New York Foundling and residents of Vital Brookdale in Brownsville celebrated the unveiling of a new mural titled “Colors of My City” by muralist Layqa Nuna Yawar on Aug. 23.
The 1,000-square-foot painting on Brookdale Hospital, across from Vital Brookdale, celebrates Brownsville and its residents, featuring portraits of physicians, activists and community members. It also highlights the iconic Brooklyn Bridge and the nearby No. 3 train.
Yawar is known for large-scale, community-based murals, portrait painting, and multimedia projects that highlight the stories of Black and Brown people, immigrants, and Indigenous populations. The artist developed “Colors of My City” with input from Vital Brookdale residents and the community through workshops.
“What we did here was create a collaborative space, have workshops with people, ask them what they want to see in a mural, [and] how they want to be represented,” Yawar explained. “Then I took all those pieces and put them together into this design that hopefully reflects a little bit of their voices.”
Yawar hopes the mural serves as a mirror for the community, reflecting the spirit of Brownsville, and that people find meaning when they look at the painting.
“I want them to get the sense of a community that is proud of their home [and] their neighborhood,” Yawar told Brooklyn Paper.
One of Yawar’s subjects was Patricia Jackson, a resident of Vital Brookdale, a large affordable housing project where 36 people with developmental disabilities and young people exiting foster care reside and receive wrap-around services.
The mural pictures Jackson crocheting a blanket — her passion. For Jackson, crocheting symbolizes home.
“I want my peers to learn how to crochet,” Jackson said. “I think it would be a good experience for them.”
Maria Bediako, senior vice president of Services for People with Developmental Disabilities at New York Foundling, said the mural presented the community’s shared vision of what their neighborhood should look like.
“The artists worked collaboratively with people that live in this community, including people that are receiving services through the Foundling. When you can help to bring art to the community, it shows that people are unified,” Bediako said.
Dante de Blasio — whose father, former NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, joined him at the event — was the project manager for the mural.
While New York Foundling had planned a mural, the younger de Blasio found the perfect spot for the fresco.
“I was working for the Foundling at the time, and I came to Vital Brookdale, and I saw this blank wall, and we said, we should put something up,” Dante De Blasio explained.
He shared that the response from the community had been “great.”
“So often, people do not see themselves represented in works of art like this. People in places like Brownsville, especially, do not get large murals like this,” the younger de Blasio said.
The elder beamed with pride at his son’s achievement and recalled when Dante told him about his plans.
“This was not the original plan to have a mural there,” the former mayor said. “[Dante] personally decided that the community deserved better, and [he] went out and put together the resources and the plan. And it’s really moving to me. I was watching with tremendous pride.”
Five-year-old Nylah Jonas is the young girl in the mural taking center stage, holding the bird’s nest. Nylah told Brooklyn Paper that she was looking forward to telling her new friends in kindergarten that she’s portrayed in a mural and that her favorite part was her portrait.
“It makes me happy,” she said of the mural.
