Bold ‘Black Lives Matter’ Street Signs Are Coming to New York City

Sarah Cascone August 12, 2015 ShareShare This Article

More than a year after the shooting of unarmed Ferguson, MO, resident Michael Brown, the Black Lives Matter movement is inspiring street signs on New York’s 14th Street.

The project comes to New York as part of the 11th annual Art in Odd Places (AiOP) public art festival in October, and is courtesy of Ghana ThinkTank.

The Ghana Think Tank previously showcased the Black Lives Matter signs with AiOP in May at the New Museum’s Ideas City Festival. The work was paired by fake police caution tape reading “Poverty Line Do Not Cross” by Daniel Bejar that blocked off the Bowery.

“I hope that New Yorkers will respond to this piece by considering the ways they may be a part of the unequal application of laws or systems according to race, and to consider what roles they can play in the Black Lives Matter movement, whatever their background,” explained Ghana ThinkTank co-founder Christopher Robbins in an e-mail to artnet News.

Ghana Think Tank, problem collection app in Austin, Texas. Photo: Ghana Think Tank, courtesy Fusebox Festival.

The street signs, which were designed by SUNY Purchase College School of Art & Design students, are done in the generic style of Department of Transportation signs and warnings.