The Oak Bluffs Sign Approval Committee officially approved the Inkwell Beach signs today. Our persistence ensured these tributes to our history and the Polar Bears remain a permanent part of the landscape. Please keep an eye on the beach to make sure the signs stay up where they belong.
July 27, 2018
Final supporters
July 2017, island artist michael johnson created and gifted the “Inkwell Beach” community, the town of Oak Bluffs, and the people of Martha’s Vineyard with two fine art street signs that note, pay homage and celebrate the long and storied history of our local gem “Inkwell Beach”, and also to pay homage to one of Oak Bluff’s most exceptional cultural treasures, the “Oak Bluff’s Polar Bears”, a cultural/social group that has been active in the community continuously for over 70 years! The signs were vetted and duly approved by Oak Bluffs Park and Rec. and were enjoyed by all of Inkwell Beach's many beach goers throughout summer 2017. But after being taken down at season's end i was notified that in order for the signs to be returned and to fulfill procedure and protocol they must be approved by the "Oak Bluffs Sign Approval Committee". In striving to attain that goal i would like to reach out to the community and allow them to share with the committee their voice of support for the signs as a positive expression of "Inkwell Beach's" unique history and character, and as an artistically attractive place marker giving public testimony to all, of this beach's deserving status as a venerated historical/cultural landmark.
signed: artist, michael johnson
photo: mv times - stacey rupolo
Updates
June 13, 2018
We hit 500 signatures today and the Sign Approval Committee is officially taking notice of our demand to keep these markers up. Post this link on your Facebook page right now to keep the pressure on them. Call your town representative to ensure they understand that these signs are a vital part of our local history.
Reached 500 supporters
June 11, 2018
June 9, 2018
The Oak Bluffs Sign Approval Committee is reviewing our formal request to return the artwork to the beach. Post this petition on your Facebook timeline today so the committee sees how much this cultural history means to the town.
Reached 100 supporters
June 5, 2018
214 Comments
It's important to make sure the sign remains. The polar bears are a Martha's Vineyard legacy. I have several family members that are proud Martha's Vineyard polar bears, including myself! It's a part of our heritage and needs to be celebrated!
These signs are a major part of OB’s culture and history and they also serve to educate those who will never learn about the rich history from the books. Please keep these signs posted! Thank you!
The richness of the history of the Inkwell Beach is why I brought my children here for many summers before we were able to buy a home in this historical district. The sign is an art piece that adorns many homes worldwide and should be welcomed with open arms. Thank you Mr. Johnson.
I was so excited to see and take a picture next to this sign. It was the perfect way to commemorate my first time to The Inkwell! It's lovely, and it subtly adds to the layers of history that keep us newbies wanting to visit your beautiful island. Please vote to approve it :)
The signs are more than simply a location marker. They are works of art representing an historical landmark with which many an Islander and visitor have a deep and abiding historical connection. To remove them without a very strong and convincing rational would be a travesty and an insult.
I am one of the young indigenous Freedmen from the state of Arizona. State Forty Eight rep currently based in Los Angeles (based in Central City, fighting for full reclamation and redevelopment of historical West Adams district, Central Jazz District, Long Beach (everything east of Lomita), Santa Monica areas, Inglewood and the whole Crenshaw and South Central, South Bay region). I am wholeheartedly showing my support for cultural heritage preservation of the tourism, entertainment, recreational and hospitality-based accomplishments; as well as the real estate developments of descendants of United States mainland abolition, all of which were undeniably dangerous yet groundbreaking projects during those turbulent times. I am truly disgusted about how there has been an active and obsessive effort to rob and justify those robberies from Freedmen. Robbery of their equity and inheritances with intention to return those same familial ownerships to the former slave owner ancestral groups. Racist wealth transfers committed by destroying, burying and completely obliterating Freedmen's heritage communities and forcing us into structural independence of racist systems. All the while foreign migrants, both "legal naturalized", false asylum seekers, visa holders, and illegal aliens with no papers from all over the world as well as ethnically Afro Latinos, West indians/Caribbean islanders and continental Africans can move into former sundown towns like Prescott, Arizona (the original AZ capitol) and be embraced (made an example there). Foreigners are welcomed with no opposition while native Black American freed slaves never got that same consideration and respect and our communities were attacked by racist ordinances, bombing, vandalism of our vacation homes, hotels, motels, cabins, automobiles as well as arson. I say to the direct descendants of the founding of this specific beach and all other advocates who are concerned about protecting Juneteenth/Freedmen's heritage sites
This is a historically significant beach which deserves its recognition.... A sign is just a small gesture of what it deserves. History should always be respected and never covered up.
Share this petition
Share this petition to help it reach more people.
Your share link
The Oak Bluffs Sign Approval Committee officially approved the Inkwell Beach signs today. Our persistence ensured these tributes to our history and the Polar Bears remain a permanent part of the landscape. Please keep an eye on the beach to make sure the signs stay up where they belong.
