Mural Compass

Honoring Dahlak's Amare Solomon has been easier said than done.

by Will Dean

SKETCH DRAMEDY: David Guinn and his rendering of the tribute mural. Photo By: Michael T. Regan (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

When Amare Solomon, owner of West Philly's Dahlak Restaurant on Baltimore Ave., died in October of 2005, he left a legacy of friendliness, compassion and a welcoming spirit that made locals and newcomers feel at home.

Evidence of his goodwill is apparent looking out Dahlak's back door. Around seven years ago, his brother Bereket Solomon recalls, an abandoned building behind the restaurant was destroyed by fire. After a year of the rubble and dust blighting the area, Amare organized local residents — without help from the city — to clean up the site of the fire. "He could make all different kinds of people come together," recalls Bereket.

At a remembrance dinner for Amare, three friends — Yaros, Don Caraco and Emily Graci — first started talking about applying for a tribute mural in a parking lot a few stores west of the restaurant.

Coincidentally, mural artist David Guinn lived in the area for many years and was always interested in creating some public art that represented its diversity. When Mural Arts, the city program that maintains and creates over 100 new murals each year, got the application for the Amare mural, his reputation for welcoming the different groups living in the area matched up perfectly with Guinn's idea.

But with a wealth of diverse groups — long-time locals, immigrants, anarchists, young professionals and local artists — seeking representation in the mural, getting everyone together is hard.

"The big problem is getting all the people who need to be here at a meeting," says Caraco. "People from the neighborhood, governmental people, the Mural Arts folks."

Most important to Caraco is that the local community approves Guinn's designs. "I don't want the mural to be done and people to say, well this or that isn't represented," he says. To help that process Caraco and Yaros have organized numerous meetings where locals have been able to ask to add or remove elements from the designs. Everyone at the meetings had plenty of suggestions.

"From the first meeting it seemed like an insurmountable amount of detail," says local resident Nate Johnson. The sketches that Guinn came up with managed to pack in all of it.

The mural will cover two facing walls. One represents the neighborhood's past with Amare and his wife, St. Francis Church, Benny the barber, the movie theater that is now a parking lot and the mural the new one is replacing. The other covers the present with a revamped Cedar Park, local group Books Through Bars, a trolley, community gardeners and a man sitting on his porch with a stray cat on his lap.

At the beginning of the project there was a sense of distrust. Community groups and citizens worried about the involvement of the University City District, which provided some funding for the mural.

It's a common fear in this part of West Philly where, a couple of weeks ago, bumper stickers appeared on poles and mailboxes that said "This Is West Philly 'University City' Is A Marketing Scheme."

"Some people felt the UCD would represent their interests and not accurately represent the community," says Guinn.

In this case, those fears proved unfounded. "[The UCD has] been very hands-off," Guinn says. "But if there was something radical in it," he adds, "there might have been a problem."

This led Guinn to reject some ideas. "I got an e-mail asking to put up Mumia Abu-Jamal," says Guinn. "That's polarizing. I didn't feel that this was the right place."

A real problem did arise because of the physical condition of the walls. Not designed for exterior use, since they once abutted a movie theater, the walls have suffered over the years. On the eastern side, the flashing on the wall of Benny's Barber Shop needs replacing. On the western wall, which is the exterior wall of the A-Space, some parts of the stucco are chipping and hollow, and the bargeboards and flashing that keep out water need replacement.

"As much as I would like to fix up old buildings, [we don't] have that kind of budget," says Jane Golden, Director of Mural Arts. Representatives of Golden's group and members from the Life Center Association, the land trust group that owns the A-Space building, eventually decided to fix the roof to keep out further water, and use a special sealant to protect the stucco.

Physical problems aside, Guinn's sketches have met with approval at further community meetings. "I'm really happy with what the sketches look like," says resident Jessica Baument.

The mural should be ready by early fall and provide a lasting statement that Amare always tried to foster at his restaurant: Diversity equals community.

(w_dean@citypaper.net)