This is from early June, but I missed it and it’s a beautiful idea.
Over several decades of political instability and strife, Karachi’s walls have become a battleground covered with bullet holes, slurs, threats, and various messages of hate.
There are photos of dirty grey walls covered in writing.
A group of Karachiites started a campaign called “I Am Karachi” to reclaim public spaces by promoting arts, sports, culture and dialogue. Their newest aim is to reclaim the city’s walls and bring back its positive general environment.
There are photos of bright colorful walls that will knock your socks off.
Faraz Fayaaz
Wajiha Naqvi, the leader and manager of this campaign, talked to BuzzFeed about their “Reimagining the Walls of Karachi” initiative. Young artists have come together to paint over the hate with beauty.
“The effort is to reclaim the walls of Karachi which are often covered with hate graffiti towards certain ethnic groups and political sloganeering,” Wajiha told us in an email.
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“We want to replace them with images that illustrate/depict positive values,” she further said.
Look at all the photos – they’re amazing.
Azhar Ibrahim
One of the risks of the project is that Wajiha and her team are erasing politically and religiously charged graffiti, which have been sources of conflict and violence, and replacing them with the exact opposite – sources of beauty and unity.
A risky thing to do…