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Three local artists explain how the Black Lives Matter movement has inspired their work. Salisbury Daily Times

In June, Mural Arts Philadelphia established the Philadelphia Fellowship for Black Artists to help fund, foster and elevate the important work of local Black artists.

Taj Posc, 25, one of 20 fellows in the program, describes his work as optimistic and reflecting the idioms every cloud has a silver lining and being on cloud nine.

But on his Instagram account, youll also spot artwork that reflects our troubled times.

He painted Misunderstood: Black Angel, a week before Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man was shot and seriously injured by a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August. Posc's painting included the same number of bullet wounds seven as Blake suffered.

It is strange to me that it amounted to the same number of bullets in his body, Posc said of his painting. It almost feels like being a Black male, it doesnt matter how good or excellent you are or how good of a person you are. These kinds of things can happen to you at any moment of time.''

Traffic stops, walking home from the store, going for ajog and many other things people do every day have ended with the fatal shootings of unarmed Black people all across the country.

Such incidents birthed the Black Lives Matter movement and inspire not just protests, riots and counter-demonstrations, but some of the most urgent art being made today.

George Floyd died in May after a Minneapolis police officer kept his knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes after detaining him, sparkingworldwide protests.

More protests came in September when news broke thattwo of the three Louisville police officers involved in the shooting death of Breonna Taylor, 26,would not be charged and the third was indicted for shooting into neighboring apartments, but not Taylors death.

Like Posc, artists across the country responded the way knowbest, not with signs and slogans, but with paintbrushes and acrylics, cameras and film, ink and paper.

A portrait of Trayvon Martin, made using Skittles by local Collingswood artist Courtney Newman.(Photo: Photo courtesy of Courtney Newman)

In this time of reckoning over racial injustice, we asked artists actors, musicians, poets and others from throughout the Mid-Atlantic regionto reflect on how the Black Lives Matter movement has inspired their work and how they use art to pay homage to those whose lives have been cut short.

A Black mother cradles her dead son on her lapas she stares sadly and blankly ahead. They are on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago, a busy, beautiful place, seated near a bed of flowers. His shirtless body appearslifeless and his long legs hang down over hers.

Brooklyn, New York, resident Jon Henry, a visual artist working with photography and text, had his work Stranger Fruit,depicting contemporary Black mothers and their sons in poses reminiscent ofMichelangelo's "The Pieta, in an exhibit last month at Big Day Film Collectivein Collingswood.

Visual artist Jon Henry is shown at his "Stranger Fruit" exhibition which ran from Sept. 1-30 at Big Day Film Collective, a new gallery art space in Collingswood. His project depicts the modern day African American mother and child echoing the form of The Pieta and was created in response to the killing of unarmed Black men by police.(Photo: 2020 Jackie Neale @jackiephotog)

Begun in 2014, Henry'sproject was created in response to the senseless murders of Black men across the nation by police violence, Henry says. Even with smart phones and dash cams recording the actions, more lives get cut short due to unnecessary and excessive violence. Who is next? Me? My brother? My friends? How do we protect these men? Lost in the furor of media coverage, lawsuits and protests is the plight of the mother. Who, regardless of the legal outcome, must carry on without her child.

The spark that ignited the project was lit much earlier.

I was very affected by this as it was happening throughout the years, but really in 2008, was the verdict with the Sean Bell murder. Sean Bell was the young man who was murdered at his bachelor party in Jamaica Queens (in 2006).

All three police officers indicted in the Bell killing were acquitted on all counts.

Henry photographed mothers with their sons, some of them young men, in their own environment, reenacting what it must feel like to endure this pain. The mothers in the photographs have not lost their sons, but understand the reality, that this could happen to their family.

Jackie Neale, who is White, is director and lead photographer at Big Day Film Collective, a new gallery art space she opened in Collingswood, after moving back to New Jersey from Brooklyn in December.

