Photo credit: @sliceofdill
By Malik Washington, Destination Freedom Media Group | The Davis Vanguard
SAN FRANCISCO — Bayview-Hunters Point did not gather last Saturday merely for recreation. It gathered for recognition, for memory and for power.
Under a clear sky at India Basin Waterfront Park, the community came together for “RecFest,” a celebration that, on its surface, looked like joy. Children spun Double Dutch ropes in rhythmic harmony. Young MCs took the mic with unfiltered confidence. A DJ stitched together a soundtrack that pulled elders and youth alike into motion.
But at the center of it all, physically and spiritually, stood something far more enduring: a 13-foot monument. A declaration. A calling.
“Whispers of Waste.”
Created by Bayview-based artist Zulu Heru, the sculpture does not ask for attention. It commands it.
Rising from the landscape of India Basin, Whispers of Waste is anchored in contradiction: industrial scrap transformed into sacred form.
Crafted from reclaimed metal, industrial remnants and cement, the sculpture takes the shape of an African ancestral mask, drawing directly from the traditions of the Senufo people of Ivory Coast, where masks are not decoration but vessels, protectors and bridges between worlds.
Zulu Heru made that clear to the crowd gathered for the unveiling. This is not just art. This is memory cast in steel. This is ancestry forged in resistance. This is liberation made visible.
Zulu, who designed and constructed the piece just steps away at Bayview’s own Box Shop creative space, spoke with intention and clarity. Every weld, every contour and every protruding form embedded in the sculpture carries meaning.
More importantly, it carries purpose.
Zulu Heru is not an artist who separates aesthetics from politics, or form from function. He is known for a phrase that has become both ethos and instruction: “As artists, our craft is liberation.”
That belief is not abstract. It is lived.
A former U.S. Army tank commander, Zulu spoke openly about how working with metal, once a material of war, has become a medium for healing, expression and transformation. Through his masks, he channels emotions that defy easy language.
What emerges is not just sculpture. It is testimony. It is therapy. It is resistance.
But what unfolded at India Basin was not just artistic expression. It was community infrastructure in motion.
Among those present were Uncle Damien and the team from Us4Us Bay Area, an organization that has become one of the most credible street-level forces for violence prevention and youth engagement in San Francisco.
Their presence was not ceremonial. It was intentional. It was necessary.
While the music played and the ropes turned, Us4Us was doing what it has consistently done across Bayview and beyond: building relationships, interrupting cycles and planting something far more powerful than programming.
It is planting peace.
I spoke with a young man named Marcel, who did not offer vague praise or surface-level talking points. He spoke with clarity, lived clarity, about what Us4Us has meant on the ground.
He described programs rooted in mentorship, conflict mediation and consistent presence in the lives of young people navigating real pressures, the kind of work that rarely makes headlines but often determines outcomes.
Then he said something that lingered long after the music faded: “They’re really about sowing seeds of peace and unity in the community.”
Not slogans. Not temporary engagement. Seeds.
Anyone who understands this work knows seeds require time, consistency and care before they ever become visible. Us4Us is doing that work quietly, relentlessly and effectively.
And the youth did show up. In numbers. In energy. In presence. So much so that it shifted the moment itself.
Reading the crowd in real time, Zulu Heru made a decision that speaks volumes about who he is, not just as an artist but as a community figure. He changed his speech.
Not because he was unprepared, but because he was paying attention.
Seeing the number of young people gathered before him, Zulu pivoted, speaking more directly, more intentionally and more urgently to them. He emphasized creation, ownership and possibility.
He did not talk at them. He spoke to them.
Then he did something even more important. He opened a door.
By encouraging youth to step into the world of art, to apprentice and to learn the craft, Zulu transformed what could have been a static unveiling into something dynamic: an invitation, an opportunity, a pathway.
Built in Bayview, for Bayview and with Bayview, Whispers of Waste was not imported into the community. It was born from it.
Designed and built locally, with the support of cement fabricator Jen Reed, the sculpture stands as a product of Bayview labor, Bayview vision and Bayview pride.
It now lives at India Basin Waterfront Park, a site that itself represents something deeper than redevelopment.
The park was shaped by an Equitable Development Plan guided by the very community that calls this place home, a critical distinction in a city where too many developments erase the people they claim to serve.
Here, at least for this moment, the script is different.
This is what it looks like when community voice is not an afterthought, but the blueprint.
There are installations you pass by. There are sculptures you photograph. And then there are works like Whispers of Waste, pieces that follow you home, linger in your thinking and quietly demand that you come back and look again.
Because the first time, you see the form. The second time, you begin to understand the story.
And somewhere after that, you start asking questions: Who is this artist? What else has he created? What does it mean to turn discarded materials into something sacred? What does it mean to turn lived experience into public truth?
That is the power of Zulu Heru’s work.
It does not end at the unveiling. It begins there.
What took place at India Basin was more than an event. It was a standard.
It showed that Bayview-Hunters Point is not waiting to be defined. That its artists are not waiting to be discovered. That its organizations are not waiting for permission to do the work.
They are already here. Already building. Already intervening.
And if the city is paying attention, it should understand this clearly: This is what investment looks like when it actually reaches the people.
Art. Infrastructure. Intervention. Opportunity.
All in one place. All at the same time.
Whispers of Waste is now installed at India Basin Waterfront Park.
Go see it. Stand in front of it. Take your time with it.
And then, if you want to understand it, really understand it, start with the artist behind it. Follow Zulu Heru on Instagram: @ZuluHeru.
Photograph courtesy of John Dill (@sliceofdill).
Because some stories are not meant to be read once. They are meant to be explored.
And Zulu Heru is just getting started.
If you want, I can also turn this into a tighter Vanguard-style news feature with a headline, byline and six comma-separated tags.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Malik Washington is a San Francisco-based journalist and co-founder of Destination Freedom Media Group, an independent nonprofit newsroom dedicated to accountability reporting at the intersection of civil rights, public integrity, disability justice, structural accountability within American institutions, and community survival. He has been a published journalist for over 14 years.
His work—published in partnership with the Davis Vanguard—focuses on government power, criminal justice, environmental justice, and the human consequences of policy decisions too often insulated from public scrutiny. Washington’s reporting amplifies the voices of impacted communities while insisting on documentary evidence, transparency, and the unvarnished truth—especially when institutions demand silence.
His work appears on platforms such as Muck Rack and Black Voice News, examining the intersection of justice, governance, and community.
You can reach him via email: mwashington2059@gmail.com or call him at (719) 715-9592.
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Categories: Breaking News San Francisco Tags: Bayview Hunters Point Community Development Environmental Justice public art violence prevention youth engagement