Students at Wings Academy High School in the Bronx unveiled a new mural in the borough yesterday in honor of human rights campaigner Somaly Mam.
Somaly Mam is a Cambodian and world women’s right advocate and author who escaped a life of enforced sexual slavery to become that country’s Harriet Tubman, leading young women and girls to safety through defiance, education and empowerment.
Called “Hands Off,” the colorful graffiti mural took four hours to paint after several months of planning, reading and discussion about human trafficking, sexual slavery and Mam’s fight to end the dehumanization of young girls in Cambodia. The students also learned about the same issues facing young boys and girls in America and around the world.
The program was organized by The Advocacy Lab which teamed up with an anonymous collective of artists who are creating a citywide mural project called Subway Art History.
Khalil Waldron, Carmen Arcado, Steven Medina, Rossio Munoz, to list four students, worked with a former graffiti writer who now use his talents to create legal works of art.
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By using a style of art as vibrant and resonant as graffiti, the Somaly Mam painting was designed to speak to the community in a language that is both familiar and powerful in order to raise awareness and engage the public in a conversation about human trafficking. The students have been studying human trafficking for about one year.
“We heard the story of Somaly Mam and it really touched us,” explained 17-year-old Khalil Waldren in an interview after the mural’s unveiling. “We felt awareness needed to be spread all over the world, not just locally. It wasn’t an assignment, it was more of a treat than an assignment.”
“We learned that there’s a distinction between prostitution and human trafficking and that it is also in the US; it’s just hard to find,” said Melanie Aviles, also 17.
“It’s basically modern day slavery,” offered Carmen Arcado, 16. “It’s sad that girls my age has to go through this. I don’t think our job is done yet. Our plan is to start [educating others] locally but we want to branch out.”
When asked about her involvement the art project, Arcado pointed out that for her, “it wasn’t about the art. It was about the campaign against human trafficking. It started as a class but we all want it to be bigger,” Arcado said, explaining that the project became part of their lives. “If we started so small why can’t we do something even bigger? If we really want to do this we can really make a change.”
The mural may be seen at Walton Street and East 150th Street in the Bronx. To learn more about Somaly Mam and her work, visit Project Futures or The Somaly Mam Foundation and buy her book The Road To Lost Innocence onAmazon.
More images of the mural after the break!
Somaly Mam mural on Walton and E.150 Street in the Bronx.
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Students from Wings Academy.
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Somaly Mam mural on Walton and E.150 Street in the Bronx.
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Somaly Mam mural on Walton and E.150 Street in the Bronx.
