The new mural will replace an unfinished mural of a lion by Zulu Painter. Carolyn Brayboy joked that she wished Aretha Franklin was a Leo. Amy Diaz | The Crow’s Nest
By Amy Diaz
The historic 22nd Street South Corridor, also known as the Deuces, is paying its r-e-s-p-e-c-t to Aretha Franklin.
After Franklin’s death in August, The Deuces Live design committee decided to create a mural in her honor.
“When Aretha Franklin passed, we already had Ella Fitzgerald, the queen of jazz, on one wall,” said Carolyn Brayboy, design committee chair. “We wanted the opposite wall to be Aretha Franklin, the queen of soul.”
Brayboy and her husband Elihu, president of The Deuces Live, have been working on redevelopment projects in the area for six years.
The Deuces used to be an area thriving with local business and entertainment. The Manhattan Casino brought big name jazz and blues musicians like Duke Ellington and B.B. King.
The area began to decline in the 1970s after the installation of Interstate 275, which divided the neighborhood. Many parts of south St. Petersburg have since garnered a bad reputation. The Deuces Live is trying to change that.
The organization is dedicated to revitalizing the community in a way that attracts businesses and consumers while preserving the area’s history and culture.
It is a part of Main Street America, a national organization focused on building vibrant communities in historic neighborhoods with a specific four-point approach: economic vitality, promotion, organization and design.
Brayboy’s project of choice on the design committee was the beautification of I-275.
“It’s almost like a gateway to the area, and it had chain link fences and debris gathering and weeds growing,” Brayboy said. “So I thought ‘Wow, wouldn’t it be a great idea to clean that up?’”
The underpass is now home to four music-themed murals by local artists Zulu Painter and Thirst. The murals were a product of the 2017 SHINE festival.
“This corridor on 22nd Street in its heyday was known for its music, so we thought it would be great to pay tribute to that,” Brayboy said of the I-275 project.
The murals on the corridor don’t stop at the highway.
You can find Ella Fitzgerald at Lorene’s Fish and Crab House at 929 22nd St. S., and Louis Armstrong at Chief’s Creole Cafe, owned by the Brayboys, at 901 22nd St. S. A two-story mural of Prince was also in the district, but Hurricane Irma destroyed the building.
In the next couple months, Zulu Painter’s rendition of Franklin with a pink Cadillac inspired by her song “Freeway of Love” will go up at 911 22nd St. S.
