Source: The Daily News
Redwood City will celebrate the unveiling of a new racial equity mural this Saturday, marking the compilation of a two-year project meant to signify the city’s commitment to racial equity.
Details in the mural have evolved since [Rachel] Wolfe-Goldsmith initially presented her idea. It remained nonlinear with modern representations of minority groups threaded in with historical aspects of their culture such as an empowered Asian woman juxtaposed next to reminders of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and chrysanthemum fields they nurtured but were forced to leave.
Paying tribute to the collective action that led to the mural’s creation, Wolfe-Goldsmith has also incorporated images of protesters outside the Fox Theatre in the piece along with the African proverbs, “I am because we are.”
San Mateo County’s poet laureate [emerita] Aileen Cassinetto will speak to the Filipino version of the same phrase, known as Kapwa, during Saturday’s celebration when she will also perform a poem inspired by the piece. Erin Ashford, a poet and former Arts Commissioner who helped lead the Racial Equity Mural Steering Committee, said the phase speaks to “a moral obligation regarding your responsibility for others.”
Buttons and stickers with the phrase will be distributed during the event as a call to action around the concept, Ashford said. Ramaytush Ohlone, Gregg Castro, will offer a blessing followed by a few words by Mayor Giselle Hale.
Aileen Cassinetto 