Henry Legacy commemorated on block-long mural

1st August 2022   ·   0 Comments

By Fritz Esker
Contributing Writer

New Orleans businessman and former mayoral candidate Troy Henry recently unveiled the block-long, two-story-high mural he commissioned on a brick wall at the Sterling Xpress gas station on Tchoupitoulas Street.

The mural has been a little over two years in the making and pays tribute to the significant figures in Henry’s life (family, friends, and more). Local artist Kentrice Schexnayder painted the mural. Henry first thought of the project as a way to beautify an otherwise humdrum space.

“We just had a big empty wall at the back of the property,” Henry said.

Important Henry family members depicted on the mural include Henry’s father, Sterling Henry Jr., the first Black pharmacist at the Circle Food Store; Henry’s mother Elvira Day Henry; Henry’s brother Ruston and Henry’s grandfather Clarence, a civil rights activist who served as a longtime leader of New Orleans’ Black longshoreman union. Henry also appears on the mural alongside a charging purple knight symbolizing Henry’s alma mater St. Augustine High School.

People outside of the Henry family on the mural include New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell, “The Wire” and “Treme” actor Wendell Pierce, the late chef Leah Chase, the late TV anchor Nancy Parker, and R&B composer and producer Dave Bartholomew.

Henry suggested people for the mural to Schexnayder, but Schexnayder had the final call on who went on the mural.

“I wanted her to have full creative latitude,” Henry said.

Schexnayder had her first meeting with Henry in June 2020. There would be many challenges along the way. The COVID-19 pandemic took its toll on the project. Schexnayder came down with COVID-19 twice while working on the mural. She also said some supplies were hard to get because of the pandemic. Like most New Orleanians, her life was disrupted by Hurricane Ida, which damaged her home and caused her to briefly relocate to the Atlanta area.

“It was one of the most challenging projects I’ve ever had, but it was rewarding in the same way,” Schexnayder said. “I grew as an artist in this project”

Aside from pandemic issues, New Orleans’ climate provided its own set of challenges. If it rained, Schexnayder could not work. On some summer days, she could only tolerate the intense heat and humidity for a couple of hours. On her most productive days, she worked for 12 hours a day.

The mural was also vandalized three times while Schexnayder was working on it. Each time, she would have to correct the damage to her work.

Schexnayder said she did 95 percent of the work on the 254-foot-long, 20-foot-high mural herself. She received a little assistance for the mural’s background, but otherwise the painting effort was a solo one.

“You see the beauty of a project when it’s complete, but it comes with trials and tribulations,” Schexnayder said.

Schexnayder finished her work on the mural in April of this year, but the mural was not officially unveiled until July 19. Henry has described initial public feedback on the mural as “overwhelmingly positive.”

This article originally published in the August 1, 2022 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.