"It's Almost Tomorrow" Café Art Wall installation by Amanda D. King, Leigh Brooklyn and the Pride Club of Citizens Leadership Academy Southeast is #InTheSquare.
"It’s Almost Tomorrow" was created amidst the burgeoning movements for racial justice and LGBT rights. The image is meant to be a visual allegory for radical social change. Featuring the faces of Black Lives Matter co-founders Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi and adorned with hearts (love), rainbows (hope), and fire (renewal), "It’s Almost Tomorrow" visualizes a vibrant, new dawn and the future of education through the eyes and perspectives of Cleveland children.
Amanda D. King is a creative strategist pursuing justice and equity in the arts and society. A multidisciplinary artist and activist, Amanda envisions possibilities for the transformation of individuals, communities, and society through arts and culture. Amanda serves as Creative Director of Shooting Without Bullets – a non-profit creative and social enterprise using cultural production to advance social movement for Black and Brown youth, artists, and communities. Amanda earned a J.D. at Case Western Reserve University School of Law and a BA in art history at Bryn Mawr College.
Leigh Brooklyn was born in 1987 in Cleveland, Ohio. In 2006, Brooklyn graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art. She earned her degree in Biomedical Illustration in 2011 and worked with several hospitals, museums, and research facilities including the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, Cleveland Botanical Gardens, and Cleveland Museum of Natural History. In 2011 Brooklyn moved throughout the country gaining artistic inspiration from individuals she met through street photography and after hearing the stories of those she encountered, switched her focus back to her roots of figurative art. In 2019, Brooklyn also began to narrow her focus toward depicting women for her new women’s empowerment series titled “Women’s Militia.”
Sixth and seventh-grade students of Citizens Leadership Academy's Pride Club collaborated with King and Brooklyn to create a work of public art that facilitates visionary conversations about how education can transform our communities. Under King's tutelage and Brooklyn's art instruction, the student artists explored concepts of peace and unrest while engaging in collaborative art-making.
Their contributions to the mural include coloring and decorating the words "It's Almost Tomorrow," the clothing and hairstyles of the Black Lives Matter co-founders, and the Detroit-Superior Bridge. They also wrote the phrases of protest, "love is love," and "when I think of peace, I think of chains being free." Each artist's signature is on the mural, inscribed in the phoenix wings to symbolize their commitment to create a society without boundaries.
LANDFORM, a public art program conceived and managed by local non-profit LAND Studio and generously funded by the Char and Chuck Fowler Family Foundation, is bringing temporary public artworks to Public Square, the Mall, and other parts of downtown Cleveland. Projects varying in scale and media and created by a diverse group of local, regional, and international artists are in place throughout the year. The LANDFORM café art wall program provides murals by local artists on the wall facing the main entrance to Terminal Tower; they rotate quarterly.
Thank you to the Char and Chuck Fowler Family Foundation for their continued support of public art in Cleveland. To learn more about this and other exciting projects, visit LAND-studio.org.