Earlier this month we reported on Henry Lipkis, a California-born street artist with big plans for a 150-foot-long wall New Orleans’ St. Claude Avenue.
The graffiti painter, who now calls New Orleans home, wants to turn the empty wall into a massive mural celebrating the city’s second line culture. It’s a dream that has even received some support from the community, with WWOZ DJ Action Jackson and the three clubs that second line near the wall each year–the Original C.T.C. Steppers, Original Big Nine, and Original Nine Times–making contributions to the project.
After securing much of the community’s blessing, the project moved on to the funding stage. The crowd-funding stage, to be exact. Lipkis has launched a Kickstarter that he hopes will bring in the money necessary to complete the mural, and he’s offering all sorts of special rewards to those that choose to help out.
“I’ve been going to talk to all these clubs, meeting with the different presidents and finding the right way for this to get done,” Lipkis told OffBeat. “I want to promote respect and put the right people up front. There’s just a lot of elements that have to be done right.”
“Intentionally or unintentionally, [street art] glosses over the culture that is there, that made the place,” Lipkis added. “And because we’re on a kind of cusp time with this in New Orleans, now is a good time to set an example of how it can be done. Working with communities and really representing things that are here. What’s the city made of, what the neighborhood has been brought up on.”
Lipkis’ mural has already received one major boost in the form of a large donation, but–as of press time–he still needs to raise another $2,300+ by January 7 in order to receive the money that he has been pledged (Kickstarter only funds your project if you reach your funding goal).
A rough sketch of Lipkis’ proposed mural.
Lipkis has promised that the Big Nine, Nine Times and CTC Steppers will all be represented in the mural, along with the Caramel Curves all-female Motorcycle Club and more. He has also pledged to collaborate with local muralists to memorialize members of the community that have passed on, as well as “local characters you’ll always find at the Second Line mixed with some people pulled straight from the imagination.”
Additionally, a short documentary about the production of the mural and the neighborhood’s second line culture will be shot as the project unfolds. According to the Kickstarter page, the film will feature “little side vignettes of the lives of certain people depicted in the the piece, mesmerizing Second Line footage, as well as interactions between people of the community and the artists painting the wall.”
