"The Afro-Colombian Mural: Currulao y Desplazamiento" 2009

The “Afro-Colombian Mural: Currulao y Desplazamiento” in Washington DC celebrates the strong and vibrant Afro-Colombian culture and educates the public about the widespread displacement and other human rights issues related to the armed conflict. I designed this mural with the guidance, input, and inspiration of many of my close friends in DC’s Afro-Colombian community, many of whom have political asylum due to the severe human rights situation. I also traveled to the conflict-ridden Pacific Coast region of Colombia to visit my friends’ families, take pictures and do research, all of which contributed to the images in the 3-story tall mural, located on U Street, one of DC’s most vibrant and popular commercial districts.
 
The mural was inaugurated with a well-attended public event featuring my mural presentation, speeches by the Afro-Colombian activist Marino Córdoba and a local DC councilmember, live music, traditional food, and a folkloric dance presentation by the local Afro-Colombian dance group Tangaré. The mural was funded by the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, and is located at 1344 U Street NW, at 14th. The event was co-sponsored by TransAfrica Forum and NASGACC.

Click here for photos of the event.

Global Refugee Mural: Silver Spring, MD 2009

“The Global Refugee Mural” tells the stories of three refugees who live in Maryland, whom I conducted interviews with in order to design this mural. I was inspired to do this project after working with refugees at a refugee resettlement center run by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland, who I partnered with for this project. The mural deals with the human rights abuses in each of the three refugees’ homelands as well as celebrating the culture and traditions there.

The first section of the mural tells the story of Georges, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo who was once the mayor of his city. When a violent rebel group attacked his region, he took his family and escaped to a refugee camp in Kenya, and eventually came to the US. The second section shows the story of Mai, a refugee from Myanmar, formerly Burma. When the repressive government discovered that she had visited a Christian church group in the US, she and her family were persecuted and she was unable to return to her country. The third refugee, Taameem, is a woman from the south of Iraq. Her brother, a young and educated man with progressive and democratic ideals, was murdered by a local fundamentalist militia group several years ago. She was targeted by the group as well, and escaped and came to the US as a refugee.

This mural was featured on the international news network Al Jazeera English and various local newspapers. The project was funded through a 2009 grant from the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, and is located at Kefa Café, at 963 Bonifant Street, Silver Spring, MD, at Georgia Ave.

Click here to see Al-Jazeera video

Baltimore Murals: "Across the Waves..."

“Across the Waves…” is a large mural (1500 square feet) in the Highlandtown neighborhood of Baltimore, and it celebrates the history and culture of the community. I came to research Highlandtown in 2008, and was struck by the diverse waves of immigrants that have arrived for more than a century, and continue to arrive today. The left side shows European immigrants arriving by boat early in the 20th century, and shows their lifestyle in the neighborhood, including their custom of washing their marble steps every Saturday morning, something that many long-time residents remember from their childhoods. Today, Highlandtown is a diverse community, including Black, White, and Latino residents, and the right side of the mural demonstrates this diversity. There has been a huge influx of Latino immigrants in recent years, and the mural shows a man talking on the phone to his family back in his home country, demonstrating the strong connection that recently-arrived immigrants feel to their homelands and their families. The mural was funded by the Baltimore Office on Promotion and the Arts (BOPA), and is located at the corner of Banks and Highland Street. It was featured by the international news network Voice of America (click here for video).
Also in 2008, I painted an underpass column in downtown Baltimore, an area which is used as a farmer’s market on weekends. Going along with this theme, I painted a Mayan farming theme, including the Corn God. All the columns in the market are painted by local artists, a project that’s also funded by BOPA.

City of God/ Cidade de Deus Series: Rio de Janeiro and Washington DC

In 2009, I returned to Brazil to live and work in one of Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) called Cidade de Deus (City of God), made famous by the 2002 film of the same name. I lived with a family there and taught English courses at the community organization CUFA, which was co-founded by one of the City of God’s most important residents, the internationally acclaimed socially- conscious Hip Hop artist MV Bill, who I became friends with in New York while interpreting for him, and who gave me the opportunity to come and live in his community. His organization has community centers in favelas all across Brazil, teaching theater, graffiti art, computer skills, dance, and more. I painted 2 aerosol murals in the neighborhood based on family dynamics in the favela, called “Mãe e Filho (Mother and Son)” and “3 Gerações (3 Generations).” (below) When I returned to Washington DC, I completed the series by painting the large piece “Felipe’s Story,” (above) which explores the world of a child growing up in the favela, including both the joy and the tragedy, and relating this to children growing up in marginalized communities around the world, including in DC. The mural focuses on Felipe, one of children from the family I lived with in the City of God. It was painted on the community arts space BloomBars in Columbia Heights, and was funded by the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities.

                  

Youth Mural in Columbia Heights, DC: "My Culture, Mi Gente"

“My Culture, Mi Gente” was painted in Washington DC’s Columbia Heights neighborhood with local youth. I led mural workshops where the teenage students learned painting skills, Mural Art History, technical aspects of mural production, and learned to design their own mural about their community. My students and I presented the mural at a community Mural Inauguration event. The project and event were in collaboration with the Latin American Youth Center (LAYC) and was funded by the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities. The mural is located at the LAYC’s Teen Bridge Program at 3043 15th St. NW, at Irving.
I facilitated another mural project on the inside wall of this program with a group of foster youth in 2008. The mural, titled “Welcome to Casa Zol” was commissioned by the LAYC.

