Black Lives Matter Archives - Neighborhood View

Keep Drawing, Keep (Th)inking: the Keith Knight Story

August 27, 2020 Sky Malerba 2

By Sky Malerba Born and raised in Malden, MA, cartoonist, rapper, teacher and activist Keith Knight delighted in drawing since early childhood. This week, Keith Knight is the subject for Malden Arts Mondays, a two-month long celebration of artists and figures associated with Malden. “I always used to draw on walls, and draw in class, and I’d never get in trouble for it, in fact, I kept on getting higher grades,” he said of his school experiences. He drew cartoons based on George Orwell’s Animal Farm and used portraits of his classmates and teachers as an analogue to a character in the story. “You should be doing a syndicated cartoon,” his teacher told him. That was the beginning of Keith Knight’s career as a highly regarded American cartoonist 20 years ago. Knight graduated from Malden High in 1984 and after a brief stint as a professional Michael Jackson impersonator in the 1980s, he created perhaps his most memorable in the 1990s. The K Chronicles was a weekly autobiographical comic strip, published in The San Francisco Examiner and then […]

A Dragon Hugs the Corner: Wah Lum Academy Embraces Unity Amid a Pandemic

August 23, 2020 Amanda DeRosa 3

By Amanda DeRosa Sifu Mai Du of the Wah Lum Academy in Malden often tells her students, “Under every roof there is a story.” So, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced her to close her martial arts studio on March 10, at the corner of Eastern Avenue and Ferry Street, and board up the windows, Mai Du knew she had to do something to continue to tell the story of Wah Lum. “A boarded-up corner didn’t sit well with me,” she says. She and some of her artistically talented students hatched a plan to transform the more than 400 square feet of blank plywood into a radiant message of solidarity. Beginning on July 19, a group of artists and volunteers began painting a mural on the boarded-up windows. Today, a dragon snakes around the corner, embracing Guardian Foo Dogs, Lion dancers, and a community united. The work is ongoing. Wah Lum Academy is not simply another school, Wah Lum is a communal space where members look forward to visiting on a regular basis; it’s an intimate place where […]

Malden rallies for Black Lives Matter online and in the streets

June 14, 2020 NeighborhoodView 0

The anger and calls for change that have swept the nation over the police killings of unarmed African-Americans recently came through Malden. An online vigil was held on Thursday, June 4 (full video embedded below) and a march followed by a rally was held on Friday, June 6. Neighborhood View citizen journalists Amanda Hurley and Sky Malerba covered these events to capture the statements and emotions of participants who peacefully registered their outrage and demands for change. Here are their reports. (Feature image – top of page: artwork by Shaina Lu, member of the Greater Malden Asian American Community Coalition) “Change can’t wait, and we need your help” By Amanda Hurley Erga Pierrette of Malden Community Organizing for Racial Equity (MaldenCORE) opened the online “Vigil for Black Lives Taken by Police and Condemnation of Police Brutality” on Thursday, June 4, with a call for unity to denounce the normalizing of police brutality against black and brown bodies. The vigil was attended by 388 participants on Zoom and has over 3400 views on Facebook and YouTube. […]

Malden Reads announces 2018 book pick!

November 8, 2017 annedr 0

Malden Reads is pleased to announce the book selection for 2018, the eighth year of Malden’s popular “One City, One Book” program—The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. The novel debuted at the top of The New York Times young adult bestseller list, recently won the Boston Globe Horn Book award, is a finalist for the Kirkus Prize and landed on the long list for the 2017 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. John Green, bestselling author of The Fault in our Stars, states, “Angie Thomas has written a stunning, brilliant, gut-wrenching novel that will be remembered as a classic of our time.” The Hate U Give tells the story of 16-year old Starr Carter, who straddles two worlds. She lives with her family in an urban black neighborhood that wrestles with problems of gang violence, drug addiction and poverty, while attending a private school 40 minutes away in a predominantly white, wealthy community. In the opening chapter, she leaves a party in her neighborhood with Khalil, a childhood friend. They are pulled over while driving and, […]