Voices Her’d
Feels Like Home: An Immigrant Journey
Sunset Park, Brooklyn, New York. 2006
In creating this mural for PS 24, a bilingual magnet school in Sunset Park, Groundswell’s Voices Her’d Visionaries team decided to tell the stories of the thousands of immigrant mothers who come to New York City in search of a better life each year.
The Visionaries spoke with mothers from the school and the neighborhood in a series of interviews conducted in English, Spanish, and Chinese.
The mural is composed of two main components: a series of pillars representing the people whose stories are being told, and the horizontal, monochromatic piece that features landscapes from the homelands of the immigrants.
Together, these two components follow women through their difficult journeys immigrating to the United States.
The mural also depicts the struggle to raise first generation American children, especially as an undocumented person.
As the mural closes, a mother considers her own situation and future possibilities. She begins to educate herself in an effort to better her future and the future of her family. As she improves her personal situation, she and her family move towards a brighter day.
Learn more at groundswellmural.org
Groundswell Community Mural Project: Voices Her’d
Yamasaki was lead artist for this series for about eight years. Voices Her’d creates a space for young women, in particular young women of color, to be the creators of the visual media about them. The girls in the group, ages 14-20 selected the topic they wanted to address and in many years, spent the year researching the topic and meeting with experts in the field. Then, for seven weeks in the summer, the created a large public mural that communicates their message about that topic.
2004 – I Deal, I Dream, I Do. Park Slope, Brooklyn
2005 – A New Day. Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
2006 – Feels Like Home: An Immigrant Journey. Sunset Park, Brooklyn
2007 – Art Builds Community, Community Creates Social Change. Park Slope, Brooklyn
2008 – Informed, Empowered. Sunset Park, Brooklyn
2009 – Woman Rise. Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
2010 – Truth be Sold. 2836 Fulton Street. Cypress Hills, Brooklyn