This story was originally published by Capital B Gary.
By Rayonna Burton-Jernigan
Capital B Gary
March 10, 2025
As temperatures rise in Gary, so too is residents’ desire to push the city in a brighter direction. To that end, one avenue for change is being honed in our youngest citizens: through art.
World-renowned artist PeQue, a Gary native whose murals have honored figures like Kobe Bryant and Kamala Harris, returned home — not just to create art, but to inspire the next generation.
Through the “Greatness of Gary” project, a citywide effort led by the Gary Alumni Pathway to Students (GAPS) designed to connect art and the culture of Gary, PeQue is leading a digital art workshop where students will help create murals and billboards showcasing the city’s rich legacy. Last week, he met with students from across the school district after school, teaching them about Gary’s heritage and giving them a platform to express it through art.
“It’s really important that you’re able to utilize your art to make the world a better place,” PeQue told students at his workshop at Gary Middle School.
Dedicated to showing the power and passion behind art, it was a no-brainer when his former classmate, Lisa Bennett, asked him to return home and pay it forward to kids sitting in the same classrooms they once did.
Bennett, the executive director of Gary Alumni Pathway to Students (GAPS), has made it her mission to connect students with Gary school alumni who have built successful careers; showing them what’s possible.
“We have an opportunity to take our collective learned experiences and hand those over to the kids that are in our community,” she said. “They don’t have to figure it all out, because we’ve lived it already; then it becomes that wealth-building process for them.”
After receiving a grant from the Legacy Foundation, a community organization in Northwest Indiana that funds projects, scholarships and other things in the community throughout Lake County, the program invited PeQue to participate in a revitalization project that intersects Gary’s rich history and culture with art.
“We want to educate our students and make sure that they understand who came from Gary, the legacy, the shoulders upon which they stand that gives them the platform and that step ahead,” he said.
In the Black communities, practicality often overshadows passion when it comes to career choices. PeQue was no exception.
After being told that his passion wouldn’t pay the bills, PeQue joined the Navy as a medic. Having a family to care for and provide for and the cloud of his father stating that art wouldn’t bring in the money needed to sustain, he avoided his love for art.
Still, art found its way back into his life.
As he rose through the ranks, his superiors tapped him to make posters and logos for different assignments. Although it provided a creative outlet, it wasn’t where his heart was.
Seeing the misery in life, a colleague asked him two questions that set him on a path: What’s your passion? What is the thing that you would do for free, but you do it just because you love it?
PeQue didn’t hesitate. Art was the answer.
“I didn’t choose art; it chose me,” he said.
After completing his military service, he became a full-time artist, creating some of the most iconic murals in the country — including the Bryant tribute in Los Angeles and the Harris mural outside Chicago’s United Center.
Later, he discovered that his father once dreamed of being an artist, too, but had abandoned it for more “practical” work. PeQue was determined not to follow the same path.
With over 35 years of experience, he now works with young artists nationwide, helping them see the opportunities that art can provide. Now, he’s bringing the mission back home.
This project will highlight more than a dozen influential figures from Gary’s history. Among them are NBA All-Star Darius Garland, U.S. Rep. Katie Hall — who helped establish the federal Martin Luther King Jr. holiday — and Richard Hatcher, Gary’s first Black mayor. Their images will be featured in murals and billboards across the city once the project is complete.
A mural in Gary wouldn’t be complete without the Jackson family, but PeQue and Bennett want to expand the city’s narrative beyond its most famous name.
Staff handpicked students for the project, recognizing their interest in art but lack of a formal outlet to explore it. Most of the students were in middle school, with a few high school students also working with them. Many students don’t have a normal art class, so this is an outlet for them.
Makayla Evans, an eighth-grader at Gary Middle School, wanted to learn new techniques that will help her design her school’s logo and T-shirts.
“I like that I can inspire people with my art and show them what I do,” she said. Wanting to design her school year’s logo and T-shirt this year, she knows that this will boost her work.
Like Evans, siblings Jomarion and Jahlea Little’s love of art led them to participate in the project.
Jomarion, a seventh-grader, was inspired to become an artist after seeing an art notebook on the floor at school and seeing the work that the person had done. Never meeting another artist in real life, he knew he wanted to use the few days he could to connect with PeQue.
While he doesn’t want to focus on the traditional art scene, he wants to learn more about animation styles and moving art forms to create his own movies or anime.
“It helps the school and people in it, like me, because now I can learn stuff from the artist that I never knew, like digital art,” he said. “I tried it before, but it didn’t look too good, and I didn’t know how to use some of its features, so I looked it up, but that didn’t help. I needed to help from a teacher.”
Like her brother, Jahlea wanted to take this workshop to find an outlet for her creativity in the art community.
“I wanted to take the program to find an artist that looked like me, since there aren’t many in my class,” the sixth-grader said.
Similar to students’ feelings, Bennett hopes that GAPS and this project will illuminate a new pathway for the city’s young generation and bring an unknown history to everyone’s mind.
“Our main job is to help kids imagine and get beyond just the limitations of what their parents are,” she said, providing another bridge for kids to find their passion away from the usual jobs.
Rayonna Burton-Jernigan is the Business and Economic Development reporter for Capital B Gary. More by Rayonna Burton-Jernigan
Capital B is a Black-led, nonprofit local and national news organizations reporting for Black communities across the country.
