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After left-wing activists in conjunction with Providence, Rhode Island Mayor Brett Smiley launched an intense pressure campaign against a mural of slain Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, sparking the project’s cancellation, another business in the city has stepped up to display the mural.
Opa the Phoenician, a Lebanese restaurant in Providence’s historic Federal Hill, is now home to the mural, which artist Ian Gaudreau began working on Friday.
The previous location was The Dark Lady, an LGBT bar in the city’s downtown. But that bar was browbeaten by critics into pausing and then altogether cancelling the project.
The unfinished controversial mural of Iryna Zarutska on the side of The Dark Lady club at 19 Snow St. Providence, seen on March 30, 2026. (David DelPoio/The Providence Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
Smiley was the most prominent voice to speak out against the project.
PROVIDENCE MAYOR CALLS FOR REMOVAL OF IRYNA ZARUTSKA MURAL, SAYS INTENT IS ‘DIVISIVE,’ ‘MISGUIDED’
“The murder of the individual depicted in this mural was a devastating tragedy, but the misguided, isolating intent of those funding murals like the one across the country is divisive and does not represent Providence,” he said in a statement, adding that he wanted to “encourage our community to support local artists whose work brings us closer together rather than divide us.”
Co-owner of Opa, Francois Karam, emphasized that the restaurant is owned by immigrants and the mural is a way to honor Zarutska’s story as an immigrant.
“[Iryna] was once an immigrant chasing the American dream,” Karam said, according to WJAR. “She worked to build a life for herself and lost it along the way. This mural is our way of honoring her on a building owned by an immigrant family who understands that journey.”
Iryna Zarutska cowers as her attacker towers over her on Aug. 22. 2025. (NewsNation via Charlotte Area Transit System)
DEM LAWMAKER SPARKS ONLINE FIRESTORM AFTER SAYING IRYNA ZARUTSKA MURAL DOESN’T ALIGN WITH CITY’S VALUES
Gaudreau echoed that sentiment.
“He has an immigrant family story himself,” he said of Karam. “So he really connected with that Iryna, and he felt really passionate about the project.”
Zarutska was killed on Aug. 22 after she was randomly stabbed from behind on a Charlotte, North Carolina, light-rail train. The suspect in her unprovoked murder is Decarlos Brown Jr., who had a lengthy rap sheet, including convictions for larceny, breaking and entering, and armed robbery.
Booking photo of Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr., taken Sept. 14, 2022, following his arrest in Mecklenburg County. Brown, 34, is now charged in the Aug. 22, 2025, stabbing death of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska aboard a Charlotte light-rail train. (Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office)
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He had previously served five years in prison.
Fox News Digital reached out to Smiley’s office.