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A Cherry Hill native, Neale speaks to the emotional power of Henry's referencing of Michelangelo's iconic work, which depicts the body of Jesus on the lap of Mary after the Crucifixion. This is very familiar imagery and hes using this as a device to connect with people and how people revere the iconic graphic nature of that positioning, said Neale, who will host more exhibits and other events inher gallery.

Photographer Jon Henry is shown at his "Stranger Fruit" exhibit at Big Day Film Collective, a new gallery art space in Collingswood. His work was created in response to the senseless murders of black men across the nation by police violence, he says.(Photo: 2020 Jackie Neale @jackiephotog)

Henry said after these tragedies, protests, sometimestrials, what comes next for the families? Thats where the project really gets its legs from and really focuses on the mothers," he said.

Theres this big message and that is that law enforcement is saying you dont have any rights to fight back when youre being confronted,'' reflected Neale. "Theres an impotence there. If our work can be that vehicle that can cross that impotence, then that has to be available and its very powerful.

Keisha Finnie was roughly 30 miles east of York, Pennsylvania, and immersed in a protest after Floyds death.

The self-taught artist in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was bouncing around ideas with other creatives and the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design about what they could do to shed light on the situation.

More: Young South Jersey activists lead the way in protests, fight for racial justice

When words cant be spoken, art is there to create a visual, Finnie said.

A collaborative effort produced the Say Their Names piece, a collage that features cutouts of the faces and names of Black people whose lives were taken at the hands of law enforcement. The artwork is a mobile workFinnie says will migrate to different Lancaster businesses like a silent protest.

George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland and more photos make up the "Say Their Names" art piece.A collaborative effort, the collage features cutouts of the faces and names of Black people whose lives were taken at the hands of law enforcement. The mobile artwork will migrate to different Lancaster, Pa., businesses like a silent protest.(Photo: Michelle Johnsen)

Finnie didnt stop there, though. Her latest projects surrounding the Black Lives Matter Movement have helped her grow as an artist, she said.

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She also asked local photographers to donate their imagesof protesters, and those faces, signsand people make up Ampersand. The life-sized symbol is in PCAD Park,only steps away from the Lancaster City Bureau of Police Department.

Diversity.

Resilience.

Las Vidas.

These words are plastered on the sculpture and are surrounded by cropped photos of chanters, demonstrators and activists who have dedicated their time rallying for Black lives.

The "Ampersand" sculpture is not only a tribute to protesters, but it also on steps away from the Lancaster City Bureau of Police Department.(Photo: Jasmine Vaughn-Hall)

[The movement] has made me more conscious of the work that Im putting out and [Im] creating work that means something to me or that I know other people will resonate with, Finnie said.

Eileen Berger, 67, owner and director of Just Lookin Gallery in Hagerstown, Maryland, opened her business specializing in original art by Black American artists 25 years ago. Through Nov. 3, she is presentingThe Challenge of Change: Civil Rights in America,featuring25 artists and roughly 70 works.

Preston Sampsons Losing My Religion, a piece made of shell casings, is gaining attention at Just Lookin' Gallery's exhibit, "The Challenge of Change: Civil Rights in America." Tje exhibit opened Aug. 22 at the Hagerstown, Maryland gallery and runs through election day on Tuesday, Nov. 3.(Photo: Photo provided)

Berger said the exhibit is a history lesson and political statement.

I think now is the right time to get people to understand a little bit more. I like political statements; I wont pretend I dont, Berger said. This is probably my 12th or 13th Civil Rights show.

Berger said the show, which includes pieces by Charly Palmer, Preston Sampson, Eli Kince, Wesley Clark and Evita Tezeno, was planned to open in November. That was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and beforeFloyds death. I moved it up because sometimes you have to be topical about whats going on in the world, Berger said. The show is historical, but it is also right now.

Berger, who is white, grew up in Washington, D.C., in a neighborhood full of people with different colors, races, nationalities than me. That was my whole life. I was part of the Civil Rights Movement in the late 60s, she said.

