Mural • Inaugural CommissionThe Henrietta Lacks Mural
Our inaugural public art commission
East Baltimore, MD
Lee Colored Lenses (videography)
Our first large-scale commission began on a single block. In 2017, our founder organized the 800 Block of North Washington Street to give neighbors an organized voice — work that grew into the Midtown East Community Association (MECA).
When the chance came to commission a mural, the subject was clear: Henrietta Lacks, a Baltimorean whose cells changed modern medicine, taken without her knowledge or consent.
The work was never just about a wall. An open call drew more than 50 submissions. In partnership with the Maryland State Arts Council, the Henrietta Lacks Legacy Group, the House of Healing, and MECA, the community made the final decision itself: meeting the finalists, reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and voting on anonymous sketches to keep the choice fair. Shawn Perkins was selected unanimously.
On August 2, 2025, neighbors of all ages picked up brushes and painted Henrietta’s story into the brick — a wall now seen by more than 1,000 people a day at the edge of the Johns Hopkins medical campus, in a neighborhood where over 700 families were displaced. Nosreme paid the artist team $40,000, covering the lead artist and a stipend for the Morgan State apprentice who was central to Community Paint Day. The mural stands as a permanent tribute and a site for ongoing dialogue on health equity and racial justice.
“Henrietta’s in the paint, and we’re in the brick. All of us are part of this wall.”
— Shauntee Daniels, Baltimore National Heritage Area
The process
The block organizes
Open call
Community meetings & family input
Finalist review
Community vote
Community Paint Day
Unveiling
What it produced
A permanent tribute at the edge of the Johns Hopkins medical campus, and a working model for how community-led public art gets made.
Press Coverage
The Mural Zine
The full story of the mural, the family, and the making, in one document. Read it below or download a copy.
