FATHER AND SON CREATE COFFEE TABLE BOOK

“Board Up Chicago: Storefront Images Days After the George Floyd Riots,” created by Chris and Zachary Slaughter, features more than 200 images of artwork created on storefront in neighborhoods across the city, including Hyde Park, South Shore, Bronzeville, South Chicago, Roseland, Chatham, East Garfield Park, South Loop, Pilsen, Logan Square, Humboldt Park, Boystown and Uptown. Photo courtesy of Chris Slaughter.
“Board Up Chicago: Storefront Images Days After the George Floyd Riots,” created by Chris and Zachary Slaughter, features more than 200 images of artwork created on storefront in neighborhoods across the city, including Hyde Park, South Shore, Bronzeville, South Chicago, Roseland, Chatham, East Garfield Park, South Loop, Pilsen, Logan Square, Humboldt Park, Boystown and Uptown. Photo courtesy of Chris Slaughter.

Father and Son create coffee table book

BY TIA CAROL JONES

The artistic expression that was born out of the racial and civil unrest as a result of the death of George Floyd is the focus of the coffee table book, “Board Up Chicago: Storefront Images Days After the George Floyd Riots.”

The book includes more than 200 images of the way artists used their gifts and talents to create artwork that reflected their feelings. It was created by Chris Slaughter, an attorney, and his son, Zachary, a high school freshman.

Chris said he was driving around after the civil unrest and noticed the artwork on boarded up buildings. Zachary had recently purchased a camera, so they drove around and took pictures of the artwork that was on boarded up storefronts.

“This was really just a way to spend time with my kid. It wasn’t about making a book or doing anything with the photos,” Chris said.

Because of quarantine due to COVID-19, Chris hadn’t been able to spend much time with Zachary. All of the activities they may have participated in, were closed.

“In this project, a lot of the time we spent in the car, driving, not necessarily knowing where the art was,” Chris said. “I may have suspected where some businesses that could possibly be boarded up were located, but that doesn’t mean somebody came and drew on them or wrote on them or did anything on them.”

On the first day, Chris and Zachary spent about 12 hours driving and taking photos of the artwork. Chris said when Zachary sent him the images, that was when he knew they had to do something with the photos.

“It wasn’t until that evening when Zachary downloaded the images and sent them to me and I saw them all together, that I was thinking I needed to do something more with this,” Chris said.

Half of the pictures were taken by Chris and the other half were taken by Zachary. Chris said after the first day, he went out and took pictures and covered some areas they didn’t photograph initially. Zachary said it was fun and it was something he’d never really done before.

“I’ve never spent that much time on one specific thing either. So, it was kind of a new experience and I had a good time,” Zachary said.

Chris said what the book doesn’t show is all of the hours spent going to places where there were boarded up storefronts and there was nothing on them. He said he was struck by the artwork he saw and how moving they were.

“Ultimately, it was like we got opinions about the current social state from the whole city. There’s all communities represented. Images from Blacks and whites and the gay community and images in Spanish and even one with some Asian lettering in it. We were able to get a sample of the city and I think that’s valuable, everybody chimed in,” Chris said.

Zachary said he was struck by the artwork and the level of talent the artists possessed.

“I’d obviously seen graffiti around Chicago before, but I’d never seen graffiti like that. That much and it was amazing that people took time out of their day to do that,” Zachary said. “I hope people get the idea to persevere through what’s going on. Keep on pushing through. And, that the system that is going wrong, needs to change.”

Chris said he hopes that people aren’t paralyzed by fear in the time that we are in, action is needed. “We need thoughtful consideration, but we need to act. The status quo is not working,” he said. “For me, even in the midst of the destruction and loss of property and damage and even those that lost their depth, the overall message on those boarded businesses was about unity, love, justice.”

The book is available for purchase on Amazon and costs $49.99. You can follow @BoardedUpChi on Twitter and Instagram and @BoardUpChicago on Facebook.

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