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Response to the exhibit has been encouraging.To people who already have an affinity for art, they have more time to explore, she said of the pandemic-restricted times we are living through.

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But Berger believes the greatest support for the exhibit has nothing to do with a virus.

Just Lookin' Gallery's exhibit, "The Challenge of Change: Civil Rights in America", opened on August 22 at the Hagerstown, Maryland gallery and runs through election day on Tuesday, Nov. 3. This piece is called "Vote Any Way."(Photo: Eileen Berger)

There is a huge increase in awareness of disparity between Black and white right now, she said. Art is a way of hopefully opening up more peoples eyes. I always say, Lets start a dialogue.

"We have a really ugly history in this country,'' she said."At this age, I am not so disillusioned that I dont think we cant have a more beautiful future. Let me do what I can do.

Philadelphia native Courtney Newman, 31, has been creating art since he was in elementary school.

The Collingswood artist uses interesting objects to create his art, which he lets speak for him.

Newman incorporated about 3,600 Skittles to create a piece of art of Trayvon Martin, the teen killed in Florida by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman in 2012. Martin had had an iced tea and a pack of Skittles on him when he was fatally shotafter a scuffle with Zimmerman.

That was just a three-dimensional thing, Newman said. I used Skittles because of that situation. Then I did Malcolm X and Martin Luther King with bullet casings.

Courtney Newman poses with two of his art pieces depicting Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. in Pennsauken, N.J. on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2020. Newman used bullet shell casings as a medium for the pieces.(Photo: JOE LAMBERTI/COURIER POST-USA TODAY NETWORK NJ)

I do art, thats what I do,'' said Newman, who also has done more straight-forward work to honor George Floyd. "I have epilepsy, so the working thing is a little slow. Art was my thing since when I was little.I do it for me and still try to make money off of it.

Rochester, New York,nativeShawn Dunwoodystarted his career in fine art, creating assemblage pieces thatdepicted the struggles of theAfrican American community.

But heset a new course.Hemoved backtothe citysNortheastside, which has a high concentration of poverty, and began creating colorful murals with positive messages. Hisgoalwas to bea role modelforBlack youth.

"I think it's important," he said. "The intent and the heartiscoming from aBlack man in America."

The City of Rochester often seeks outDunwoodywhen itneedsan artist.After Washington, D.C., painted a street with Black Lives Matter,Rochester officialsapproached Dunwoody about doingsomething similar . He agreed to take on theproject, butproposed takingit a step further. Thecity agreed with his vision.

Local Rochester, N.Y. artist Shawn Dunwoody and volunteers, paint the amphitheater at Martin Luther king Jr. Park, to allow visitors to write messages as part of the Black Lives Matter movement.(Photo: JAMIE GERMANO/ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE)

His canvas was Dr.Martin Luther King Jr.MemorialParkat Manhattan Squaredowntown, the focal point of many Black Lives Matter events. During two summer days he, along with some volunteers,paintednearlyeverysurface of the sunken concrete amphitheater withmatte black paint. In the middle he painted the Black Lives Matterfist symbol.

It was the largest art installation inacitythathas a thriving public art scene.Dunwoody called it, The Empire StrikesBlack.

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He placed bucketsofchalk for people to express themselves. Peopledrawpictures,write messages andpoetry. Theypost their creationson social media.Music videos have been shot in the space.

Local artist Shawn Dunwoody directs some volunteers who are helping him paint the amphitheater at Martin Luther king Jr. Park, black, to allow visitors to write messages as part of the Black Lives Matter movement. (Photo: JAMIE GERMANO/ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE)

Its almost like looking at theworld itself, Dunwoody said. It may look chaotic andcrazy but ifyou take your time andindividuallylook at each one, you can find deep meaning and connections to people.

The space is anamphitheater, he explained. Itismeanttoamplify voices.

