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Jackie Robinson Mural in Ft. Greene Could Be Tourist Destination: Activist

By Alexandra Leon | October 25, 2016 5:19pm
 A rendering of a new mural being planned for Academy Restaurant at 69 Lafayette Avenue in Fort Greene.
A rendering of a new mural being planned for Academy Restaurant at 69 Lafayette Avenue in Fort Greene.
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Vincent Ballantine

FORT GREENE — The man behind murals paying tribute to rappers Biggie Smalls and Phife Dawg wants to honor another local legend with his next piece.

Leroy McCarthy is looking for permission to paint a mural of baseball great Jackie Robinson on the Academy Restaurant at 69 Lafayette Ave.

The work would cover the restaurant’s two pull-down gates — with the side facing Lafayette Avenue saying “Brooklyn” in the Brooklyn Dodgers’ white lettering across a blue background, and the other facing South Elliott Place showing Robinson sliding into home plate in shades of blue. 

The design was created by artist Vincent Ballantine, who worked with McCarthy on the “Think BIG” mural outside Fulton Bikes in Clinton Hill and the Phife Dawg mural at 19210 Linden Blvd. in St. Albans, Queens.

McCarthy said the gates, which are tagged with graffiti every few months, would become a destination for local Instagram users and tourists alike.

“This could be a destination for selfies, or even photo shoots,” he said. “This could be an attraction to the neighborhood.”

He said painting a mural honoring a local legend would keep taggers from defacing the diner’s gates, as the other murals have done at similar neighborhood establishments.

“People who do spray-painting, they know and they respect,” he said. “Like the Think BIG mural, it’s an OG status and Jackie Robinson has the OG status of Brooklyn.”

The painting of the mural would coincide with the World Series, which begins Tuesday, as well as the anniversary of Robinson’s death on Monday.

As Brooklyn becomes increasingly gentrified, the mural would also honor the borough’s history, said McCarthy, who has been fighting to have the corner of St. James Place and Fulton Street in Clinton Hill named Christopher Wallace Way after Biggie Smalls.

“There’s a lot of change in the community,” he said. “This is an homage to old Brooklyn in a way.”

McCarthy is waiting for final approval from the diner to paint the mural, which would take less than a week to complete, he said. He is also trying to secure funding from a local organization to pay for supplies and a stipend for the artist.

A representative for Academy Restaurant was not immediately available for comment.