Bricks in the sidewalk

Afatasi examines the inadequacy of public monuments in the Fillmore, where small bricks in the sidewalk are used to commemorate the people and businesses that built Harlem of the West before the neighborhood was devastated by the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency. These markers name a history that deserves far more space, visibility, and care.

The work points to places and people whose presence shaped San Francisco’s cultural life: the Texas Playhouse, Mr. Wesley Johnson, Miss Leola King, who owned several businesses including Oklahoma King Barbecue, the Blue Bird Tavern, and other jazz clubs, and Jimbo’s Bop City, where live musicians played and the city was alive with Black cultural production. San Francisco was poppin.

By calling attention to how little public space has been given to this legacy, Afatasi is asking what a real monument would look like. This project is part of building a better way to memorialize the community’s impact on the city.