Trees, Trucks, Murals, and Billboards, Oh my!

This project has been occasionally described as a controlled crash.  We knew precious little when we arrived, we know a lot now, and a bit like an octopus we are tangled in a bunch of things.  We’re working with both the Ossoff and Warnock Senate campaigns as well as several independent groups,  some of whom are showcased below.   And so much more is in the works!  

Bill board on I-75: I don’t think I have ever had a project which has ever quite fallen in my lap, and into place, the way this one did.  Allison asked if we could help these friends who were trying to get a Billboard up outside of the Atlanta metro area, which has been the target of a huge media blitz over these campaigns, in order to reach more rural voters.  Within 2 days Angie launched yet another GoFundMe within and good to their word, Caroyln and Nancy brought in donors who we had never seen before and we quickly raised over $2K.  The billboard was funded, designed, and installed less than 2 weeks from the date we started on this effort!

Hosea Williams Mural:  Hosea Williams was an American icon: civil rights activist, scientist, inventor, politician, philanthropist, charity founder, political organizer, and MLK’s right hand. His 95th birthday would have been January 5, the day of the Georgia runoff, an election that will determine the fate of the country and our world. Atlanta artist Fabian Williams (no relation) completed his Hosea mural in 2017, however the sun deteriorated the fluorescent paint. We are supporting Fabian’s restoration of the mural to its original glory so that it can become a lasting beacon for decades to come. Donate to this epic mural project here. 

VoteTree is Jacqueline’s non-partisan art exhibition, mixing fabric woven trees with local artistic networking and digital features. Jacqueline draws her experience with interactive political art exhibitions from her work on opposing gun violence and supporting the LGBTQ community.  She is a gifted networker who connected us to the Block Power project that recruits voting ambassadors, especially Black voters, to use social relations to bring people to the polls.  Jacqueline has been our bridge to local artists, grassroots organizations, and the construction company which is interested in murals.  She came thinking she was going back to Chicago after installing the VoteTree installation.  We asked her to stay and fortunately she agreed; everyone is convinced this was the right move.

VoteTruck:  Rachel Lomas started her artistic political activism with midterms matter in Texas and got the truck from Texas to Atlanta to support the runoff elections. The truck has two neon mounted art pieces on it.  One side encourages folks to vote, and the other is a smiling image of local hero Stacey Abrams.   Rachel had to return to Texas, but wanted the Truck to be kept busy in Georgia.  We have been keeping it VERY busy supporting actions (including visiting the Math Movement folks who are working with Andrew Yang at their canvass office in Columbus Georgia.)  

We use the truck for photo ops, to draw attention at rallies, and when doing public outreach. (We had the nicest throw out ever from a security driver who told us she is volunteering for the campaign, but we have to move our giant neon truck out of her parking lot).  The truck is a great attention grabber and conversation starter, plus it’s gotten media attention from the New York Times, NBC News, NBC Latino.

We also have a few other projects in the works (more info on those soon), and are continuing our canvassing and art installations on the Beltline. Please help us continue our work in Georgia by contributing to our GoFundMe supporting these efforts.