Outreach Portal

AND partnered with Groundswell and the Ali Forney Center to co-create a mural on the fence of the development site. In August, clients of the Ali Forney Center met with the selected artist from Groundswell, Dakotah West, who conducted a visioning session for the mural. A community paint day was held mid-October, and the mural was completed and installed late-October. The visual vocabulary, color palette, text, and title came directly from the youths. Transition Goals is based on the clients’ messages for the next generation of queer youth and installed on four panels on a fence at 244 E 106th Street. Each panel expresses a distinct quality of water embodied in human form, juxtaposed with a line of a poem that speaks to the fluidity, monumentality, labor, ephemerality, and grief of transitions and changes: I would be water flowing
in one direction.
I would be a tsunami.
I would be sweat.
I would be mist.
I would be missed. The result is a spirited and dynamic mural filled with symbolism about hope and aspiration in the face of change. Water is life, and life, like water, can take many forms. Strength and vulnerability radiate from the mural, affirming and celebrating the transformative forces of life. The fifth panel contains the title, painters, and information about the proposed building.

AND partnered with Thrive Collective in Fall 2021 for a Beautify NYC grant funded mural project. The mural “The Inside Look” was completed in October 2021. “Overall the theme the students wanted to focus on was community and bringing people together. Throughout the design, everything is connected from left to right with various forms of energy and action. At the center is a globe with positive words to connect and inspire. It takes a lot of scenic elements you’d find in Harlem put together in a more fantastical way to emphasize musical and cultural roots as well as growth, connection, and positivity despite the hardships we’ve endured as a community.” 
– via Thrive Collective