Kessi World

Mindful travel around the Pacific Northwest.

The Art of Seattle CHOP (Capitol Hill Occupied Protest) — a photo gallery

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This photo was taken near the CHOP zone in the Seattle neighborhood of Capitol Hill. CHOP stands for Capitol Hill Occupied Protest. This mural is painted on plywood affixed to a traffic barrier and shows an orange colored octopus against a blue back drop with blue letters that say BLM and red lettering that says, End Systemic Racism.

For the purposes of this article, I will refer to the area as CHOP, which existed for a few weeks in June, 2020. This area was initially known as CHAZ for Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone but eventually transitioned to CHOP.

Capitol Hill is my home.

The rolling hills of the Capitol Hill neighborhood in Seattle remain near and dear to my heart.  Greenery abounds in every direction no matter the season, or rain or shine. 100 year old sidewalks bubble from the roots of old growth fir trees sandwiched in between overflowing gardens of flowers and steep streets of pavement, sometimes chipped away revealing the original bumpy gray cobblestones. Birds sing by day while bunnies hop around at night, bringing nature front and center to any living environment. Apartments, condos and single family homes nestle in together to form a community feeling that connects to the various stretches of commerce that include eateries, watering holes and mostly independent merchants working to bring their products to market. 

A view of buildings on the Seattle skyline as well as the Capitol Hill neighborhood below. Cars are moving on the streets and the lights are just beginning to turn on for the evening.

But Capitol Hill is not just a pretty neighborhood — there is rich history steeped in the streets and avenues of independent business.  This district, just a stone’s throw from downtown Seattle, embodies a history of art, activism, and diverse communities — including black and LGBTQ+.  Over the past 10 years or so, rising interest in close-in city living increased housing demand, gentrifying the area in ways that pushed the black and LGBTQ communities to more affordable locales.  

So it doesn’t surprise me that the protests following the grotesque video of George Flloyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police inspired activism in support of the Black Lives Matter movement — establishing a “ground zero” of sorts around the East Police Precinct of Seattle. 

Since the formation of CHOP a few weeks ago, I’ve visited a couple of times, always feeling a deep connection to the underlying message — end systemic white supremacy in the US.   While many distractions exist that make it easy to fall back on the “yes, but did you see the……” (insert shootings or tent camps) the focus of the empowering feeling within my soul locks in on the energy around expression, anger, frustration and betrayal of the current societal structures in place that continue to “place a knee” on the necks of people of color — in particular black men and women. 

It felt particularly raw for me to walk through Cal Anderson Park — a park that I routinely visited last summer with friends for outside movie nights on the lawn.  Impromptu gardens were dug into the lawns in several places with newly planted flowers and vegetables with signs propped up speaking to various black innovations in farming and gardening. Although filming in this area was not allowed, one statistic that sticks in my mind is that in 1910 13% of the farmland in the United States was black owned while today that number is around 1%. 

It’s important that you know I live in this area. The area that was CHOP was where I met friends for drinks at a local LGBTQ+ bar and ate sushi at a restaurant across the street from the boarded up police station. The traffic barriers placed in the street were covered with wall size plywood — painted in a way that reminds me of other famous walls and borders in the world. Read more about the comparison between Seattle’s CHOP and places like Berlin in a sister blog post, A Seattle Wall.

I’m sympathetic to the protests because many changes throughout American history only came after such actions were taken to sound the alarm to the people in control, historically white men, to important issues — like suffrage, ending the Vietnam War, civil rights and HIV/AIDS awareness. Saving, and improving, the lives of our fellow community members is essential to the fabric of this nation.

As I write this today, the Seattle police force is reclaiming the East Precinct Station and sweeping through Cal Anderson Park.   

While the physical features might be removed, the spirit lives on and I hope this is only the start to meaningful changes in Seattle and the rest of the country. In my lifetime I want to take part in, and would love to witness, a tectonic shift away from white supremacy-based structures to an anti-racist world. 

I created this site, Kessi World, to foster the quest for meaningful connections in the world, mostly through travel that can take many shapes and forms. So, it feels important to curate a collection of photos that grabbed my soul. A story of art pieces, now destroyed, created through the angst, tears, anger, fear and helplessness of my fellow citizens. Colors of paint on textures of wood, concrete and steel — all coming together in solidarity to empower… and say, 

Black Lives Matter

A parking barrier covered in painted plywood shows graffiti letters BLM for Black Lives Matter. This is one of the blocks in the protest zone known as CHOP in Seattle.

Seattle’s wall — the art of CHOP

A line of concrete traffic dividers were framed with plywood in order to create the following art without destruction of property. This wall, of sorts extended along Pine Street between 11th and 12th Avenues in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. The liquor store shown in the background of some of these photos is normally painted with commissioned murals.

