on in the country," said Holbrook, who resides in Miami and Pittsburgh, and whose relatives live in Youngstown.

"I think the more people that realize that this gun violence is going on around the country, the more people will be thinking about solutions."

The city's first reported fatal shooting this year happened nine minutes after midnight on Jan. 1 just a couple blocks south of the Glenwood Avenue business whose side is now adorned by Holbrook's mural.

As of Tuesday, there have been 21 homicides so far this year and nearly 100 people shot, WKBN reported. One non-fatal shooting was just a block away from Holbrook's mural on Saturday night, according to WKBN. And in May, another non-fatal shooting in front of a playground near the mural caused a vehicle to crash into a building, the TV station reported.

Holbrook, too, has grown up surrounded by gun violence, punctuated by numerous funerals between his teens and his forties. He said 45 of his close friends since childhood have been murdered with guns.

"I have several uncles who are war veterans. One of them fought in Vietnam. He knows [fewer] friends than I do that have been murdered," Holbrook said. "This is right here in America."

Last week a mass shooting at a Samuel Avenue home led to the death of 10-year-old Persayus Davis-May. Authorities said last week they believe the shooting was connected to the shooting death of 40-year-old Michael Callahan, reported just a mile south of the home.

Calling hours for Davis-May are set for Aug. 25 and a memorial service is set for noon Thursday at the Jaylex Event Center along Glenwood Avenue, WFMJ reported.

Shooting victims and their killers are getting younger, Holbrook has found. One of Holbrook's mentors is Rashad Byrdsong, a community advocate well-known for heading anti-violence initiatives in Pittsburgh's East End, and whose 15-year-old grandson Jafar Brooks was shot and killed in December, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

Byrdsong, who in the past worked to mediate between violent gangs, is now using the tragedy to "dig in even more" and expand his outreach programs, Holbrook said.

Gun violence is a plague of generations, Holbrook thinks. Explosive gang violence in the late 1980s and early 1990s led to a generation of boys growing up without father figures or male mentors, who instead found them in modern rap entertainers, who are "talking about shooting in almost every song," Holbrook said.

"Life, to a certain degree, always imitates art," he said.

Gang culture was also part of the social fabric of his youth, Holbrook added.

"In high school, when there was gangs, you can't even be popular unless you're in a gang. Girls like the 'bad boys,'" he said. "There's some type of social infrastructure that makes it cool.

"And once you realize — once you lose someone — that it's not cool, at that point then, it's too late. Now it's, 'This person has killed someone close to you and you want to retaliate.'"

For his part, Holbrook's organization, Moving the Lives of Kids Community Mural Project, which is funding his cross-country mural tour, offers education, employment opportunities and outlets for idle youth, he said. Holbrook's murals can be found in 28 states and 43 countries, he said. As of 2019, more than 45,000 men and women have been involved in the organization, according to its website, MLKMural.com.

And he's planning a return to Youngstown to work with local youth, artists and educators.

Holbrook said he hopes his contemporary street art — similar in style to popular British street artist Banksy — can serve as memorials to those killed by gun violence. After years of suppressing his own grief, the art has become a form of therapy — a way to deal with his personal losses, he said.

The medium itself has grown in popularity since the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police last summer, and with help from art-centric social media platforms like Instagram, he said. Some of the public murals he painted 20 years ago are still there today, he said.

Physical, public art is also able to cut through the media noise — the kind of incessant messaging on not just gun violence, but all pressing social issues, that Holbrook said he feels cause us to become desensitized.

"People have been realizing the power of public art. It's not like TV or radio where you can just turn it off and switch to another channel," Holbrook said. "The messages you portray in a work of public art are gonna' be visible.

"They can make a lasting impression and still get a message across."

This story was originally published August 25, 2021 at 3:52 AM with the headline "‘Life ... always imitates art’ | Mural brings message of peace to Youngstown amid deadly shootings."