Huge Afro Pick Erected Near Rizzo Statue

PHILADELPHIA – As the statue of former Philadelphia Mayor and Police Commissioner Frank Rizzo is the center of controversy in Philadelphia, a new art installation has gone up right next to it in Center City Philly.

Mural Arts Philadelphia installed a huge afro pick pop art piece this week at the Municipal Services Building, just feet from Rizzo's statue.

"All Power to All People" by artist Hank Willis Thomas for Monument Lab, a public art and history project from Mural Arts, is a temporary prototype monument, Mural Arts said.

The 12-foot-tall afro pick, which is topped with a black fist, serves to "highlight ideas related to community, strength, perseverance, comradeship, and resistance to oppression," Mural Arts said.

Thomas will be on hand at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Municipal Service Building courtyard to discuss the new installation and other Monument Lab projects.

The pick stands in contrast to Rizzo's statue.

As calls to remove Confederate monuments from public spaces grew around the country, Philadelphia politicians and activists began calling to remove Rizzo's statue, claiming he set back race relations in the city during his tenure as police commissioner and mayor.

The city even took to the public in coming up with a plan for the statue, which you can still do now through Sept. 15.

Not only has the statue been a target, Rizzo's mural at the Italian Market is also under even more scrutiny than in the past.

Photo by Steve Weinik, courtesy of Mural Arts Philadelphia