New mural celebrates Bangladeshi community of Detroit, Hamtramck

[demmiblue]

Painted on a tall mural on the side of a school in Detroit, a smiling girl of Bangladeshi descent wrapped in a green and red shawl gazes on the block as Muslim students walk by.

The colorful scene Thursday afternoon on Carpenter Street on Detroit's east side, next to Hamtramck's border, showcases the shifting demographics of an area increasingly known as Banglatown, where one-third of the residents have roots in Bangladesh.

For decades, the Bangladeshi immigrant community in Hamtramck and Detroit has steadily built up and revitalized areas with new stores, businesses, houses of worship, helping repopulate the area.

But they have also struggled to gain visibility and the attention of the wider region. Now, a new mural — believed to be the biggest outdoor painting in the U.S. depicting Bangladeshi life — will be unveiled Sunday in a public celebration. The mural, which stands 55 feet wide and 46 feet high, is on the side of a middle school and is being painted by Victor Quiñonez, an artist from New York City called Marka27 who was born in Mexico and known for his neo-indigenous style of art.

https://www.freep.com/story/news/2018/10/20/new-mural-detroit-near-hamtramck-border-celebrates-bangladeshis/1689544002/