On Sunday, February 14th (Valentine’s Day), a mural which honors the Women of the Black Panther Party, as well as the #SayHerName movement, will be unveiled on the sides of a home purchased by Jilchristina Vest in West Oakland.  Jilchristina Vest is the founder and leader of the #SayHerName Women of the Black Panther Party Mural Project.

Including the live unveiling itself, the virtual unveiling event will be moderated by Jamiee A. Swift, founder, creator and executive director of Black Women Radicals.  It will include film packages with exclusive interviews with Black Panther Party Women and behind the scenes footage of the murals creation.  Once the virtual event ends, the food giveaway will begin dispersing food from the drive hosted 2/13.

Unknown to most, Women of the Black Panther Party (WBPP) were the foundation of The Party.  Women were at the core of the BPP’s 60+ Survival Programs for improving human lives in the U.S. and around the world. Like many freedom movements throughout history, women were the backbone. 

Young women filled the roles of boots on the ground community organizers, Central Committee leaders, Survival Program administrators, BPP Newspaper writers, artists and editors, community board members, teachers, mothers,  grandmothers. They were coalition-builders who learned from the people on the job. 

In many chapters of The Black Panther Party women outnumbered the men 3:1. By the early 70s the BPP members were 70% women. These are just a few of the faces of the warriors that helped build the world we live in today.

This public art installation will honor the #SayHerName Movement and The Women of The Black Panther Party #WBPP.  The visual will give every viewer the opportunity to learn and say the names of over 300 women that  were members of The Black Panther Party. This collection of names that we have been collecting since June 2020 will be  the most comprehensive collection of names celebrating the WBPP in existence.  

Artivive Activation:

There will be an accompanying Artivive activation prior to and after the unveiling.  We have an amazing image archive of Black Panther Party women, children and men taken by Stephen Shames - some of which can be found HERE.  Some of these images will be printed and placed in historic Black Panther sites.  Embedded in the images will be a sort of QR code that can be activated using a smartphone camera.  People will be directed to videos and historical facts centered around the specific site.  

People will be encouraged to visit the sites, activate the images and learn Black Panther history that has happened in the spaces we Frequently travel past.

More details can be found in this project recap video.