D.C. Latino Murals Chronicles: “Unity”
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Today, we feature “Unity,” a street mural that has graced the Pepco substation off of 18th Street NW in Adams Morgan for more than three decades. Though its once vibrant tropical colors have faded, it is still a cool mural that beautifies the neighborhood. It was created in the summer of 1982 by a group of Latin American Youth Center students led by artists Ligia (Becker) Williams and the late Allen “Big Al” Carter.
We interviewed Ligia Williams as part of our DC Latino Murals Project. Check out this soundbite from the interview.
? https://t.co/bRY03FgLM4
DC Latino murals chronicles! Today: “Unity” painted in 1982 by Ligia Williams, Big Al Carter & LAYC youth.— Hola Cultura (@DCcultura) October 16, 2017
Fun fact: At Hola Cultura’s murals panel last month (watch the video highlights), Perry Frank, the director of DC Murals, explained one of the more mysterious parts of this mural: the “2 + 2 = 4” pouring from the lips of the mural’s central figure of a lion.
Was the lion catching up with his homework? It turns out, the arithmetic reference was improvised after neighborhood educators complained that the mural, which had been designed by the students, lacked an educational component. Anyone who has ever worked on a mural knows the students were learning plenty, but the story underscores one type of obstacle (public opinion) that muralists had to contend with–and still do to this day–in order to create these large-scale works of public art. Carter, who passed away in 2008, was already a well-established and savvy local artist by this time. His sardonic handling of the criticism added more nuisance to the mural without major changes to the students’ vision for it.
The program from the 1982 inaugural celebration
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