It's written on the walls

If Regent Park has a monument it is in the form of a mural. And if a mural counts as a monument, then Regent Park has many. While most areas of the city are against having images and words scrawled across the sides of buildings, in Regent, this graffiti style of art seems to be embraced.

The first mural I saw there was on Dundas St. East, just a little bit west of Parliament. It said REGENT in large, tag style letters, and then around the outside of the writing were school books and pencils, and in the books was written the history of the area. I took a picture the first time I saw it, on my walk through at night. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to upload it onto my computer because my camera doesn’t seem to be Mac compatible…

On my second and third visits to the area, I noticed that there were more murals than I had realized. Many depict the diverse community of the neighbourhood, with native style images, Asian and Indian artwork as well. Although the murals are painted on the sides of buildings, they don’t have the same effect as graffiti does. While graffiti generally contains tag names and swear words, these images seem to be lessons to the children of Regent Park. On the side of one series of attached homes, there are a few pictures that look like Polaroid shots of students. There is also a report card that shows a red A in a circle. This is not the only mural depicting children. There are others of smiley, happy children near the community garden and children standing on top of the world, overcoming and achieving their best on the walls of a high-rise apartment building. Since Regent Park is not designed for, and is not often a permanent home for generations and generations of people, a monument recognizing it as an integral part of a person’s heritage would be inappropriate. What these murals do is remind children that this is a temporary place for them, and that they will grow up and be able to move out of the area if that is what they strive to do.