Photo courtesy of Yassi Kavezade
Residents of San Bernardino, California recently completed a colorful “Fight Smog” mural with the Sierra Club’s My Generation campaign, the Peoples Collective for Environmental Justice, and Project Fighting Chance. The mural depicts environmental justice and a justice transition framework, said Yassi Kavezade, a My Generation organizer.
“The location chosen for the mural is in the heart of the west of San Bernardino,” said Kavezade. “This community faces pollution from freeways, trucks, and one of the largest BNSF rail yards in Southern California. Local residents, activists for clean air, and Sierra Club youth members are depicted in the mural.”
The building itself is home to Project Fighting Chance, an after-school youth boxing program. The image of the boxer raising his arm in the center of the mural is based on hometown junior Olympic gold medalist and boxing hero Terry Washington.
Kavezade said this is the first mural in the area to depict environmental justice as well as what’s possible for the community.
“As our future is faced with the dire consequences of climate change, air pollution, and economic disenfranchisement, this mural is a reminder that San Bernardino residents deserve clean energy investments,” she said. “We did this mural now because San Bernardino communities have been fighting for clean air and good jobs.”
The artists work on outlining the mural. Photo courtesy of Yassi Kavezade.
The coalition worked with three local artists to finish the mural, A'Kailah Byrd-Greene, Duan Kellum, and Andrés Garcia, but residents young and old helped with the painting as well. The mural took six months of planning and the painting took one week. Kavezade said the My Generation campaign has been building relationships with residents for years, and highlighted some of them in the mural. For example, the mural depicts Roxan Barerra, who volunteers with the My Generation campaign because her son suffers from asthma and she knows that the pollution near her home makes it worse.
The mural has already received excellent coverage in the local media. San Bernardino County officials even awarded My Generation a certificate of recognition for their work. Kavezade said the community will keep working for a clean future and this mural will be one of their inspirations.
“We look forward to utilizing this imagery to keep our communities fired up for social change and policies that do more to secure the right to breathe clean air,” said Kavezade.
