Cap Puppets

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Puppeteers
  • Association
  • Puppeteers of America
  • Performing art
  • Finance

Cap Puppets

Header Banner

Cap Puppets

  • Home
  • Puppeteers
  • Association
  • Puppeteers of America
  • Performing art
  • Finance
Performing art
Home›Performing art›Student aims to portray her Hispanic heritage in a mural for an anti-racism art project in Grand Rapids

Student aims to portray her Hispanic heritage in a mural for an anti-racism art project in Grand Rapids

By Anne Davis
April 17, 2022
0
0

GRAND RAPIDS, MI — By signing on as a muralist for an anti-racism project, artist and student Wanda Aguilar hopes to bring her community and culture together by validating the experiences of her Hispanic neighbors.

The Diatribe, a Grand Rapids-based arts and culture nonprofit, launched Project 49507 which it describes “as an artist- and youth-led community celebration that commissions seven local black and brown artists to paint murals on a large scale on prominent buildings in predominantly black and brown neighborhoods.” in zip code 49507.

In addition to bringing vibrancy to neighborhoods, students participating in the project learn and raise awareness about issues such as gentrification and redlining that disproportionately affect minorities.

Related: Anti-racism project to bring large murals to the southeast side of Grand Rapids

Aguilar, who is graduating from Ferris State University Kendall College of Art and Design later this year, said she heard about the nonprofit last year through an email from the ‘school. She said two of her teachers recommended her to The Diatribe.

Founded approximately eight years ago, The Diatribe’s mission is to use the performing arts to empower young people to share their stories, raise awareness of social issues and create change within their communities.

“I was totally in for it because it’s an amazing opportunity,” said Aguilar, 23. “I want to be part of creating change, and I think assembling the mural is one way to do that as an artist.”

A DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipient, Aguilar says she seeks to shape her art to authentically represent immigration issues and generational trauma.

She said The Diatribe awarded her the Farmers Insurance building, located at 2435 Eastern Avenue SE, which was due for completion by the end of July 2022.

Project 49507 will take place over three years and, in addition to the murals, the initiative includes a youth education program and listening sessions with community stakeholders to help shape the murals.

Aguilar said she can’t begin preparing her design until the community listening sessions hosted by The Diatribe are complete.

“Right now, there are listening sessions that the community can participate in through links,” Aguilar said of finding out what kinds of murals people want to see in their neighborhoods. “The Diatribe sends the link to the artists to distribute so that anyone interested in joining can join.”

She said the listening sessions started in April. 11 and continue for the next few weeks.

After Aguilar began her career as an artist in her senior year of high school, she said she was rejected the first time she applied to Kendall College of Art and Design in 2017.

She said the rejection turned out to be a “blessing in disguise”, prompting her to focus on her art portfolio from a different angle. She said it had to be a very diversified portfolio focused on a single medium.

“I was tired of someone telling me I can’t do it,” Aguilar said. “Part of me was like, I can do this. That it’s a learning experience, and I’m going to take that learning experience and make it a motivation to tell myself that I can do better. I wanted to reach my limits and learn.

Aguilar’s growth as an artist, such as in oil painting and storyboarding, secured him a place among the seven muralists in the art project.

Marcel “Fable” Price, executive director of The Diatribe, said the group wanted to “use art as a catalyst to change the narrative” on the southeast and southwest sides of Grand Rapids with large-scale murals and youth programs.

The former Grand Rapids Poet Laureate said many of the stories people hear about downtown neighborhoods aren’t positive, but rather rooted in the trauma residents face.

Related: Arts and culture group plans new Grand Rapids headquarters to bolster neighborhood

ZIP Code 49507 is in downtown Grand Rapids and is home to the highest concentration of black residents in the city, along with Hispanics and other minorities. The area is part of the city’s third ward, which has historically had the lowest amount of public and private investment among the city’s three wards.

“I hope the story we can bring and the light we can shed on these businesses in our neighborhoods will hopefully inspire even more diverse entrepreneurs to come and start businesses in our neighborhood,” Price said in the post. non-profit video on the 49507. Project.

For more information on the anti-racism art project taking place in the Garfield Park neighborhood, visit The Diatribe website here.

Learn more about MLive:

Latest protest over the police shooting death of Patrick Lyoya draws hundreds to the streets of Grand Rapids

State civil rights agency again calls on feds and AG to help investigate Grand Rapids police for racial discrimination

“How are we supposed to feel safe? Residents share frustration after police kill Patrick Lyoya

Related posts:

  1. Elemental AKL Festival returns in July
  2. Local non-profit organization launches project to change the image of the southeast side of Grand Rapids
  3. Vancouver musician performing for strangers during COVID-19 shutdown
  4. Michael A. Costley, 71, Buffalo-born artist who made headlines in Palm Springs | Featured obituaries

Categories

  • Association
  • Finance
  • Performing art
  • Puppeteers
  • Puppeteers of America

Recent Posts

  • Dave Filoni and John Favreau ‘fiercely’ debated The Mandalorian’s Grogu
  • Association of anterior and pre-existing cardiovas
  • How emotion can be the new path to success
  • A developer is re-planning a major new construction project for a block in downtown Anchorage. It includes the demolition of the 4th Avenue theater.
  • Disney’s ‘The Lion King’ Returns to OKC for a Third Reign

Archives

  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions