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The ‘Crown’ of Philadelphia: Artist Russell Craig and the inspiration behind his Black Lives Matter mural

Micaela Hood
Pocono Record

Growing up, Russell Craig would pass by the statue of former Philadelphia Mayor and Police Commissioner Frank Rizzo. 

The statue, known to many as a symbol of racism due to Rizzo’s controversial approach to Black and gay people during the 60s and 70s, was removed by the city in June. 

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney posted photos on his Facebook account after the statue of Frank Rizzo was removed in June. Kenney wrote the statue represented “bigotry, hatred, and oppression for too many people, for too long.”

To witness it taken down became a life changing moment for Craig, who now lives in New York and is an art student at Bard College. 

“It was really amazing and it happened when I was in Brooklyn, but still seeing it from afar it was just crazy because I passed that statue a lot even before I was doing art installations in that area,” he said. 

Crown, a mural created by artist Russell Craig, as seen on the Municipal Services Building in Philadelphia. [PHOTO PROVIDED]

As part of the Black Lives Matter movement, Craig was commissioned by Mural Arts Philadelphia to create something in its place that represented both diversity and hope.  

His piece, “Crown” a 100-foot wide, colorful mural is located on the outside of the Municipal Services Building at 1401 John F. Kennedy Boulevard. 

It was unveiled in August and will remain up for a year (if not longer), says Jane Golden, executive director and founder of Mural Arts Philadelphia. 

“I think the piece is incredibly important because of where it’s sited, just about 30-feet from where the Rizzo statue stood. It is a depiction of protests with people from different walks of life — different races, different ages, all fighting against racism and oppression,” Golden said. “It depicts a universal cry for justice and I can’t think of a better place for it to be located where there was this very problematic statue, and it’s on a municipal building across the street from our City Hall. I think it says a lot about the values and our aspiration as a city.”

“Crown” is based on the neoclassical painting, “Liberty Leading the People,” by Eugène Delacroix. 

It features a Black woman as the female symbol of Liberty.  And as Craig describes, the people in the mural are placed in a crown, an ode to the shape of the coronavirus.

Before he began the artistic process for “Crown” Craig participated in a few Black Lives Matter protests in Brooklyn. 

At one of them, near the Barclays Center, protestors clashed with law enforcement. 

“The police were moving as a unit and shouting over the bullhorn, ‘This is an unlawful assembly, you will be subject to arrest,’ ” Craig said. “Protestors were throwing stuff at them, people had phones number on their arms and police were grabbing people at random.

"It got crazy real quick and I realized I wasn’t prepared,'' he recalled. "The other ones I went to were in the daytime and there was no conflict.”

To highlight police brutality, Craig created a blue sky on the mural’s background along with names of Black men and women that “died by police brutality by the hands of white supremacy,” including Eric Garner, Philando Castile, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Trayvon Martin. 

And then there are photos of everyday heroes. 

“I had to take pictures of people in the streets and get their permission — where did they stand, did they feel like they wanted to be involved in what I proposed,” he said. “It was a whole thing, and for it to come out, and have people from Philadelphia and put them in a crown formation as a symbol of hope and rebellion and triumph, I think it got results,” Craig said. 

Artist Russell Craig

Craig, 39, started working with Mural Arts Philadelphia while he was an inmate at the Pennsylvania State Correctional Institution at Graterford in Montgomery County.  There he served a seven-year sentence for a non-violent drug-related offense. 

Behind bars, and with no family to speak of, Craig began drawing portraits of inmates in exchange for money to put in his commissary account. 

“One of my first portraits was of Lil’ Wayne because (the inmates) wanted to see what I could do. And I sold it,” he said. “I had a business with money on the books, and it kept me alive.”

As part of the Graterford’s art therapy program, Craig met Golden, who ran the inmate-artist initiative at the prison, now called State Correctional Institute — Phoenix. 

“I was really struck by his determination and his belief in himself as an artist. He not only demonstrated incredible talent when I saw some of his work, but it was just very clear that he felt the minute left prison he would come to work for Mural Arts and be an artist, and he was very convincing,” Golden said. “I’ve heard a lot of people say that but there was something about the way he said it that made me believe him.” 

Around that time, Craig was introduced to a fellow artist, James “Ya Ya” Hough, who became his mentor and gave Craig his first set of pastels to use in his portraits.  

Upon his release from prison in 2013, Craig was hired to work with Mural Arts’ Restorative Justice Guild program, a paid reentry gig for inmates that includes job tasks such as mural making, carpentry and mosaics. 

“He was a star, he really went above and beyond and demonstrated extraordinary gifts to work in public space and to do his own work,” Golden said. “One of the privileges of the job is to be able to see how artists career unfolds,” Golden said. “It’s almost like watching a flower open up and that’s what I felt with Russell as we watched his career take off and flourish and now he’s at Bard College and art collectors are purchasing his work.” 

Although “Crown,” was Craig’s first solo project for Mural Arts, he collaborated on another Philadelphia city mural in 2018 called “Portraits of Justice,” with fellow Restorative Justice Guild artist and friend, Jesse Grimes.   

Craig, Grimes and Hough are also featured in “Making Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration,” an exhibition that showcases arts made in U.S. prisons. It’s gotten rave reviews in the art world thus far, including one in the New York Times” Craig says. The show runs through April 4 at MoMa PS1 in Queens. 

 A proud moment indeed was to see his collection of work in the September issue of the prestigious magazine, “Art Forum.”

“It was a 16-page spread with other formerly incarcerated artists,” Craig said. “To be in it, some artists only dream of that ... buyers and collectors look at that book.”

Having dealt with a “dark and corrupt” prison system, Craig recognizes the fortune of his talents.  

After all, to be considered a serious artist is not an easy feat.  

“Art was the main thing, it helped me, but it’s even more than that. With time, it’s growing and becoming more and more of a life raft,” Craig said. “I would have been destroyed. The system is made to destroy you one way or another, even if you don’t do that much time. It can damage you and put you so much off track that you stay in the whirlwind.

"Once you start getting felonies, you can’t get jobs. Once you’re in the system, survival is unlikely, not many people bounce back. But just like this analogy, there were warriors (inside) that survived, Not everybody died, but you have wounds, so the art would be my sword, my weapon. It got me through and I was released from that captivity. And the arts still help me navigate through all my obstacles.”