The intersection at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue has become a place of remembrance since former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd in May. A giant fist points to the sky from the middle of the intersection, and a mural is painted on the wall around the corner from where Floyd was killed.

The space has been occupied for more than five months, and as snow accumulates, volunteers at George Floyd Square are working to maintain a safe space for visitors as they anticipate the coming winter. Teams have been formed for preservation, medical assistance and further winterization throughout the intersection.

Now the square is dotted with fire pits to keep visitors warm, and volunteers have shoveled repeatedly since snow first began to drop.

Negotiations about the fate of the intersection have been ongoing between the city and community, but there has been a “lack of movement” on the city’s part, said Andy Browne, Minneapolis resident and organizer at George Floyd Square.

“I think that they’re very aware that the way in which they engage the reopening of the streets and all those things is very important. … We’re keenly aware that at any point they can come in with bulldozers and knock us over,” Browne said.

Twenty-four demands are displayed around the intersection on boards on each entrance of the square, ranging from holding the trial in Minnesota for the four police officers involved in killing George Floyd to firing Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman.

“We’re playing this game with the city, and they’re playing the same game with us; at some point somebody’s gonna break,” Browne said. “And I can tell you right now it’s not gonna be us.”

As time has passed and volunteers have continued to occupy 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, protests have evolved into community work dedicated to rebuilding and healing.

Originally, the city told neighbors that the barricades around the area would be removed during the week of Aug. 17, the Minnesota Reformer reported. When that date came and went, nothing happened.

“Stepping up to the plate”

More than 100 volunteers care for the space where thousands of visitors have come to pay their respects.

Volunteers describe the square as the place where visitors come to remember lives lost to police brutality and reflect on the community building and social justice work to be done in Minneapolis.

“It’s sad that it takes such a horrific incident to humble a lot of souls,” said Kia Bible, a co-founder of the square’s medical team, 612-MASH. “But at the same time, it’s just beautiful to watch it all come together.”

Medical volunteers organized during the protests, which led to the formation of 612-MASH. Many have stuck around throughout the following months to offer free medical support at George Floyd Square.

“It was the community pulling itself together and stepping up to the plate,” Bible said.

Bible said 612-MASH started with a focus on emergency room-like activities, like tending to wounds and trauma inflicted during the confrontations over the summer. Today, volunteers’ duties have shifted toward helping those without insurance and mental health care. The medical team does not turn anyone away.

More homeless people have come around the square as the city has evicted nearby encampments. Bible said the “med shed” has provided them with kits that include blankets and hand warmers to face the harsh winter months.

“We’re taking more of a nontraditional approach to making sure that we’re ‘boots on the ground’ and building a relationship within the community so that they trust what we’re saying and what we’re doing.”

When the 612-MASH medical tent burned down last month, the team lost all of its supplies. The cause of the fire is unknown. Within a week and a half, volunteers built a shed in place of the tent and restocked the supplies with the help of local hospitals and volunteer medics.

Preserving a moment

Jeanelle Austin, a Minneapolis native who grew up two blocks away from George Floyd Square, flew home from Texas after hearing news of Floyd’s death and the beginning of the protests in her very backyard.

She began protesting in the streets, and when the protests calmed down, she cleaned up trash and leftover signs. For weeks in the early morning hours, she saw many other people in the square doing the same.

“The machine keeps going,” Austin said.

She pulled together a team of nearly 25 people to collect things that have been laid in the square — everything from art, protest signs and burnt wreckage from fires. Before the group was organized, the goods were overflowing in an abandoned bus station in the intersection.

“The smallest scrap of paper or the smallest Post-It note written in crayon has been saved,” said Browne, the organizer. “Those things that were saved are all going to be a part of that story.”

As the cold has set in, Pillsbury House and Theatre has offered classrooms for safe storage, and many people have offered their garages. About 2,500 items have been salvaged so far.

Each day, the preservation team comes to the square and evaluates what is needed, like shoveling, tending to the plants or placing offerings in storage.

They show up every day of the week in rain, sleet or snow.

“It’s not looking at the winter as an adversary to the protests but a part of the protests,” Austin said. “The environment is very much so a part of this. The ground bore witness to the death of George Floyd.”

Community members, led by Browne, erected a greenhouse to preserve the more than 350 potted plants that have been laid at the memorial. The group is exploring how to strengthen the greenhouse to withstand the winter.

“You walk inside of there, and it was above freezing, and it smelt like spring. … It was this really big juxtaposition between reality and, like, not reality,” Browne said. “In some sense, the desolateness of winter and the hope of spring all, like, happening at once.”

Austin has worked closely with the Floyd family to create the George Floyd Global Memorial (GFGM) to continue telling Floyd’s story and bringing the community together and to establish educational resources for future generations.

Austin received an email from Mayor Jacob Frey that expressed the City of Minneapolis’ desire to be co-creators of the GFGM. She said it is for the community to decide how they will remember Floyd and not the city that employed the person who killed him.

She said this memorial will represent the pain, grief and hope of the people.

“You can’t be the supervillain and the superhero,” Austin said. “The people get to decide what the memorial is.”