Colorful street art has long spiced up the neighborhood, from the familiar "Petworth" mural outside Willow to the Dali-esque creation on the intersection of Rock Creek Church Road and Georgia Avenue.

On Saturday, May 5th, the Petworth community will add another piece of neighborhood art, with the launch of the Petworth Community Wall, a rotating poster project on view through summer 2018.

The project will be on display on the exterior wall of Petworth Citizen at 829 Upshur Street NW, and will feature posters by local artists who use art as a tool for social justice. The unveiling will run from 10am to 2pm Saturday May 5th, rain or shine, and will feature a wheatpasting event, where participants can help put up posters. Upshur Street Books and Petworth Citizen are sponsors.

The Petworth Community Wall is part of a larger effort, called the Hunger Wall Poster Project, being sponsored by the DC Public Library Foundation and other organizations to commemorate the 50-year anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. The exhibition was inspired by the multiracial, multi-ethnic activism of the Poor People’s Campaign in 1968.

Teen Wheatpasting Session at Shaw Library May 2nd courtesy of DC Public Library Foundation. (Photo by Olivia Weise).

The artists featured on Petworth’s wall will be Nando Alvarez, Adrienne Gaither, Monolith and Justin Poppe of the 411 collective, and NoMuNoMu. An additional poster event will be held at the Petworth Library on July 14th from 1-3 pm and will incorporate community posters into the overall design.

The 829 Upshur Street space will be dedicated to the Hunger Wall Poster Project through August, after which time the Project will be accepting proposals for similar community-minded installations on a rotating basis. Community curators will orchestrate the overall design and maintain it during the run of each exhibit.

For more information or to submit a proposal, send the organizers an email.