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Since 1984, the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, headed by Jane Golden, has overseen the creation of 4,000 murals on the sides of buildings throughout the city's neighborhoods. The goal, is to bring a sense of pride and the hope of better times. The city draws on artists from public schools and neighborhood residents for design ideas and to encourage the community to grab a paint brush and get involved. Today, it's seen as an essential element in community-building.
Longtime activist Cleve Jones has dedicated his life to working with members of the LGBTQ community. He tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross that growing up he felt like the only gay person in the world, and felt so isolated as a teenager that he often considered suicide. Then he read about the gay liberation movement in Life magazine and his outlook changed.
"This magazine, in a matter of minutes, revealed to me that there were other people like me," Jones says. "There were a lot of us. We were organizing... There was a community, and there were places we could live safely. And one of those places was called San Francisco."
Jones moved to San Francisco when he was in his early 20s. He marched alongside Milk for gay rights, and when Milk was assassinated in 1978, Jones decided to dedicate his life to the cause. "Meeting Harvey, seeing his death, it fixed my course," he says.
After the AIDS epidemic hit San Francisco, Jones co-founded the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and started the AIDS Memorial Quilt.
Jones describes his life and his involvement in the gay rights movement in his new memoir, When We Rise. He says it's a story of hardship, but also one of triumph. "I have these memories of great struggle and great pain and great loss, but I also in my lifetime have seen extraordinary progress and amazing change."
Since 1984, the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, headed by Jane Golden, has overseen the creation of 4,000 murals on the sides of buildings throughout the city's neighborhoods. The goal, is to bring a sense of pride and the hope of better times. The city draws on artists from public schools and neighborhood residents for design ideas and to encourage the community to grab a paint brush and get involved. Today, it's seen as an essential element in community-building.
“It’s holding up a mirror to people and saying that your life counts, because its the autobiography of our city.”
This activity brings people together on matters of common interest. The development of these murals involves, cooperating, sharing, and seeking and finding shared goals, and by developing ties on a cultural level. In doing so, it creates a greater difference in the health and well-being of individuals and neighborhoods.
One mural discussed had been completed at an addiction and recovery center. Some of the 1,200 artists who contributed to this work were patients.
"I'd make site visits here and people would say, I no longer feel like an addict; I feel like an artist,'" Jane Golden said, "Someone from the neighborhood who felt like, 'I cannot be near somebody here,' and suddenly it's humanizing, 'cause you're painting right next to someone who's very different from you, but are they really different, right? I mean, everybody has struggles."
CBS Sunday Morning, had a great story where I took some of the screen grabs below. Round of applause for bringing this to light and all the work the city and Jane Golden have done.
