There was a time around April or May that I began to sneer at phrases like “now more than ever” and words like “unprecedented,” all of them co-opted by corporations trying to convince me they cared. It is possible my derision distracted me from the true matter at hand. It feels impossible to grasp this pandemic’s true scale, multidimensional, extending beyond the horizon line. Do you remember when president said it would be over by Easter?
A recent in-depth piece by The Cut titled The Children of Quarantine explores a specific facet of this situation — how it’s shaping the next generation. “This period, like a war, will end,” Lisa Miller writes. “And like a war, its effects will linger, too. Children will tell their children about what it was like to grow up now, in the year of no school, no parties, no playdates, no kissing.”
The conversation has spilled over into other mediums. In Lynn, MA, local street art festival Beyond Walls hosted their latest public art installation, “Truth Be Told…” which speaks to the struggles of children surviving this time, incorporating input from Lynn’s community.
“Beyond Walls worked with several community partners to compile a collection of artwork and stories that provide a snapshot into life as a youth in Lynn,” writes Itemlive. “In total, the installation will include five murals on 170 Union St., 451 Broad St., at North Shore Community College, the Lynn YMCA, and the Lynn Community Health Center.”
Florida-based artist Evoca1 joined the project, painting a gorgeous mural titled Comforting Sounds at 170 Union Street. This work illuminates the best of his style — just shy of hyperrealistic, retaining a whisper of illustration’s ephemeral dreaminess — depicting a young boy lost in the act of making music, two birds escape the confines of a shattered vase.
“I wanted to paint something to show that although things might seem broken, a lot of times, things need to break in order for a positive outcome to come out of that,” the artist explained. This is a hard enough lesson for adults to understand, let alone children. While The Cut’s piece notes that “In the pandemic, the mental health of children is ‘significantly correlated’ to that of their parents,” it also explores just how ragged parents’ mental health is running.
Time and again, it’s been proven that those hit the hardest by this pandemic were those the worst off prior to its preeminence. The children experiencing these unprecedented times will inherit our flawed system which obstinately refuses to care for the very people who provide its manpower. The pandemic surpasses an average individual’s agency — what we can control, to some degree, is how we relate to it as a whole. Will this be a minor interruption to the regularly scheduled programming, or will we seize this moment of brokenness by committing to repairs?
Evoca1 brings his own life experience to addressing the question. The artist came to this wall by deliberate choice, commitment. Born in the Dominican Republic he immigrated to Florida at eleven years old. “I’d focused my whole life on playing baseball,” he says in Itemlive’s piece. “After college, I quit baseball and started doing art. I wasn’t happy playing anymore and I wasn’t getting the same pleasure that I did out of my art. So I made a change.” His own biography states that “As an autodidact figurative painter, muralist and sculptor, he has received his art education from the compulsive study of the old masters works and techniques. His works are a personal reflection of his life experiences, as well as from observation of human behaviors and social struggles.
Beyond Walls also invited Sheila Pree Bright, Golden, Percy Fortini Wright, and Sen2 to participated in “Truth Be Told…” The festival itself adapted to the circumstances, eschewing large crowds and focusing on social media outreach. “It’s been an interesting challenge,” said Julia Midland, a former program manager who has returned to help with social media during the festival according to Itemlive. “But also a cool opportunity.” Beyond Walls Founder & CEO remarked, “I think that we’ve been able to capture what kids are going through.”
It’s hard to really know what kids are going through just yet, but it’s imperative to be there for them. The Cut offers hope “Kids are resilient. It is possible to reverse the destructive effects of toxic stress on the developing brain,” Miller writes, citing research on child soldiers in Sierra Leon. “Structure and routine help.” Maintaining a regular rhythm to rely on like practicing the violin each day, embodies what we can aspire to in the near future.
Evoca1: website | facebook | instagram
Beyond Walls: website | Instagram | facebook
