When most people hear the words “street art,” they imagine graffiti spray-painted all over walls and buildings illegally. However, the term also includes the complete opposite—community-drawn murals that promote safety and peace. This type of art is especially appropriate in my neighborhood of Kensington, Brooklyn—a culturally diverse and homey area dotted with schools and playgrounds. One mural in particular, named “React, Respect, Intersect” is an example of a city-commissioned piece that promotes a secure environment for the community it is located in. Located on the corner of East 5th St. and Church Ave—a relatively dangerous intersection with multiple buses and cars traveling off the highway on Ocean Parkway—this piece is the work of two professional artists, Yana Dimitrova and Adam Kidder, and young artists from the Groundswell Community Mural Project. The project was created to warn drivers to slow down and avoid accidents. It portrays a young girl holding up a stop sign while various modes of transportation and pedestrians maneuver their way around each other on one busy street.
When the acrylic-based mural was first painted in 2011 with the support of the NYC Department of Transportation, it was clearly visible to anyone who was driving off the highway. It served as a large, in-your-face reminder that was hard to miss. Now, in 2016, the piece, which takes up the entire side of a building, is partly covered up by the trees that have grown in front of it. The Groundswell Community Mural Project created this piece in the hopes that it will last for a long time and untainted by graffiti. However, there is already graffiti on the bottom right corner in yellow—suggesting that this piece won’t remain untainted forever.
“React, Respect, Intersect” is a piece of public art that I see everyday on my way to and from school—in the daytime. However, when I drive by at night, the piece is hard to see because the majority of the streetlights are positioned on Church Avenue and not on the streets that intersect it. Furthermore, the project is easily visible only to drivers who are travelling from the highway, and not those who are travelling towards the highway. The position makes sense, considering that cars travelling off the highway need to slow down their speed as opposed to cars that are travelling towards it.
The mural isn’t limited to the driving audience, but also to the communities of families and children who are walking by the piece. The young girl represents the cultural diversity of the neighborhood and the active concern of the NYC Department of Transportation to reduce the amount of accidents that happen in the area and maintain a degree of safety for the many children that travel to and from schools in the neighborhood.
“React, Respect, Intersect” is a wonderful piece to have in Kensington, as it showcases the talents of young teenagers who worked together to produce the project as well as the family-friendly vibe that my neighborhood has. Along with the increase of parks and environment-friendly settings in the community, the presence of the mural makes Kensington feel like a safer and more welcoming place to live.
By: Mahfuza Sabiha
