A couple of Sundays ago, my wanderlust got the best of me. I decided to leave DC and head north to the bustling town of Silver Spring, MD. Although it’s only a few metro stops outside of the District, it held the promise of novelty for an afternoon.
I was expecting to find all the makings of a DC suburb; a Panera Bread, some CVS stores and maybe even a Best Buy. These businesses were all there, but Silver Spring’s diverse community has given it flair. As a coffee shop aficionado, I made it my mission to go to three family-owned coffee shops in town and decide which one was the best.
One of the cafes, Kefa Café, had a mural on the outside that immediately caught my eye. It showed three different scenes in vibrant colors. Each scene told the story of a refugee who had settled down in Maryland. The refugees were originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Myanmar (Burma) and Iraq. Each of them was interviewed by Joel, the artist, and local youth to create the mural.
In researching him further, I discovered that Joel has led this kind of project in countries all over the world (www.joelsmurals.com). He usually works with local communities to interview vulnerable members of society who wish to tell their stories.
One of his most recent mural projects took place in Kibera, a slum of Nairobi, Kenya. The slum was one of the epicenters of ethnic violence and killings in the wake of the 2007 presidential elections. This year, Kenya held elections again in March. Joel went to Kibera to lead peace-building workshops and create murals in hopes of preventing another outbreak of violence.
“No matter how long the night, the day is sure to come”, the DC mural says. It is a Congolese proverb, but resonates with me on a human level. We owe it to our communities – and ourselves – to share our darkest stories and make space for solidarity. Darkness can’t really survive in the light.