NEW YORK—A minimum-wage painting job turned out to be a life-changing experience for 15 Bronx teenagers this summer.
Now, a lustrous green mural stands out next to smokestacks and sooty factories along the Bronx River in Hunts Point.
The mural is on the wall of Rocking the Boat, a nonprofit that teaches economically challenged youth how to build wooden rowboats and sailboats, and restore local urban waterways.
The teenagers painted the mural while working for Groundswell, another nonprofit that has used murals to educate and advocate social change in New York for 15 years.
Learning Local History and Ecology
For Tamika McLean, 16, the process of creating the mural was about much more than just painting.
“Before this, I didn’t know the Bronx had a history,” McLean joked. “I learned so much here.”
Through the program McLean learned about the Bronx River’s origin as a glacier and its history of industrial pollution. McLean said she was very excited to find crabs reproducing recently, because it is a sign of the river’s recovery.
The teenagers also learned about various transportation issues that have plagued Hunts Point.
The mural features swirling heather-gray streets that represent Hunts Point’s need for wider sidewalks, refuge zones, and more signs.
“A lot of drivers here don’t even know the speed limit is 30 mph because there’s no sign,” said Ayhn Gonzalez, 16.
Due to the lack of signage, many Bronx residents are also unaware of Hunts Point Riverside Park that opened in 2007, and that Rocking the Boat provides free weekend boating events.
“I lived here my whole life and I never knew this was here until this summer,” said Yoiky Brito, 19.
Better Than Designing Ads for Billboards
