A mural of the journalist Lyra McKee, who was shot dead in Derry last month, has been unveiled in her home city of Belfast.

The image, created by Emma Blake and 21 other artists, covers much of the city’s Kent Street as part of the Hit the North street art festival.

The picture is painted alongside the words from a letter McKee wrote to her 14-year-old self. The letter, shared worldwide since her death, spoke of her struggles as a gay teenager in Northern Ireland. It contained the touching message: “It won’t always be like this. It’s going to get better.”

Adam Turkington, who organised the festival, highlighted the prominent role art has played in the response to the shooting, noting the protest in Derry where friends of McKee placed red handprints on an office building used by dissident republicans.

He said: “I think what’s been really interesting is how the aftermath of Lyra’s death has played out in art on walls – whether it’s the bloody handprints or whether it’s people painting over the IRA murals in Derry. That’s activism.

“Street art has its roots in activism and in anti-establishmentism, but also in finding ways to communicate with each other about things that really are hard to talk about.

“It’s about aesthetic, it’s about place-making. And especially in the context of Northern Ireland, where we have these very divisive murals, street art for me in this context is all about building a shared space and finding a place that people can coexist.”