Twenty years ago Jane Golden, Director of the Mural Arts Program (MAP), was asked to transform Phila’s graffiti-scarred cityscape, enlisting the help of the graffiti writers that created it. These young men, ignored and overlooked for most of their lives, truly believed they would be “dead or in jail” by the age of 25. With the lure of art classes and employment, Jane convinced them to trade in their cans of spray paint for paint brushes. Today, these men are preachers, poets & living proof that art truly does save lives.
After more than 2,400 murals & countless art classes, MAP has expanded its mission to include at-risk, truant, & incarcerated youth. In addition, MAP serves several Phila prisons as well as the State Correctional Institution at Graterford. With support from Supt. Dave DiGuglielmo, MAP has enabled inmates to give back to Phila’s most crime-ridden and neglected neighborhoods.
Over dinner we will reunite MAP’s past - the graffiti writers and then mayor Rev. Dr. Wilson Goode, whose brainchild program became MAP – and unite MAP’s future –at-risk youth & inmate artists from Graterford, who will join us through video.
