“Together, Towards Freedom” was created by lead artist Langston Allston and young artists from the Young Artist Movement (YAM) team assisted by Journey Allen, YAM Lead Arts Educator; and Gabrielle Tolliver, YAM Program Coordinator. The mural illustrates the incarceration system and its harms, giving way to a brighter future. Youth artists include Aaran Hogan Jr, Ahmad Lumar, Akeem Sinegal, Deshawne Cornelius, Jai’Lynn Allen, Jessi’ Cage, Jiyah Davenport, John Davillier, Kirious Anderson, Rashad Bakewell, and Taijah Thomas.
The process of arriving at this design has taken several different forms. The YAM team started with drawing and discussing how they wanted to portray a world without prisons. Artists elected to create a narrative arc that brought viewers from the roots of the prison system into a brighter future without it. Seen throughout the mural are messages of youth experiences in their day to day lives, and the history from which these issues are rooted. To that end, the mural begins in the dark of night and concludes with the sun setting on a new day.
The first panel of the mural represents the slave trade, the beginning of the United States brutal policies, and transitions into a depiction of the terror and distrust that police and prisons inflict upon our communities today. Here people are fleeing police, followed by the stark landscape of a prison.
These bleak images are interrupted by an embrace, meant to illustrate the power of community care. Behind this embrace, the same prison is now crumbling and overgrown. The following three pink panels illustrate a world being carved out of the rubble of the prison, and the overgrowth turning into a flowering garden that can support the community. Woodcuts from the youth artists are placed throughout the piece to underscore specific historical moments. These moments are shared to showcase what brought our society here, and specific steps that can help to escape the current structures.
