San Antonio artist Ronney Stevens' murals for the ZerNona S. Black Multi-Generational Cultural/Community Center brought him face-to-face with his childhood past.
When San Antonio artist Ronney Stevens agreed to create murals for a new East Side community center, he didn't initially realize the job would take him full circle back to his childhood. The city of San Antonio hired Stevens to paint two murals — one titled “ZerNona,” the other titled “A Small History of the Eastside” — for display at the ZerNona S. Black Multi-Generational Cultural/Community Center at 333 Martin Luther King Drive. Funded by a 2017-2022 bond program, the $5.
5 million,10,000 square-foot center opened in early December. The center will offer after-school programs and also serve as a senior center. The facility features two buildings, a catering kitchen, classroom spaces and a landscaped courtyard. Stevens, a San Antonio native, was familiar with ZerNona Black, an educator who taught at St. Philip’s College. He also knew she worked with her husband, the Rev. Claude Black, a civil rights activist and former San Antonio City Council member. What he didn’t know was the center would be built on a site he knew well — a lot between Martin Luther King Drive and Hardeman Street, where he lived 60 years ago with his mother, Earlean Darden, and younger brother Perry Stevens. The artist said it was surreal to create murals for that “very spot.” “I don’t think it was a coincidence,” said Stevens, 68. “It was quite emotional because my brother and my mother are gone. I am eternally grateful they allowed me to take part in the project.” Community connection Stevens, who is an artist in residence at the Little Studio Gallery at La Villita, said he's proud his work is featured at the center, which is next door to Mount Zion First Baptist Church, where the Rev. Claude Black was pastor from 1949 to 1998. Each of his murals at the center is seven feet tall and more than 20 feet wid
COMMUNITY ART HISTORY EAST SIDE SAN ANTONIO
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