Muralist Kent Yoshimura Turns Tragedy into Art in Little Tokyo

In the weeks since George Floyd’s tragic death, America has seen scores of protests. But when Little Tokyo’s small business owners were forced to preemptively board up their storefronts, muralist Kent Yoshimura took the opportunity to send a powerful message, turning these plain boards into works of art and beautifying Little Tokyo at the same time.

“I’m part of the small business committee for Little Tokyo, so I reached out on our Slack channel,” says Yoshimura on the second weekend of the project. “James Choi from Cafe Dulce helped me reach out to businesses that had boards up and got their approval. Literally the next day, we got their approvals, and we went out to start painting.”

Yoshimura, who has contributed murals of a more permanent nature to Little Tokyo in the past, has enlisted the help of various tremendously talented Los Angeles muralists, including Paul Juno, Juan Balandran, Laura Weinberger, Danny Amoros, Steph Ramirez, Marilee Spencer, and many others, to transform these storefronts while speaking out about the atrocities that have plagued the country.

“We wanted to be able to provide some level of support. We knew that we could say something on our Instagrams or go to the protests and be a part of the power by numbers movement,” says Yoshimura. “But instead of taking that angle, we spoke to each other and thought, ‘What if we were able to paint and show our message through art?’”

The messages communicated through these temporary murals take many different forms, from a Black personification of the Mother Mary to a solemn portrait of singer and activist Nina Simone. All the same, Yoshimura acknowledges that in a time of such powerful protests, artwork can seem empty to some.

“It’s interesting, I see on Instagram, ‘What’s the point of posting black squares?’ or like, ‘What’s the point of posting art in these times?’”, he says, referencing early June’s Blackout Tuesday movement. “In many ways, art, because of its visual nature or its musical nature, is the most approachable way to get certain messages across.”

“Obviously, voices, the power of the people, community, local legislation, all of those things make moves as well, but within the ecosystem of everything happening, we’re hoping that visually, we can at least support, be there, and make people think just a little bit in their daily lives.”

Now that many of the more raucous protests seem to have been quelled, the boards will soon be coming down, but luckily, the artwork that now adorns them will still be able to contribute to positive change.

“We understand that this is 100% temporary, but if there’s anything else that can be done, the amazing Scott Oshima and Kristin Fukushima from LTSC and JACCC both helped secure the windows of Aratani Theater and the JACCC building next to Noguchi Plaza. We’re going to showcase all the work on those windows,” says Yoshimura.

“If [people] want to buy parts of the pieces, a panel, or potentially put them somewhere else, all those proceeds will go to the small business relief fund to help small businesses, and several Black Lives Matter organizations that we’re still deciding on.”

In a time of much-needed protestation as well as a pandemic that remains rampant, painting plywood boards might seem like a small act of self-expression, but if anything is clear from Kent Yoshimura’s efforts to beautify Little Tokyo, it’s his sense of compassion and community outreach, both in the micro and macro senses.

“At the end of the day, it’s less about us and more about what we can do on our end to provide support.”

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