George Floyd
After the May 25, 2020, murder of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of Minneapolis police, protesters in New York City staged multiple demonstrations per day demanding racial justice and an end to police brutality. In Brooklyn, crowds filled the streets. In Queens, people gathered for a candlelight vigil. In Harlem, protesters danced to proclaim Black Lives Matter, and Black men and women dressed in their finest to honor Floyd’s memory. On what would have been Breonna Taylor’s 27th birthday, Brooklyn mourned her life and demanded justice. In solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, surfers held a paddle out at Rockaway Beach.
In Minneapolis, offerings circled the spot where George Floyd’s body went limp while police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck. I grew up 5 miles and a world away from the intersection where Floyd died. I spent time at the citizen-built memorial—a space that invited reflection on Floyd’s life and death, and the work toward racial justice that has to be done. Struck by the shifting landscape of artificial flowers left by those mourning Floyd, I recorded a fraction of the tributes at a time, absorbing and the displays of humanity and grief.