OLD SAYBROOK MURAL
The Old Saybrook mural focused on advancing racial justice education was completed on the wall of Seaside Wine & Spirits. This mural is the 5th mural commissioned by PARJE in south-east CT. Completed in early 2023, the mural celebrates our indigenous roots with a native dancer, indigenous housing, and the flora and fauna of this beautiful land.
The mural artist is Jasmine Oyola-Blumenthal, a graduate of the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts and the artist who painted the racial justice mural in the Old Lyme Middle School. She is the daughter of a black woman and great granddaughter of an indigenous American woman. We celebrate this talented young woman’s ability to create joyous narratives with bold, harmonious colors that not only please the eyes, but enrich our understanding of who we are.
It has been a year of learning, convening, and growing together for the Old Saybrook PARJE movement. We appreciate our many partners – from Acton Library to the Historical Society to 25 businesses and all who have journeyed together with us in our quest to bring greater diversity and focus on equity to Old Saybrook. We join many other towns and residents in working with PARJE, Sustainable CT and other entities that strive for greater justice and fairness.
On Monday, January 16, we organized a ceremony and march to commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and to celebrate the completion of the Old Saybrook PARJE mural. More than 80 participants met at the Penny Lane Pub to hear David Addams, Executive Director of the Graustein Memorial Fund, deliver remarks on the relevance of MLK, Jr.’s teachings to our continued struggle today. He urged the group to reflect on MLK’s words: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
We subsequently marched to the mural site at Seaside Wine & Spirits to hear muralist Jasmin Oyola speak to her vision and process. The first panel features indigenous origins and customs, local flora and fauna. The second highlights the important cultural contributions of three bold women to the Old Saybrook community.
Portraits of three audacious, bold, and talented women grace the right side of the mural: Ann Petry, Katherine Hepburn, and Anna Louise James. Anna James, 1886-1977, graduated from Old Saybrook’s high school in1908. She went on to attend and graduate from Brooklyn College of Pharmacy in 1908, as the first African American woman, and became the first African American woman to be licensed as a pharmacist in CT. She ran the James Pharmacy for 50 years. During that time, she befriended the young, aspiring actress, Katherine Hepburn.
Local legend has it that Katherine’s parents weren’t keen on Ms. Hepburn’s chosen career and refused to support her financially. It is reported that Pharmacist James lent the young Hepburn the train fare to NYC to audition for her early acting roles. Katherine achieved a legendary career in the movies, most notably co-starring opposite Sidney Poitier in the ground-breaking “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”, where a white woman chooses a black man as her husband.
The third woman celebrated in this mural is Ann Petry, who was born in Old Saybrook, and lived with her aunt, Anna Louise James. Ms. Petry, a writer, went on to be the first black woman to sell over a million copies of her book, The Street.