A row of concrete traffic barricades are covered in plywood and painted with a variety of messages. This is in the Black Lives Matter protest area of Capitol Hill in Seattle.
Signage at the CHOP area of Seattle during the Black Lives Matter protest. The concrete traffic barriers are covered with painted plywood depicting many different themes around the Black Lives Matters movement. In the background are multi-story buildings.
A black teenager rides a scooter with his small white dog running beside him along road barriers painted with Black Lives Matter messages in the CHOP zone of Capitol Hill in Seattle.
A row of concrete traffic barricades are covered in plywood and painted with a variety of messages. This is in the Black Lives Matter protest area of Capitol Hill in Seattle. This sign says, Rest in Power and memorializes two black girls ages 15 and 17.
A row of concrete traffic barricades are covered in plywood and painted with a variety of messages. This is in the Black Lives Matter protest area of Capitol Hill in Seattle. This sign says, Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, a quote by Martin Luther King Jr.
A barricade in the CHOP zone of Seattle's Capitol Hill in Seattle has painted plywood with an art mural containing a large brown eye and black figures on either corner with messages about Black Lives Matter.
A barricade in the CHOP zone of Seattle's Capitol Hill in Seattle has painted plywood with an art mural containing black figures raising fists up to the sky with messages about Black Lives Matter.
A sign on one of the painted traffic barricades in the Black Lives Matter protest zone in Seattle on Capitol Hill. This barricade is painted black with red letters that read, Each of these names was someones baby and over 20 names are listed below.
This plywood sign is in the CHOP area of Capitol Hill during the Black Lives Matter protest. The plywood is painted with blue letters that say, Wake up and red letters that say, Racism is not getting worse, it's getting filmed. By Will Smith.
Signage at the CHOP area of Seattle during the Black Lives Matter protest. Red white and blue paint makes out a dripping American flag with a dead man in striped prison outfit lies below, blood gushing from his head. The words say, Stop Killing US.
Signage at the CHOP area of Seattle during the Black Lives Matter protest. The colors are a bright mix of blues and greens and this sign says, Black Trans Lives Matter, with the list of four names of those trans people killed by police.
An array of traffic dividers are covered with plywood and painted with various messages about kids and acceptance. This area is on one side of the Capitol Hill protest zone in support of Black Lives Matter movement in Seattle.

East Precinct Police Station — Capitol Hill, Seattle

The East Precinct Station is at the intersection of Pine St. and 12th Avenue in the Capitol Hill neighborhood and served as ground zero for the more violent clashes between police and protesters in the weeks following the murder of George Flloyd. The police vacated the station in early June for cryptic reasons and CHOP developed around the boarded up building.

Signage at the CHOP area of Seattle during the Black Lives Matter protest. The colors are a bright mix of blues and greens and this sign says, That's not a chip on my shoulder that's your foot on my neck, by Malcom X
Signage at the CHOP area of Seattle during the Black Lives Matter protest. This is a square box created from plywood sitting in front of the vacant East Precinct police station. The colors of the box are white background with hints of light green and blue. The sign says, Peace, Love, Unity.
Signage at the CHOP area of Seattle during the Black Lives Matter protest. The colors are a bright mix of blues and greens and this sign shows the black and white photos of 10 black people murdered by police and the white letter BLM below.

The neighborhood blocks surrounding CHOP in Seattle’s Capitol Hill

Neighborhood business, in general, supports the protest and most buildings were already boarded up due to the abrupt Covid-19 closing requirement in March, 2020.

Large painted letters on Pine Street near the Black Lives Matter protest zone in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. Each letter is painted with different colors and styles and the intersection in the background has barricades and a small crowd of people.
The front of Queer Bar, in the are of Black Lives Matter protest zone in Seattle. The front of the bar is red brick and the doorway is matted with white posters that say, Stonewall was a Riot, not a festival.
The front of Queer Bar, in the are of Black Lives Matter protest zone in Seattle. The front of the bar is red brick and the doorway is matted with white posters that say, Stonewall was a Riot, not a festival.
A former Japanese restaurant in the Capitol Hill area of Seattle is boarded up with a brightly covered mural with colorful pieces of sushi.
A nightclub on Capitol Hill near the CHOP zone shows colorful mural on the side of the walls that are otherwise painted black with a message that says, Are you listening yet or should I say it on a beat?
A three story commercial budding in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle has bright yellow letters on the windows of the top floor that spell out, Say their names.
A white fabric sign is wrapped around a large orange striped road barricade while a white road sign rests on the ground. The sign has black letters that says, We're not leaving until our demands are met, with a list of three such demands. In the background is the yellow line of the city street and cars and buildings in the background.
This photo was taken near the CHOP zone in the Seattle neighborhood of Capitol Hill. CHOP stands for Capitol Hill Occupied Protest. This mural is painted on the side of a building with an aqua color background and a tiger ferociously roaring. The black lettering says, The cries for justice must be louder than the attempt to suppress them.