Meet Edythe Boone, one of the seven women artists commissioned in 1994 to cover San Francisco’s historic Women’s Building with a massive, iconic mural entitled
MaestraPeace. Now in her 70s, the African-American artist works to restore the mural to its original brilliant colors, reassuring a young woman terrified of mounting a scaffold for the first time. Back on the ground, she teaches public art to everyone from West Oakland middle schoolers to Richmond seniors. As Edy guides students in choosing mural subjects, using a grid, and mastering texture, they’re thrilled to be working with a veteran muralist whose art can be found all over the Bay Area and commemorates the great events of her time. Those events keep coming, as we see when the death of Edy’s nephew becomes a national symbol of racist policing. To all her students she says, “You can’t change your beginnings, but you can put a nice beautiful ending to the story.”
Sponsored by:
Co-presented by
Museum of the African Diaspora and
Berkeley Film Foundation.