About 30 people attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday for a new mural on Lake Avenue in Central Manchester. Little details in the mural celebrate the city's diverse cultures, like the Taíno symbol for the Puerto Rican coquí frog, which is hidden in a fold of a hoodie.
The center of the mural is a dap, a greeting that looks like something between a fist bump and a hug. Lead Artist Manny Ramirez from Positive Street Art explained that the greeting was started by soldiers returning from the vietnam war and means a lot to Black and Brown communities.
“It means ‘I'm with you,’ It means ‘I love you,’” Ramirez said. “It means ‘that regardless of whatever else happens today, whatever happened before, whatever is going to happen tomorrow, I have your back.’”
Ramirez said the mural was the result of a community effort. He thanked Manchester students, leaders, business owners and nonprofits that helped make the mural a reality, including Mayor Jay Ruais and the chamber of commerce.
Manchester Chamber of Commerce President Heather McGrail said she hopes the mural will help bring the community closer together.
“Everything in our community is indeed connected, even economics and art,” she said. “And a bunch of business people in suits love art as well. And it brings people together just like this mural will.”
For Jason Bonilla, the mural is part of making the center city more beautiful by reflecting the communities that live there. He’s the School Board Representative for Ward 5 and quipped he’s going to add “mural project manager” to his resume now that the process is finalized.
Most of the funding for the mural came from a $15,000 grant from the city, although remaining funds came from the NH Center for Justice & Equity and a community fundraiser in June at Don Quixote restaurant.
It was important to Bonilla that the mural represent the community and recruited the models from Central High School with help from Counselor Catherine Kabala.
“My first thought went directly to ensuring that we had students from our district represented,” he said. “So all of this was not just random individuals. We wanted people from our part of the city.”
