Latina Artist's Mural Causes Stir in Times Square

Sofia Maldonado's Times Square mural has caused quite a stir. Some say it is offensive. Others, like Keysha Whitaker of Single Women Rule, think Black folks need to take a chill pill Suggested Reading Video test Diddyโ€™s Best Friend Charlie Liucci is Beingย Loudย About His Next Moves Will Be Following Acquittal The Root 100 – 2020…

Sofia Maldonado's Times Square mural has caused quite a stir. Some say it is offensive. Others, like Keysha Whitaker of Single Women Rule, think Black folks need to take a chill pill

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I am sick and tired of black folks protesting stuff they have no business protesting.

The object of my latest disgust is a fledgling uprising against Puerto Rican/Cuban artist Sofia Maldonado, a 26-year old Brooklyn resident. Maldonado painted a 92-foot mural that is located at 215 West 42nd Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues in Manhattan.

Organized primarily by the โ€œUrban Community Councilโ€ and a Meetup Group โ€œNew York City Black Professionalsโ€, the protest claims that Maldonadoโ€™s mural negatively portrays Black and Latino women. Anthony Herbert, the founder of the Urban Community Council, a โ€œsocial organizationโ€ that works to find funds for families of gun violence victims, held a press conference on March 11.

โ€œThe way the women are depicted, it is clearly very disrespectful. They are scantily clad and it is disrespectful to any upstanding women in the community. Itโ€™s a negative representation of what we in our community are trying to avoid,โ€ said Herbert. โ€œWe have to shed a positive light. Theyโ€™re [women in the mural] bent over, the implication that their breasts are coming out, itโ€™s just ridiculous.โ€

Alberto Magnan is the owner of Magnan Metz Gallery and has been representing Maldonado since 2005. โ€œSofia has done many murals in Puerto Rico, New York, and Connecticut, some in neighborhoods that were very Puerto Rican, Latin or black,โ€ said Magnan. โ€œWeโ€™ve never had any reaction like this before; in fact people have always loved it.โ€

Magnan said Maldonado calls the women in her mural โ€œSupergirlsโ€ and speculates that Herbert โ€œmay not know what Sofia is about.โ€

Continue reading from the SOURCE: SINGLE WOMEN RULE

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