[They feed they lion]

[They feed they lion]

Calligraphy--21st century.
Mural painting and decoration, American--Michigan--Detroit--21st Century.

Painted across the front and side facades of a 2-storey brick structure are large curvilinear forms with a fill of what appears to be a mesh of Arabic letters in white, with a uniform thin golden outline consisting of a similar mesh of Arabic letters. The side elevation also contains large areas of misty color. A medium blue cloud occupies the lower left and this rises to fill the center of the wall and then falls again to the lower right of the mural. In the bottom left and bottom central area is a bright yellow cloud. This same yellow is used to color the far right side of the wall. A smaller pinkish-orange area emerges from the yellow in the top right corner. In the center of the wall at the right is a square form turned 45 degrees which is filled with a mesh of what appear to be Arabic letters. At the bottom of the wall near the right corner of the side facade in a distinct calligraphy in white is the first lines of a poem by Philip Levine titled "They Feed They Lion." It reads: [Out of burlap sacks, out of bearing butter, / Out of black bean and wet slate bread, / Out of the acids of rage, the candor of tar, / Out of creosote, gasoline, drive shafts, wooden dollies, / They Lion grow.] It is signed Levine in white beneath these lines.

The mural is signed on the side facade in the lower left corner: [Siad Dokins / 2018 / mitm dtroit]

Said Dokins

Created: 2018
Photographed: 2024-09-23

paint on brick masonry

eng

Still Image

DMM-2024-00029

Poetry Foundation. (2025). They Feed They Lion. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49117/they-feed-they-lion

Address: 1550 Gratiot Ave, Detroit, MI 48207
Coordinates: 42.345755794822004, -83.03657320855899