Ruth Wilson Gilmore Mural Unveiling Featured in Local and National News
Photo Credits: Arts Council of Greater New Haven
After months of planning from groups such as the Intergenerational Abolition Project and the Anti-Racist Teaching and Learning Collective, and the dedication, love, and labor put into the creation of the mural itself by artist Jess X. Snow and the wider New Haven community, the first mural commemorating Ruth Wilson Gilmore was unveiled at Possible Futures Bookstore in Edgewood.
The mural recognizes the long and storied history and present of freedom-creating in New Haven. One side of the portrays a young Ruthie, held by her father, “as the pair look up at ‘portals’ of formative memories that catalyzed Ruthie’s path toward abolitionism,” while the other side of the mural depicts “a haloed, larger-than-life Ruthie Wilson Gilmore turned her face toward the sun, flowers bursting into bloom along her neck and shoulder” with today’s youth abolitionist organizers and native plants sprouting from another portal.
Ruthie, her family and friends and New Haven community members gathered at Possible Futures for a ceremony unveiling the mural. At the ceremony, Ruthie, lead-organizer and educator Nataliya Braginsky, Possible Future’s owner Lauren Anderson, and artist Jess X. Snow shared words with the audience.
“When you look at this mural,” shared Nataliya, “know that it is not just about abolition, it is a product of it. It’s not just an ode to Ruthie, it is a practice of what Ruthie has taught us.”
Read more about the mural process, meaning, and unveiling at the New Haven Arts Paper and Hypoallergenic.
Visit the mural at Possible Futures bookstore, 318 Edgewood Ave, New Haven, CT 06511.
A curriculum on the history and present of abolition in New Haven (as mentioned here) is forthcoming—stay tuned!
This amazing mural went over its original budget by $3,000; if you're as inspired by it as we are, please consider donating to the artists fund, which covers some labor costs and some of the development of a website that will provide documentary and teaching resources. Donate here.