Northside Mural Kickoff: Ed Trask’s First Brushstroke

by Charles McGuigan 10.2021

Pictured above: The wall with chalk inscriptions which will soon become the Northside mural.

It was eerily similar to a morning twenty years ago to the day—clear blue sky, warming sun, a whisper of breeze. But where two towers were toppled and thousands murdered that morning two decades ago, this day saw a remembrance of those skyscrapers as an image on a brick wall, and the beginning of a project that would narrate the story of the diverse neighborhoods that make up Richmond’s Northside.

On September 11 about a hundred people gathered in the parking lot behind the CVS on Bellevue Avenue for a kickoff of the Northside Mural which should be completed sometime around Thanksgiving. There were a few tables and tents, and a number of musicians performed on a makeshift stage at the far end of the parking lot. 

Joyce Foster, who serves as membership chair for the Bellevue Civic Association, was the chair and organizer of the kickoff. We stood in the shade of a tent. “I also helped select the artist,” Joyce told me. 

The event, which started at eleven, saw people of all ages congregating on the sidewalk adjacent to Brook Road. “I was so excited once the kids showed up and started doing drawings on the wall, and they had a great time doing it,” said Joyce. “There are some great images there. Everybody has had nothing but good things to say.”

Among those attending were Anne Holton, Elaine Summerfield and Third District Councilwoman Ann-Frances Lambert. 

Ann-Frances was standing on the sidewalk in front of the mural wall. She gripped a thick piece of blue chalk and began inscribing three large capital letters on the uneven brick wall. BLM it read.

“I’m very excited about this,” Ann-Frances said. “Bringing artwork into the community. I’m all about beautification, and I love murals.”

A short time later, Elaine Summerfield—microphone clasped in hand—addressed the crowd, acknowledging the hard work of the many volunteers who made this effort possible.

“We have a mural committee that has been meeting for about seven months now to envision this process and pull it together,” she said. “This public launch really wouldn’t be possible without some key players like Joyce Foster and Janet Forte.” She also mentioned Charlie Knight, Tracey Winzel, and Marcie Murphy, along with Rob McAdams, who helped with the music lineup. “We have a lot of other volunteers that helped out,” Elaine said. “Thanks to all of them.”

She also thanked the vendors who offered food and drink—Stir Crazy, Little House Green Grocery, and Morsels among them. “I want to acknowledge the building owner, Pam Saunders,” she said. “She’s been kind enough to agree to have this wall available.”

“I also want to thank the BCA (Bellevue Civic Association),” she continued. “They have been incredibly generous with financial support (to the tune of $1500) as well as providing the tent and getting news out for volunteers and ways to contribute.”

Then Elaine looked out on the crowd, using her flattened palm as a visor.  “Our Councilwoman for the Third District, Ann-Frances Lambert, is here,” she said. “Say hello to Councilwoman Lambert. She also has been gracious enough to provide financial support through her City Council office. Thank you so much for that support because it’s really an effort that takes the public sector and the private sector and our neighborhood to make it happen.”

Elaine also thanked Battery Park Christian Church for providing space. “They have been wonderful partners,” she said. “And NORTH of the JAMES has been really helpful in promoting and sharing the news about the artist and the mural going in. We appreciate having local in-print media and we’ve got to keep that going, so pick up North of the James and patronize their sponsors.”

Elaine then explained why Ed Trask had been chosen to create the mural. “A big priority for the committee in selecting the artist was somebody that was going to be willing to work with a team of volunteers and willing to be collaborative and really trade ideas and be open to that process of taking input from the neighborhood,” she said.  “So when we met Ed Trask we knew that he fit the bill. He was going to be collaborative, great to work with, and above all else he’s a very skilled artist and we’ve seen evidence of his murals all over town, and his murals really are all over the world. So we are so fortunate and so excited to have Ed join us for this event.”

Elaine then handed over the mic to Ed. “For years there have been a handful of painters and mural artists who would drive past that wall and look at it and realize that it’s an amazing canvas,” he said. “And it is an amazing canvas for a lot of reasons. This is a canvas that speaks to an inclusive crowd—Northsideans. It’s for everybody from down Brookland Park Boulevard over to MacArthur Avenue. For me to be able to do a mural on that wall that I’ve been staring at for twenty years is a great thing. And to be able to do something for you guys and to work with the community that I’ve loved that’s a win-win. I’m totally honored to have this. I can’t thank you guys enough.”

The crowd then migrated over to Brook Road for a random drawing of two raffle tickets. Jodi Teitleman won the honor of cutting the ribbon, and a girl named Trinity worked side by side with the artist to put the first brushstrokes on the wall.

“We’ll do a reference to nine-eleven,” Ed said as he faced the brick wall. He then turned to his assistant, Trinity. “I’ll do one tower, you do the other tower,” he said. 

An American flag attached to a slender pole jutting out of the side of the building flapped in a slight breeze as Ed applied the first brushstroke to the mural. After completing his tower, he handed a small can of dark green paint, along with a paintbrush, to Trinity. She filled in the outline of the second tower flawlessly. “You’re hired,” said Ed. “You’re a pro. You’re so good.”

Later in the day I talked with Ed about this particular mural, and mural art in general. “I think this has been a community wall that people have wanted to see something visually happen to for a long time,” he told me. “It’s a great entryway for people coming into the neighborhood and out of the neighborhood, and I think it will make for a good mural. It’s a great placement for a mural that’s for everybody, for every resident of Northside. I’ve got a ton of ideas, a few little sketches.”

Murals at their best are narrative in style. “I can put a lot of vignettes of different historical references or even modern day references,” Ed said. “For me it’s straight up storytelling.  Sometimes it might not be as literal of a storyline so you kind of have to find it and that’s good because you want people to come back and investigate the mural and live with it.” 

In one form or other murals have been a means of artistic expression since the dawn of humankind. “The use of metaphor and analogy and different things of that nature have been used in mural making and mark making all the way from the caves to Michelangelo to today,” said Ed Trask. 

When Ed joined a small group of people, I made my way over to the stage where Micah Berry was performing his set. One of the last songs he sang was an original, and though he would tell me later that it’s still untitled, it could easily be called Rise Up. He takes us back to the summer of 2020 and the sadistic murder of George Floyd and the BLM uprising that rolled across the country like a tsunami, and helped wash away monuments honoring traitors and white supremacists. It was a perfect song to pay homage to this mural-in-progress on Richmond’s Northside. 

“I walked by painted monuments through over crowded streets,

Head on collisions with civilians and authorities.

I find division is a word that comes between us, 

Some blind decisions made by people who would keep us on our knees.

“Desperate cries for justice lie heavy in the air. 

Who here among us would ever dare to silence them?

But some will try ignorance and violence.

The least that we can do is stand across the aisle from them and change.

“So rise up, if the blood inside you is boiling.

Stand up for the ones afraid to rise.

Step aside for the next generation. 

Change is in the wind, like the turning of the tides.

Change is in the wind. 

So don’t be afraid to rise. 

“From sea to shining sea the country felt it just like I did.

Hard talks at dinner tables, families divided. 

I find our differences just make us who we are;

A land of immigrants we’ve been that from the start.

“Some came in search of freedom, a place to be themselves.

Some came against their will, and survived a living hell.

But here we are now and the question still remains:

What will we do with all this freedom we’ve obtained?

Will it remain? 

“So rise up, if the blood inside you is boiling.

Stand up for the ones afraid to rise. 

Step aside, it’s a new generation. 

Change is in the wind, like the turning of the tide. 

Change is in the wind. 

Don’t be afraid to rise.”