George Floyd Global Memorial

On May 25, 2020, George Perry Floyd was lynched by the Minneapolis Police Department just steps away from the intersection of 38th Street East and Chicago Avenue South. In response to this atrocity, people came from across the world to pay respect, lay expressions of pain and hope as offerings, and grieve the ongoing violence against black bodies. The memorial started simple. There were circles of flowers and a few distinct locations to lay offerings. The memorial has now expanded to encompass offerings in every direction, large and small. It could take a museum several years to build a collection of the magnitude to which the memorial has grown. Since the 2020 uprising, Caretakers built a greenhouse for the plants and delicate offerings, developed a temporary conservation room, kindly provided by the Pillsbury House & Theater and supported by the Midwest Arts Conservation Center, and continue to tend to the offerings at the intersection of 38th & Chicago laid in memory of George Floyd and other black lives lost in this community and across the nation. Over 20 volunteer neighbors adopted the name of memorial caretakers ("Caretakers"). Caretakers operate with two guiding principles: 1) Everything is somebody's offering. Therefore, nothing is thrown away. 2) The people are more sacred than the memorial itself. Caretakers tend to the offerings as a form of protest. Remembrance is a powerful tool to challenge injustice. An estimated 5000 offerings of street art, drawings by children, protest signs, rocks, letters, paintings, flowers, and meaningful gifts transform this intersection into a sacred site. People all over the world continue to build the memorial, and through Caretaking, we continue to preserve history, remember stories, and protest in this unprecedented way.