LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Israel McCullough, a fashion curator, says life is too short to dress boring.
“I’m usually out and about in the community taking pictures and showcasing different outfits,” says McCullough.
McCullough is also a freelance content creator.
The Riot Cafe is one place where he takes pictures of products and shares them on the cafe’s social media pages.
McCullough calls the cafe a church with no steeple.
“Our mission here is not just a coffee shop. It is to support Black, poor and marginalized people and support the social justice movement,” says McCullough.
Riot Cafe opened in 2020 as a safe place for protesters to go and it continues to support the social justice movement.
“You can sit and have coffee and enjoy a danish and enjoy a sake or anything of that matter,” says McCullough. “Just to know that you feel loved that you feel respected, and that this is a place where you can come and feel safe. This is a safe space for everybody.”
McCullough’s craft is as young as the cafe.
“I really started to notice my creativity when I began producing photos and videos for the Black Lives Matter movement centered around Breonna Taylor and George Floyd,” he said.
Two years ago on May 25, George Floyd was killed by a then-Minneapolis police officer.
Two months before Floyd’s death was captured on video, Breonna Taylor was killed during a Louisville Metro Police Department raid.
The deaths sparked McCullough’s hobby, which has turned into full-time work.
Documenting the 2020 protests through pictures reopened an old wound from a traffic stop he witnessed when he was in middle school.
“They roughed up my mom a little bit, and it was hard. It was hard to take that in on someone like me that’s like really young. It was hard. It was hard to cope for a minute,” says McCullough.
That memory pushed him to stand up.
“May 29 was the biggest decision of my life. I decided, okay, enough is enough. It’s time to step out. It’s time to start protesting. It’s time to set the example for poor marginalized and Black folks that this is rough. It’s time to speak up and do something,” says McCullough. “I’m tired of living like every day, like my skin feels like a terroristic threat.”
Signs and posters made by demonstrators during the 2020 protests in Louisville are on display in the cafe.
“We want this to not just be an exhibit, but to start a conversation about gun violence through police brutality into the systems of our world. We’ve had enough with it. It’s time to have these hard conversations,” says McCullough.
“Each and every day when I see this exhibit, it emotionally, it takes me back to 2020 with the killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd and so many others. It was this trauma after trauma just taken into my head. I didn’t know how to process or cope,” says McCullough.
McCullough believes Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, and others killed by should always be remembered.
“I’m hoping that they will be remembered for being hard-working beautiful, outstanding human beings that deserved to live a long and blessed life that unfortunately, that was taken away,” says McCullough. “I believe that every day that we say their names, they’re hearing that in the heavens.”
He says it also inspires future generations to continue to fight for change.
Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with the death of Floyd, was convicted of murder.
No one has been charged with Taylor’s death.