Posc, who has family in law enforcement and the military, was raised with the notion to look after his siblings, which he still does, including a younger brother who is a postal worker and one who is incarcerated.

Taj Posc is among 20 artists in the Philadelphia Fellowship for Black Artists, a program established by Mural Arts Philadelphia.(Photo: Photo provided)

"I talk to them the same, whether its in a letter or on the phone, he said. I think I have a pretty good head on my shoulders as a young man, but my parents still have the same conversations with me. They constantly check on me, ask me, Did you get in the house?' "

One of his most recent works features a Black baby dressed as an angel soaring in the clouds. Its something he was inspired to paint while reflecting on a trip studying abroad in Rome.

I saw a lot of supernatural afterlife and these ideas of life after and what we experience. But all the pictures that I saw were pictures of white cherubs or Caucasian people, he said.

He sees progress within the arts in regards to the Black Lives Matter movement, but believes more can be done.

There has been a lot of growth in the last few years in terms of Black artists and representation and what is exposed and whats not. But I think it is up to the artists of the time just to continue to create truthfully, he said.

Shanel Edwards, 25, is a queer, non-binary, dancer, photographer, directorand poet.

Edwards, whose work centers on Black Queer Femme-hood,learnedabout the history of the Black Lives Matter Movement while at Temple University.

Artist Shanel Edwards is among 20 fellows in the Philadelphia Fellowship for Black Artists, a program established by Mural Arts Philadelphia.(Photo: Photo provided)

There was a lot that I was learning about myself and the world. It was really painful, it was really disgusting, but also beautiful and life changing. So I think in that way the more visible Black experience isBlack pain, Black joy, all of those thingsthe more its changing Black people in particular. I think with that, my artwork became more centered in who I was and who I am and who I am becoming and evolving into every day.

"Black folks have lived through incredible trauma and upheaval. Thismay be the wildest time of our lives. Our lineage and our ancestors have experienced things that we can never imagine....And all of our Black artists are doing what we can to survive and that shows in our work.

In Asbury Park, New Jersey, Alexander Simone, grandson of music legend Nina Simone, released the song Fight the Fight, and helped lead a Floyd protest in the city in June.

The track was originally written four years ago with things going on in Baltimore, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, that's when the track originated but its like a timeless track, Simone said. When all this started happening again, it resurrected the lyrics. I felt it was time.

Alexander Simone in Asbury Park on June 1, 2020.(Photo: Leon Fields)

Nina Simone's Civil Rights songs, including Mississippi Goddam and To Be Young, Gifted and Black, are classics.

So PROUD of my son, said mom Lisa Simone on Instagram. His grandmother is nodding in approval, too!! The family legacy continues.

Also at the Jersey Shore, hip-hop musician Chill Smith re-released his track Reverse Racism, and shot a new video for it, too.

I think what's happening is people are tired, everybody's tired of this, said Smith in June. I think a lot of allies have reached out to people in the community they know to try to uplift their voices. That's why the song has resurfaced, which makes sense.

National acts in the region are speaking up, too. Bronx rhymer Kemba laid out the conflicting nature of today's world, specifically when it comes to policing, on his Kill Your Idols, released three days after the Floyd death. Philly's Meek Mill reported from the Otherside of America in a powerful track that includes a sample of a Trump speech.

Cisco Soto and Miles Murdaugh were at a crossroads following George Floyds death. The Washington Winnona Images partners were uncertain about attending and photographing a protest forming in downtown York, Pennsylvania.

Murdaugh saw fire trucks along the streets and unraveled fire hoses spread along the sidewalks earlier in the day.

He thought, "Have we learned nothing?''

Cisco Soto and Miles Murdaugh are happy they captured an iconic event in York, but they know more can be done to put the narratives of minority communities at the forefront.(Photo: Washington Winnona Images)

The thoughtreferencedthe racial turmoil that boiled over in York in the late 60s, claiming two lives.

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Black Lives Matter movement has impact on artists - and they have our attention - Courier Post