July 27, 2018
Final supporters
July 2017, island artist michael johnson created and gifted the “Inkwell Beach” community, the town of Oak Bluffs, and the people of Martha’s Vineyard with two fine art street signs that note, pay homage and celebrate the long and storied history of our local gem “Inkwell Beach”, and also to pay homage to one of Oak Bluff’s most exceptional cultural treasures, the “Oak Bluff’s Polar Bears”, a cultural/social group that has been active in the community continuously for over 70 years! The signs were vetted and duly approved by Oak Bluffs Park and Rec. and were enjoyed by all of Inkwell Beach's many beach goers throughout summer 2017. But after being taken down at season's end i was notified that in order for the signs to be returned and to fulfill procedure and protocol they must be approved by the "Oak Bluffs Sign Approval Committee". In striving to attain that goal i would like to reach out to the community and allow them to share with the committee their voice of support for the signs as a positive expression of "Inkwell Beach's" unique history and character, and as an artistically attractive place marker giving public testimony to all, of this beach's deserving status as a venerated historical/cultural landmark.
signed: artist, michael johnson
photo: mv times - stacey rupolo
Updates
June 13, 2018
We hit 500 signatures today and the Sign Approval Committee is officially taking notice of our demand to keep these markers up. Post this link on your Facebook page right now to keep the pressure on them. Call your town representative to ensure they understand that these signs are a vital part of our local history.
Reached 500 supporters
June 11, 2018
June 9, 2018
The Oak Bluffs Sign Approval Committee is reviewing our formal request to return the artwork to the beach. Post this petition on your Facebook timeline today so the committee sees how much this cultural history means to the town.
Reached 100 supporters
June 5, 2018
214 Comments
Please keep the sign posted throughout the year. Our historical contributions have been so diluted that we are almost erased from from the history books. This sign tells our story and add pride for the next generation. There should be more monuments added to the fabric of the Vineyard.
It's important to make sure the sign remains. The polar bears are a Martha's Vineyard legacy. I have several family members that are proud Martha's Vineyard polar bears, including myself! It's a part of our heritage and needs to be celebrated!
These signs are a major part of OB’s culture and history and they also serve to educate those who will never learn about the rich history from the books. Please keep these signs posted! Thank you!
The richness of the history of the Inkwell Beach is why I brought my children here for many summers before we were able to buy a home in this historical district. The sign is an art piece that adorns many homes worldwide and should be welcomed with open arms. Thank you Mr. Johnson.
I was so excited to see and take a picture next to this sign. It was the perfect way to commemorate my first time to The Inkwell! It's lovely, and it subtly adds to the layers of history that keep us newbies wanting to visit your beautiful island. Please vote to approve it :)
The signs are more than simply a location marker. They are works of art representing an historical landmark with which many an Islander and visitor have a deep and abiding historical connection. To remove them without a very strong and convincing rational would be a travesty and an insult.
I am one of the young indigenous Freedmen from the state of Arizona. State Forty Eight rep currently based in Los Angeles (based in Central City, fighting for full reclamation and redevelopment of historical West Adams district, Central Jazz District, Long Beach (everything east of Lomita), Santa Monica areas, Inglewood and the whole Crenshaw and South Central, South Bay region). I am wholeheartedly showing my support for cultural heritage preservation of the tourism, entertainment, recreational and hospitality-based accomplishments; as well as the real estate developments of descendants of United States mainland abolition, all of which were undeniably dangerous yet groundbreaking projects during those turbulent times. I am truly disgusted about how there has been an active and obsessive effort to rob and justify those robberies from Freedmen. Robbery of their equity and inheritances with intention to return those same familial ownerships to the former slave owner ancestral groups. Racist wealth transfers committed by destroying, burying and completely obliterating Freedmen's heritage communities and forcing us into structural independence of racist systems. All the while foreign migrants, both "legal naturalized", false asylum seekers, visa holders, and illegal aliens with no papers from all over the world as well as ethnically Afro Latinos, West indians/Caribbean islanders and continental Africans can move into former sundown towns like Prescott, Arizona (the original AZ capitol) and be embraced (made an example there). Foreigners are welcomed with no opposition while native Black American freed slaves never got that same consideration and respect and our communities were attacked by racist ordinances, bombing, vandalism of our vacation homes, hotels, motels, cabins, automobiles as well as arson. I say to the direct descendants of the founding of this specific beach and all other advocates who are concerned about protecting Juneteenth/Freedmen's heritage sites
This is a historically significant beach which deserves its recognition.... A sign is just a small gesture of what it deserves. History should always be respected and never covered up.
Share this petition
Share this petition to help it reach more people.
Your share link
Petitions like this
Other petitions you might want to support
Scan to share
Anyone who scans this can sign the petition.
Please keep the sign posted throughout the year. Our historical contributions have been so diluted that we are almost erased from from the history books. This sign tells our story and add pride for the next generation. There should be more monuments added to the fabric of the Vineyard.