INDIANAPOLIS — A mural dedicated to a local DJ in Broad Ripple is no more, and it has people in the community upset.
A wall once covered in vibrant colors remembering DJ and photojournalist Mpozi Mshale Tolbert is now bare. His friends and others in the community said a piece of history has been erased.
Tolbert died from natural causes in 2006 at the age of 34. The mural showed him DJing, angel wings on his back and his name sprawled across the brick. Now, all that remains is white paint and a bouquet of flowers. It was something Ife Mawusi-Bey didn't expect to see when she visited the mural for the first time Tuesday.
"It really makes me feel somber, a little sad because Mpozi was a really great guy," Mawusi-Bey said. "He had a really big heart, and he touched a lot of people, and I feel like the mural was an honor for him, so for it to be painted over, it's just really sad."
The mural could be seen on the side of a Broad Ripple business for three years.
"It's empty," Jeff Miner said. "It don't have any life anymore, the wall doesn't have any life."
Jeff is the brother of Ron Miner, otherwise known as DJ Indiana Jones. Ron and other friends of Mpozi helped bring the mural to life in 2020, 14 years after Mpozi died.
"I mean, you can look online and look at his photography. He was a first responder on Montserrat when the volcano erupted. He took some incredible pictures of that. He took pictures of 9/11. He was all over the place with his camera, on his bike. He was just a high-energy, high-vibrating being while on the planet," Miner said.
"Covering up the memory is almost like him dying again," Mawusi-Bey said. "It's like him dying all over again because he did so much for this community. He did a lot as far as a photojournalist. He did a lot just as a human being. Just being in his presence made you feel good."