Jess X. Snow is a queer, migrant, Asian-Canadian artist, filmmaker, poet and RISD alum. Gavriel Cutipa-Zorn is a doctoral candidate in American studies at Yale and a Brown grad. They first met in Providence, a time which both say proved crucial to their personal development. They returned to collaborate on this mural, which Snow designed using symbolism and mythology drawn from Cutipa-Zorn’s research and dissertation on transnational solidarity. The concept is inspired by the struggles of both Latinx and Palestinian peoples at the borders between the US/Mexico and Israel/Palestine. It depicts the silhouetted profiles of Providence-based, Queer Guatemalan organizer Vanessa Flores-Maldonado and New Orleans-based Palestinian organizer Amira, as well as plant and animal life symbolic of the ways that solidarity can cross borders and break through walls.

Special thanks to: Providence Community Acupuncture, Adlers Hardware, C&E Anderson, Vanessa Flores-Maldonado, Amira, Zoraida Ingles, PrYSM, Ian Cozzens, Peter Pa, Kah Yangni, Dan Sway, Curtis Livingston, Jarrett Key