District 7 photo
Bodeck Luna: "Safe Travels" (43rd Street and Flower Street)
By District 7 Public Affairs
An immigrant artist from Manila, Philippines, Bodeck Luna creates pieces that explore the relationship between nostalgia, social empowerment, and decolonization. His background in street art heavily influences his figurative paintings, illustrations and murals.
Bodeck showcases paintings, murals and curates other artists’ pieces in pop-up art shows throughout the city to display other emerging artists. He was appointed as the art director for the first annual Long Beach Filipino Festival in 2018. He was invited in early 2020 at Harvard Graduate School of Education to host a lecture on street art and activism.
From commercial and private commissions to album covers, he aims to bind the community by showcasing local talent and businesses. Some of his notable collaborations include Apple, LA Metro, Long Beach City Hall, Music Center LA, Aquarium of the Pacific and Covered California.
Victor H. Green’s Black Motorist Green Book was published in 1936 and historically assisted so many Black Americans to navigate the country during the Jim Crow Era.
This mural depicts Black families traveling across the Los Angeles road map. To the left we see a family loading up for travel. Throughout the scene, splattered across the mural are the intricate main highways that make up LA and with the 110 Freeway transitioning into a blackberry branch which holds leaves and the berries themselves. This is a nod to Wallace Thurman’s novel “The Blacker the Berry: A Novel of Negro Life,” which at the time of its release exposed the harsh conditions Black Americans were living.
The portraits include traveling musicians such as Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker. Behind them is a historic location listed in the Green Book, the Dunbar Hotel (originally Hotel Somerville) which is six blocks away from the mural where the two frequently shared stages with acts such as Sammy Davis Jr and Duke Ellington. Pictured to the right of them is a family who had just arrived at their destination. The portrait to the right of them is Victor Green himself framed inside of the original Green Book’s title page border.
“I hope that this mural could shine a light on the archival importance of the Green Book and its value leading to the Civil Rights Movement,” Luna said. “Through this visual narrative, I aim to preserve cultural heritage beyond beautifying the area by making it safe and educational for future generations.”