Building Better Tomorrows

  • “Building Better Tomorrows” connects with “Feels Like Home: An Immigrant’s Journey,” a mural completed the previous summer through Groundswell’s Voices Her’d Visionaries program. Here, a group of men engage in labor-intensive work.
  • The second wall depicts a tropical environment. The boy featured wears a mask common to the carnival celebrations of the Dominican Republic.
  • In this section of the mural, the youth artists celebrate the businesses that immigrants have built in the community. A family ties up Chinese lanterns.
  • In the fifth wall, three men look into the distance, envisioning leaving their respective countries and hoping for greater opportunity. But bureaucracy may intimidate, impede, or prevent immigrants from entering the country.
  • The Making His’tory team developed this thoughtful mural to engage passers-by in a conversation about immigration.

Project Description

 
As one of six projects created through Groundswell’s Summer Leadership Institute in 2007, young men in our Making His’tory program explored what it means to be an immigrant father in Brooklyn. The team then transformed this investigation into a monumental mural for PS 24, a bilingual public school in Sunset Park that primarily serves children of Latin American immigrants. The mural is comprised of thirteen separate walls, which together illustrate the journey of male immigrants to the United States. In the first, a silhouette of a father holds his baby against the background of a sunset. The next eleven walls address issues such as frustration at not knowing English, the challenge of building a new community outside of one’s homeland, and accessing new opportunities. In the thirteenth and final wall, a child sits on a stack of books. He holds a key that represents the opportunity that his father has afforded him by immigrating. A sunrise in the background evokes a better tomorrow for immigrant families.

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Project Info

Location: 427 38th Street Brooklyn, NY 11232
Neighborhood: 
Sunset Park


Program: 
Making His'tory


Theme: 
Immigration


Year: 
2007


Partner(s): 
PS 24


Lead Artist(s):
Cornell Jones


Assistant Artist(s):
Ryan Smith


Participants: 

 

Brandon Cosbert
Jovan Crandle
Aaron Dore
Angel Garcia
Brian Harris
Anthony Huertero
Brian Jean Louis
Peter Kehinde
Andre McLaughlin
Daniel Pang
Danny Simeon
Ken Zheng
Medium: 
Acrylic on Wall


Dimensions: 8 x 4ft (13 pillars)

Fun Facts

Legend Symbol
Red lanterns. Red lanterns have many meanings in Chinese culture. The red brings luck, and the round shape shows harmony. Many include riddles written on their walls.
Suggested Activity
Look into your family’s past, and discover the interesting history that brought you here today.
Question about the Mural
Several panels feature textiles. What are textiles, and can you find examples of them from around the world?