On March 8, 2021, the trial will begin for former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd. Co-defendants (and former officers) J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao will stand trial for Mr. Floyd’s murder beginning on August 23, 2021. In response to community identified needs for support leading up to and during these trials, the Legal Rights Center is implementing a Community Action Plan to provide legal and restorative practice resources to our communities. As part of that work we are hosting a forum to give voice to our communities' perspectives on "justice" and the upcoming trial. ​

Please join us, and out guests; Kevin Reese, Nekima Levy Armstrong and Mary Moriarty as we deconstruct definitions of justice and create a space to continue processing our collective response to the murder of George Floyd. You can register here, or learn more via our Facebook Events page.

The Legal Rights Center is looking to partner with local artists of color and/or Native artists to design and paint a mural on the side of our building in conjunction with a grant that is offered by the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs.  CURA is currently offering grants to individual artists of color and Native artists in a neighborhood artist partnership project.  The goals of the program are to identify and support compelling projects that support neighborhood wellbeing that artists have developed in response to their community’s specific challenges and opportunities. 

We would like to support a local artist’s vision of the history and importance of the Legal Rights Center in the neighborhood.  It is the artist who will be applying for the grant but we are definitely willing to assist in the grant request process and writing.

The grant application is due March 7th.  We are hoping to have an artist identified by February 19th to allow a sufficient time to develop the vision and write the grant.  Sooner is obviously better.

For more information about the grant please see Artist Neighborhood Partnership Initiative Small Grant Program Request for Proposals | CURA (umn.edu)

If you are interested in partnering with the Legal Rights Center in this project, please contact Kindahl Larson at klarson@legalrightscenter.org