To Open A Portal, 2020, Acrylic on wall. 18 ft x 60 ft. 

This mural was painted in 2020 at the Bowery Wall in Manhattan and was created in collaboration with Groundswell Murals, an organization I have partnered with for over 14 years. Set in the Lower East Side, a neighborhood shaped by resilience and struggle, the mural depicts a transformational portal that opens through collective action, protest, and mutual care. Emerging from this portal are everyday people—tenants, workers, elders, and children, who hold and nurture one another, surrounded by symbols of sustenance, shelter, and safety.

This work was created during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing me and the 20 young artists who collaborated with me to process the profound societal, spiritual, political, and ecological shifts we were experiencing. It helped us recognize how normalized injustice and structural violence have shaped our environments, while also highlighting how community power can dismantle oppressive symbols and build new realities.

The mural proposes an expanded vision of liberation rooted in interdependence, cultural memory, and the land that nourishes us. It is intended to become a living portal, an invitation to reflect on how we care for one another and what it truly means to be free. It helped us recognize how normalized injustice and structural violence have shaped our landscapes, but also how community power can dismantle oppressive symbols and build new realities. This mural proposes an expanded vision of liberation rooted in interdependence, cultural memory, and the land that nourishes us.