EVERY LIFE IS UNIQUE, 1993 WEST HARLEM

I was very shiny in West Harlem. I was supervising artist on a city funded project at 134th St. and Amsterdam Ave. in 1993. Only four months for this incredible adventure. I learned that white people have an extra gene. A cruelty gene. About 2 months into the project on 134th street, my students wanted to know what I was. I said “white” but they wouldn’t go for that. Uh-nh. At the end of that day on the mural, 6 year old Anita told me that they had figured it out. I was a Puerto Rican who didn’t speak Spanish. I took this “crew” to a city pool to swim. I took this “crew” to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I was missing that cruelty gene. I know someone who taught overseas who said her kids in the Indian Ocean told her the same thing! That mural we did is still there. That is a miracle. Over 30 years. There were bullet holes in that mural before that summer was over. It was a very rough neighborhood then. We worked together. Haitian, Domenica Republican, Puerto Rican, African American and I don’t know who else. About 30 kids, in all. A monument to working together. IT'S STILL THERE!!