Driving along 15th Street Northwest in D.C., you may notice a stretch with multicolored bike lanes and other street paintings. That “Rainbow Road” is now the longest LGBTQ+ mural in history.
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“D.C. has the largest LGBTQ per capita population in the country, and you know, it’s just important to not shy away from our colors,” said Lisa Marie Thalhammer with Lisa Marie studios, the lead artist on the project.
Stretching over half a mile between O and V streets, the mural features all the colors from the pride flag, as well as plenty of spots with three stars representing the D.C. flag.
There are also additions by eight other artists from the D.C. area.
“We also have this really cool piece by Maps Glover called ‘Watermelon Kisses,’ and it’s just this really sweet depiction of two figures, you know, embracing in a sweet kiss surrounded by green and black in a pink heart,” Thalhammer said.
A recent graduate from the University of Maryland, Micah Meyers, also painted reimagined bathroom signs.
The artists and more than a hundred volunteers spent weeks designing and painting the project in time for last month’s World Pride Festival.
“It would not have happened without the help of, you know, these 120 volunteers all coming together to make this city more colorful and more beautiful,” Thalhammer said.
While planned for Pride month, the 0.63-mile long mural is expected to stick around for years to come as “a visual reminder that pride is actually 365 days of the year.”
“This painting is really for our community, in the Shaw and Dupont Circle neighborhoods, and it just really brought so much light and joy to people’s faces,” Thalhammer said.
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