After whiting out its old mural back in January, Ben’s Chili Bowl will officially unveil its new mural Wednesday. The old one featured Donnie Simpson, Barack Obama, Chuck Brown, and Bill Cosby. Three of those men returned on the new mural. Cosby, a longtime friend of Ben’s, didn’t.
The new mural, painted by DC artist Aniekan Udofia, also includes (among many others) Muhammad Ali, Michelle Obama, Prince, Wale, Taraji P. Henson, Dick Gregory, Russ Parr, and Roberta Flack.
Rosa joined Washingtonian in 2016 after graduating from Mount Holyoke College. She covers arts and culture for the magazine. She’s written about anti-racism efforts at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, dinosaurs in the revamped fossil hall at the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum, and the horrors of taking a digital detox. When she can, she performs with her family’s Puerto Rican folkloric music ensemble based in Jersey City. She lives in Adams Morgan.
