It was the first time I was meeting Jane, who is the Executive Director of the Mural Arts Program at the City of Philadelphia, and she just blew me away. A masterful storyteller, Jane had us listening with bated breath to her journey of getting the Mural Arts Program off the ground, first as an anti-graffiti initiative. She had us enthralled with her loving descriptions of the young men who began the journey with her, who went from being high school drop outs to becoming published artists and software engineers. The stories she told were full of love and compassion and inspiration but nothing prepared me for the impact of the murals themselves. I can’t pick a favorite one because each one is more mind-blowing than the next. Go on a virtual tour and check it out yourself!
Now I am dreaming of a national mural project that links immigrant stories across communities and generations – that weaves the words of African-Americans with Guatemalens, of Chinese- Americans with the newly arrived of Kenya, of the Greek and Italian communities with the Hmong and the Tibetans After all, when Columbus lost his way, my identity as an Indian-American was inextricably tied with Native Americans. Now what would a mural that told that story look like!
