GEORGE FLOYD GLOBAL MEMORIAL

Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55407 United States

Mission Statement

We exist to conserve stories of resistance to racial injustice and to curate spaces for all people to grieve, pay respect, and be a voice for justice. Our vision is to bring community development in Minneapolis and inspire people to pursue racial justice around the world.

About This Cause

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. Offerings are tended to by over 20 community volunteers who adopted the name of caretakers. Caretakers opperate 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. Caretaking began when the memorial was 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. Caretaking operations also expanded. It could take a museum several years to build a collection of the magnitude to which we have grown. In five months, the caretakers of the memorial offerings 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 5000 offerings of street art, drawings by children, protest signs, rocks, letters, paintings, flowers, and meaningful gifts transformed this intersection into a sacred site. People all over the world continue to build the memorial, and through caretaking, we continue our preservation of history and storytelling in this unprecedented way. We continue to invest in our community. We offer Cultural Heritage Preservation Internships to youth. We created pilgrimage journeys through George Floyd Square, which allows us to partner with community members, help them set up and LLC with small business resources, and contract them to tell their own story while they guide visitors through the space. Finally, we offer free creative events and opportunities for the community to gather and heal such as the Ice Lantern Festivity every New Year's Eve, the Caretakers and Artist Reprieve Experience (C.A.R.E.), and our flagship event Rise & Remember, which includes a free arts festival to uplift artists, black-owned businesses, and impacted families, as we gather to remember the angelversary of George Floyd.

GEORGE FLOYD GLOBAL MEMORIAL
3501 Chicago Ave S
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55407
United States
Phone 612-302-3433
Twitter @Gfgmemorial
Unique Identifier 853271661