FREEDOM FIGHTERS
January 2019
Off the Wall: Atlanta’s Civil Rights & Social Justice Journey
Atlanta Super Bowl Host Committee & WonderRoot
Location: 180 Williams Street Northwest, Atlanta, GA, 30303
Artist Statement:
Freedom Fighters was my second mural for Off the Wall: Atlanta’s Civil Rights & Social Justice Journey, located a few steps from Centennial Olympic Park on the back side of The American Hotel. The purpose of this mural was to connect Atlanta's civil rights legacy to the narratives represented through my artwork. To that end, I depicted protestors from the 1960s Civil Rights Movement alongside contemporary immigrant rights protestors, with a quotation from Martin Luther King, Jr. to tie them together: If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.
The figures on the left side of the mural are line drawings inspired by photographs from the Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins. The figures on the right are inspired by modern-day photographs of undocumented young people getting arrested after participating in civil disobedience to protest unjust laws and/or to stop deportations that result from these laws. The facial features of the figures on the mural are only partially visible because I wanted the images to be universal. I wanted people—“ordinary” people to be able to see themselves in the faces on the wall.
This was especially important because the heroic freedom fighters and the immigrant rights protestors celebrated in this mural were themselves “ordinary” people who put themselves in extraordinary situations. Another poignant connection is that they courageously put their bodies and freedom on the line by risking violence and arrest in order to raise the consciousness of the entire country. During the Civil Rights Movement, getting arrested was a noble consequence, which is why I chose to include an image of an undocumented person triumphantly being arrested.
The text in the center is taken from the speech Dr. King delivered at Spelman College. To select a quotation, I worked with Dr. Laura Emiko Soltis, Freedom University’s executive director, who had worked with undocumented students to organize protests, in which students or their allies had gotten arrested. I wanted to consult with someone who had been there, on the ground, participating in these types of actions.
Dr. King’s quotation serves as inspiration to those who are engaged in social justice activism and constantly fighting, organizing, and mobilizing people—work which can be exhausting and occasionally demoralizing. There have been days when I just don't have it in me to “fly”, “run”, or “walk”, so I resort to crawling to keep moving forward. I see Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words as a reminder to give ourselves room to pause so we can regroup. There are days when I just need to decompress, when the simple act of waking up and doing something nice for myself and sharing a meal with my family helps me take the next step forward. One of those days was after the 2016 election, and another was after the 2017 announcement of the rescission of DACA. We are no good to our movements, to one another, to ourselves or our own families if we are not okay ourselves.”