Celebrating Historic U Street in Wasington DC: "From Ellington to Obama" 2009

 

I was commissioned to paint “U Street, from Ellington to Obama” inside U Street Café, located in one of Washington DC’s most historical and vibrant areas, known as the U Street corridor. The left side portrays a jazz scene featuring Duke Ellington, a U Street- native who was active when the neighborhood was famous for jazz in the 1920’s and 30’s. Billie Holiday, who often played on U Street, and the old Roosevelt Theater are also memorialized. The right side features the huge street celebration on the historical election night of 2008, portraying the thousands of people from every race, nationality, and ethnicity that poured onto U Street that night to celebrate their collective win.

Click here for more pics of the mural.

Spray paint art with DC youth: 2009

In 2008 I partnered with artist Rashad Cuffee to teach local youth spray painting skills and create 2 community murals through the Murals DC program, whose mission is to pair groups of youth with professional artists to use their skills to beautify their neighborhoods. “Life Makes Music” (above) is located on Riggs Rd. NE, at South Dakota Ave. “The Crane” (below) is on the corner of Florida Ave. NW and 5th Street. Funded by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

The Georgia Avenue Global Mural Project: Washington, DC 2008

In 2008 I organized a group of 5 artists of different cultures and nationalities to paint 5 murals along one of Washington DC’s main corridors, Georgia Ave. I coordinated the “Georgia Avenue Global Mural Project” in order to explore international social and cultural issues as they relate to the local community, and received funding through a grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
My mural for this project, “Daughter of Oshun in the New World,” (at left) is located on the corner of Georgia Ave NW and Kenyon, and explores the tension between ancient spirituality and modern, faced-paced life. The other artists involved in the project were Pepe Piedra, Helina Metaferia, Nate Ovelar, and Endalkachew Filfilu. The 5 of us presented our work to the public at a community event at Rumbero’s restaurant in October of 2008.

Click here to see all 5 murals

The Afro-Brazilian Series 2005-2006

In 2005 I lived, worked, and studied Portuguese in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil. This region is known for its strong Afro-Brazilian culture, and during my time there I lived and taught classes in a community of Candomblé, a religion based on the spirituality of the Yoruba people of West Africa that survived the slave trade and has even thrived in modern-day Brazil. I made close, lasting friendships and was inspired by the beautiful ceremonies and ancient rituals, which are practices by people who are perfectly comfortable with the modern world of internet and cell phones. While there, I painted a series of 5 deities, called orixás, for the community. (below)
After returning to the US, I painted a large mural celebrating Bahian culture and spirituality in San Francisco, “Sob o Sol dos Orixás (Under the Sun of the Orishas)” located on 24th Street and Capp. (above)
I also painted a Bahian piece for the Brazilian restaurant Brazil Café in Berkeley, called “Um Olhar nas Ruas da Bahia (A Glance on the Streets of Bahia).” (below, left)

"El Inmigrante": San Francisco 2005

 

“El Inmigrante (The Immigrant)” was painted in San Francisco’s Mission District, an immigrant community, and it tells the story of an immigrant making the difficult journey from his homeland to a large American city. I based this mural on conversations I had with close friends from Mexico, Brazil, Iraq, Colombia and El Salvador about their experiences coming to the US. The right side shows the homeland that the Immigrant is leaving, including both the positive aspects such as the culture, families, and natural beauty, as well as the exploitation of workers, political unrest, and other challenges. The Immigrant is also seen leaving his wife behind, in reference to the painful separation of families that often accompanies immigration. Arriving in the US on the left side, he encounters a world that he finds cold, both physically and culturally, and one in which people are zoned into an often soul-less media. But he also finds positive aspects, such as some good people and more job opportunities. Therefore, neither side is portrayed a paradise nor as totally negative. This mural was published in the New York Times, the UK journal CITY and other publications. 

The El Salvador Mural: "Un Pasado Que Aún Vive (A Past That Still Lives)" 2004

“Un Pasado Que Aun Vive (A Past That Still Lives)” is located in San Francisco’s famous mural-filled Balmy Alley, and explores the past and present social issues and culture of El Salvador. It shows how the memories and trauma of the civil war in the 80’s and 90’s still live on today; if you look closely into the images of modern life, you will see the memories of massacres, kidnappings, and fallen heroes etched into the walls, mountains, and rivers. The mural also shows a woman with her young son with a letter from her husband, revealing that he is in the US working and longs to be reunited with his family back home. Many families have been painfully separated due to migration in search of jobs. I researched this mural while living and working in El Salvador, where I taught English and was an International Election Observer for the 2004 presidential elections, both through the organization CIS (Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad). details: 

"De Frontera a Frontera (From Border to Border)" San Francisco 2003

“De Frontera a Frontera (From Border to Border)” was painted in San Francisco, and deals with the culture and social issues of the Dominican Republic. I spent the summer of 2002 doing volunteer work with an NGO and living with a family in a rural Dominican village, and had the opportunity to visit other parts of the country on my free time. I based the ideas for this mural on my conversations with people I met there and my observations of life in very different parts of the country, including the touristy beach, the beautiful rural areas, the vibrant city life of Santo Domingo, and the border with Haiti. I particularly focused on the often- uncomfortable relations between foreign tourists and the local Dominicans, and between Dominicans and Haitians, relations that are too often colored by cultural misunderstanding, racism and exploitation. I also celebrated the culture and life in the DR by painting scenes from my host community, the vibrant music and dance, and family life. This mural was awarded the “Best Public Mural” by the San Francisco mural organization Precita Eyes in 2004, and was published in several publications and websites. Details: