Stik takes pride in Hackney with specially-made LGBT+ banner

Man of the people: Stik outside Hackney Town Hall with a smaller version of the placard

East London street artist Stik will be flying the flag for Hackney at this year’s Pride Festival.

The globally renowned graffiti artist, whose unmistakable murals are plastered on walls across Hackney, will be representing the borough at the annual Pride in London parade  on 25 June, with a hand-made banner commissioned by the council.

The two-metre high banner features two of his trademark stick-like figures holding hands against a rainbow backdrop, a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) pride.

Stik’s flag will be mounted on a ‘I Love Hackney’ black cab, the focus of the council’s walking group, as it makes its way along the parade route.

It will later be on display at Hackney Museum until going under the hammer to raise funds for a local LGBT organisation.

Stik said: “I’m delighted to represent Hackney in the 2016 Pride in London parade. Our vibrant and varied community is known around the world and I am proud to live here.”

The graffiti artist is known for supporting social causes with his art. Prints of Stik’s Homerton Hospital mural Sleeping Baby raised a grand total of £82,500 for the hospital, and in 2014 he painted the world’s tallest mural over in West London, in solidarity with social housing campaigners.

Stik’s Pride design has been published as a pull-out placard in Hackney Today, the council’s taxpayer-funded freesheet.