In the Palm of Your Hand
Illustration/ Project Lead: Nila Devaney
Project managed by Amber Art & Design and Keir Johnston; assistance provided by Linda Fernandez, Zoe Molina Hicks, Kate Welbes, Mycah Dickerson, Jessica Jackson, Dayannah Woody, and the Frankford Friends School 8th Grade Classes of ‘22 & ‘23
Photos courtesy of Amber Art & Design and Frankford Friends School.
Designed in Community
This past Spring, mural artist Nila Devaney, collaborator Keir Johnston, and ASMHPT Executive Director Sean Connolly visited the Frankford Friends School to hold discussions about legacy, social justice, and community transformation with the 8th Grade Class of '22. Together, the students chose themes for the mural and helped with the mural design process.
Earlier this Fall, the 8th Grade Class of '23 helped with painting the mural on-site at ASMH. The students were influential in the process and brought new energy to an ancient place.
The mural symbolizes the garden of intergenerational healing – both individually and as a community. With the guidance of ancestral revolutionary figures, the mural is both a prayer and a gesture of gratitude for our human ability to inspire one another in our cycles of growth. The ancestral figures depicted in the mural are Sarah and Angelina Grimke, Lucretia Mott, Benjamin Lay, Bayard Rustin, and Sarah Mapps Douglass.
Sarah and Angelina Grimke
Benjamin Lay
Lucretia Mott
Bayard Rustin
According to Devaney, “The non-ancestor figures are nobody specific; they are people that are inspired from conversations that I had with the students. We talked a lot about ‘familiar faces,’ and what it means to celebrate people within our community – so they are familiar heroes.” Take a look at the non-ancestor figures below.
Support for the mural was provided in part by the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, and friends dedicated to the preservation of Quaker history at Arch Street Meeting House.
