{"id":574334,"date":"2026-07-29T20:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T20:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/574334\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T20:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T20:26:09","slug":"at-corey-ruizs-vigil-a-minneapolis-statue-stands-for-solidarity-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/574334\/","title":{"rendered":"At Corey Ruiz\u2019s vigil, a Minneapolis statue stands for solidarity | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cap Times is an independent newsroom serving Madison and Wisconsin. Sign up for the Food & Culture newsletter<\/a> for exclusive weekly insight.<\/p>\n

At the center of the vigil for Corey Ruiz, a Black man killed by a Madison Police officer on July 22, stands a large wooden statue in the shape of a raised fist.<\/p>\n

The statue rises from the intersection of Williamson and South Baldwin streets, the locus of a community-led, community-organized vigil for Ruiz. It originally stood in Minneapolis at George Floyd Square by the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue where, in May 2020, George Floyd was murdered by police officer Derek Chauvin.<\/p>\n

The statue is \u201ca symbol of solidarity and power, collectiveness and unity, and that we all belong,\u201d said Minneapolis-based artist and activist jordan jamal powell karis. He and a half dozen neighbors brought the statue to Wisconsin as a show of solidarity for the Madison community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was Thursday morning that we started thinking about this, and Friday morning we packed it up and brought it down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Williamson Street between South Few and South Dickinson streets remains closed to traffic. There are no immediate plans to reopen the street<\/a> as the city works with organizers, residents and businesses to determine next steps.<\/p>\n

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The artist who made the sculpture, jordan jamal powell karis, adjusts the Pan-American flag on the top of a 11-foot raised fist sculpture he built and delivered from Minneapolis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

AMBER ARNOLD<\/p>\n

The intersection has served as a gathering place for people to lay flowers and pay tribute to Ruiz while demanding accountability from the police and city for their excessive use of force, specifically toward Madison\u2019s Black community.<\/p>\n

The local community organizing group ACAB Underground School connected with powell karis to bring the statue to Madison. The group\u00a0made a statement on its Instagram account<\/a>: \u201cWe hope that this fist serves as a physical reminder to our community that solidarity is a verb, not just a passive email signature or a line in a song. \u2026 It requires sacrifice, discomfort, and belief that together we can create a better world.\u201d<\/p>\n

A statue \u2018to help hold the space\u2019<\/p>\n

The fist is one of four statues powell karis built in 2021. He built the first fist statue in 2020 after \u201cseeing my community of Minneapolis hurting. During the days following George Floyd\u2019s lynching in 2020, I was very moved to show up in kind of a healing capacity, and to do that, people needed to have the space to heal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The original statue is in storage, powell karis said. He then built four more wooden statues and a metal one in 2021. The metal statue was designed to remain at George Floyd Square, and the wooden ones \u2014 also on display at the Square \u2014 were intended to travel. An additional statue was built and delivered to Akron, Ohio, in 2022 following the killing of Jayland Walker by police<\/a>. (Walker, 25, was struck by bullets 46 times by eight police officers<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

He also built a statue for the Black Lives Matter branch in Los Angeles near Leimert Plaza Park.<\/p>\n

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Two statues by jordan jamal powell karis stand in George Floyd Square in Minneapolis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

jordan jamal powell karis<\/p>\n

\u201cMy art and my creativity are just part of my expression, specifically grief (and) funneling emotion,\u201d powell karis said. Friends knew he had building skills, so they suggested building something \u201clarge that\u2019ll help hold the space.\u201d The statue is over 11 feet tall.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were obviously taking up space out in the streets, claiming what is usually kind of a mechanized, linear, objective space of a roadway,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd they were holding it specifically where George Floyd was killed, and there was a tremendous amount of grief and community and just a process of energy unfolding there.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he saw people in Madison claiming space at the intersection, powell karis noticed parallels to how the community responded to the murder of George Floyd.<\/p>\n

\u201cThousands of people have participated in the caretaking of George Floyd Square over six years, and we know what we continue to leverage and work towards,\u201d powell karis said. \u201cAnd the moment that Madison had barricades form on Williamson and Baldwin, there was a very clear image of like, \u2018Oh, this is one of those situations.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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A raised fist statue by jordan jamal powell karis helps hold space for mourning in communities in the aftermath of police violence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

jordan jamall powell karis<\/p>\n

This fist delivered to Madison has stood at George Floyd Square for the last five years. \u201cThat specific fist has been struck by vehicles intentionally multiple times. That fist has caught bullets before,\u201d powell karis said.<\/p>\n

People across the globe have visited George Floyd Square, but the statues were not built to be a tourist attraction, powell karis said. \u201cThey were built to protest and to support the process of getting Black people to be able to live a safer life and not die in the hands of state violence and police,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The statue helps make the site of mourning hard to displace, he said. \u201cThe fist statue makes it more difficult for the state and the city to just walk in there and remove everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that time, the community can mourn, but they can also determine what happens next. \u201cWhether that\u2019s growing food or hosting educational workshops and rallies, playing music, just having a space to grieve or writing demands to have the police officer held accountable \u2014 it\u2019s up for the Madison community to really make the most of more time and more space\u201d powell karis said.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no expectation that the statue be returned, powell karis said. \u201cIt\u2019s just plywood and two-by-fours. One thing we really stand on at the end of the day from George Floyd Square is people over property,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it wasn\u2019t there tomorrow, it wouldn\u2019t be the biggest concern,\u201d powell karis said. \u201cIt\u2019s more (about), what are the people of Madison needing in this time? They need a place to go. They need a place to meet. They need a place to grieve and acknowledge and process the trauma of losing one of their community members to a horrific public lynching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editor’s note: powell\u00a0karis does not capitalize his name.\u00a0<\/p>\n