Justice For George: Commemorate. Cultivate. Celebrate.
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The theme of this year’s Justice for George (JFG) event is “Radical Joy.” Our hope is to encourage community care, connections, and healing, while continuing to grieve, mourn, and fight for a better future for Black communities. Justice for George strategically balances remembrance of the uprising with forward-looking hope through facilitating the creation of new murals. Through art-making, exhibits, and gatherings, our Black community has found a safe space year after year in JFG to share stories of pain, community care, and transformation. By creating a space for constant dialogue and adaptation, MTM works to honor the Minneapolis uprising of 2020 as part of the collective identity and history in Minnesota.
As we reflected on five years since George Floyd’s murder, we encouraged people to not forget, and to continue to act.
The 5th annual Justice for George event featured many new artistic mediums. In addition to the large-scale exhibition of the murals, live music and dance performances, and live mural paintings. This year we incorporated new activities over the course of five days leading up to the main event on May 25th, 2025. The activities lineup included a play reading, summer kickback, and walking tour.​
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The event this year truly met our vision. The joy, love, and care that permeated through every aspect of this event was felt so deeply. What sets our event apart from others is having the muralists painting live. Rather than having the usual 10-12 artists, we had 19 artists this year! Each artists’ work leaned into the theme in their own special ways, reflecting deeply on their identities and communities. Their work drew in visitors in which they shared moments of connection and joy together. We had a mix of new and previous artists this year, adding to our growing list of community artists that we’ve been able to directly support. The work of these artists that we center every year are the heart of this event and we’re so grateful to each of them.
From the muralists, to the artist and community organizations fair, to the performers that set the vibes, the exhibition that covered half the park, and the food trucks that fed our souls, this event touched the hearts of everyone that was involved as we reflected on five years since 2020. Stories were shared, tears were shed, and joy and laughter brought people together. Thank you for joining us.
If you weren’t already aware, this was our final Justice for George event. The culmination of this event was brought to you through our teams’ blood, sweat, tears, and love. It’s bittersweet, but the core planning team of this entire event was four people. Two of which were our amazing archiving interns that are now onto new endeavors! Hosting events of this scale, with such a small team, currently isn’t sustainable for us.
This decision was not made lightly and there is a chance that maybe when our team is able to expand and we have more resources, perhaps the event will return. For now though, we have decided to pivot our programming. 2025 marks the 5th year of MTM’s existence and has prompted us to consider the legacy we want to leave behind. As we’ve grown and evolved over the years we have identified that one of our main goals is to uplift and support the next generation of Black historians, archivists, and memory workers. As we observe these uncertain times when, now more than ever, Black history in particular is under attack, nobody can protect our history like we can. We want to become a place where Black people can harness the skills needed to preserve and steward our histories. Then take those skills and go forth and do so in their own organizations, institutions, and other places where our history often isn’t stewarded by us.
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So, as we say a bittersweet goodbye to Justice for George, please know that the work hasn’t stopped.