Black Boy Joy mural adds vibrant landmark to Asheville trail

A 60-foot mural of a joyful Black boy now rises over Glen Rock Apartments on Depot Street, turning the River Arts District wall into a marker of who gets centered in Asheville’s public spaces. The piece, titled Black Boy Joy, was unveiled Friday, June 5, and joins the Asheville Black Cultural Heritage Trail as its latest visible stop.

Lead artist Tommy Lee McGee, who works as Sir Tom Foolery, created the mural with Asheville artists Gus Cutty and Kathryn Crawford. The image centers on a Black boy tending a garden, surrounded by flowers, glowing orbs and a tropical bird, a composition McGee said was meant to answer the way Black and brown joy is often left out of public murals.

The mural is installed at Glen Rock Apartments, 372 Depot Street, in a district that has become one of Asheville’s most watched corridors for arts-led recovery. Its placement also extends a civic project that carries more than aesthetic weight. Explore Asheville says the Black Cultural Heritage Trail launched in December 2023, includes 14 stops and 20 interpretive panels, and stretches across Downtown, Southside and the River Area, including the River Arts District.

That trail grew out of years of organizing. Asheville’s East End/Valley Street Neighborhood Association first raised the idea in community meetings in 2010, and River Front Development Group helped lead the effort that eventually brought the project to life. Catherine Mitchell, who was publicly identified as a longtime advocate, was 78 when the trail launched in 2023. The trail also received a $500,000 investment from the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority’s Tourism Product Development Fund.

Supporters have framed the trail as more than a heritage project. Explore Asheville describes it as the first of its kind in Western North Carolina and one of only a few Black heritage trails in the 13-state Appalachian region. Its interpretive content highlights landmarks and figures such as the YMI Cultural Center and William R. “Seabron” Saxon, tying the route to Black achievement, dignity, struggle and resilience across Asheville’s landscape.

Black Boy Joy is the second mural in a three-part series that began with Black Girl Magic, unveiled in South Slope in May 2025. McGee has said phrases associated with that earlier mural, including “Each One, Reach One, Teach One,” were intended as a call to action in the Black community. A third and final installation is planned for South Market Street this winter, extending a trail that is steadily redrawing Asheville’s cultural map in places people can walk and see for themselves.