Students, faculty, and staff create their own plywood murals at the Catherine G. Murphy Gallery's opening reception for The Plywood Quilt in April.
This crossover Bookmark and Katies in Action article is a special preview from the upcoming summer Íæż½ã½ã Magazine. Read the rest of the issue on July 9 at
"We are never truly neutral in any but an aspirational sense. That is, we can aspire to have no influence on the outcome and to avoid taking sides in any way — it is just not something that we can truly deliver. Objectivity can only be understood as one component of how we think, of how we understand the world, one which never operates in isolation of our worldview, our emotions, or our values."
The Neutrality Trap: Disrupting and Connecting for Social Change (2022)
Bernard Mayer, PhD, and Jacqueline N. Font-Guzmán, JD, PhD
Five years after the murder of George Floyd, the enduring relevance of The Neutrality Trap is tragically evident. His death precipitated ideas that had been percolating for my co-author and myself, and we wrote this book to expose how claims of neutrality often perpetuate injustice by masking complicity in systems of oppression. The Neutrality Trap reminds us that true equity and social justice demand active engagement, especially from those in positions of influence.
Íæż½ã½ã’s founding Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet have always striven to create a better world for all through care of the dear neighbor, and this charge has been central to University equity work in the past five years. Our driven, passionate faculty and staff have contributed interdisciplinary work like “Democratizing the Humanities†and “Welcoming the Dear Neighbor?â€, and founded school-based healthcare through Bear Care Clinic. The yearly George Floyd Memorial Endowed Scholarship supports a Íæż½ã½ã’s student on their leadership journey. These initiatives are not end points, but markers on the path to wider change, because we know that to stand still as systemic inequities continue to cause harm is to fall into the neutrality trap.
Partners like Memorialize The Movement help us recognize that remembering George Floyd must go beyond observing this ï¬ve-year mark. It must be a call to reject neutrality as a default and instead adopt courageous, equity-centered approaches to conflict, policy, and change. Social justice cannot be sustained by silence — it requires action that confronts power and prioritizes the voices of those historically marginalized.
—Jacqueline N. Font-Guzmán, JD, PhD, senior vice president for student affairs, equity, and belonging
Multi-year collaboration with Memorialize the Movement
In the summer of 2020, vibrant murals covered street after street in Minneapolis. Following the murder of George Floyd, community members had repurposed the stark plywood boards that covered doorways and windows as a visual platform for mantras of resistance, illustrations of collective action, and the power of Black voices. In response, Minneapolis organization formed to collect, preserve, and make accessible the plywood murals as living Minnesota history.
“Five years later, the pain is still present — but so is our purpose,†says Leesa Kelly, MTM founder and executive director. “As the world moves forward, we remain rooted in the vital work of preserving Black history, ensuring that the story of George Floyd and the movement he ignited is never forgotten.â€
This past spring, community members were invited to share their stories and lived experiences by creating their own miniature murals. MTM and the Catherine G. Murphy Gallery presented . The exhibit highlighted plywood murals created since 2022 in MTM “Paint to Express†workshops, which center BIPOC community art and connection.
“During the workshops, students, faculty, and staff found comfort, voice, and empowerment by making paintings, then hanging them on the gallery wall,†says Nicole Watson, gallery director. “The spring exhibition created space on campus for reflection about this milestone anniversary.â€
The Plywood Quilt was a prelude to an upcoming fall 2025 exhibition with MTM, which will feature plywood murals and objects from the 2020 Minneapolis uprising. Learn more at
—Michelle Mullowney ’17