Using public art to inspire action toward social justice and racial equity.
Meet the mural artist.
Simone Lawrence is a black, queer womyn and artist hailing from the Bay Area, California. Since residing in Madison, WI, Simone has worked at cultivating her lifelong passion and self-taught talents in acrylic painting, drawing, and performance art in the form of drag. Her work most commonly centers the lens of art activism and revolution in an effort to educate and create conversation around the history of various art and social justice movements.
What is MoSAP?
The Monroe Street Anti-Racism Project (MoSAP) is a grassroots community-organizing effort that emerged in response to discriminatory and anti-Black flyers found scattered across the Dudgeon-Monroe and Bay Creek neighborhoods in 2020-21. Using public art, MoSAP aims to stimulate dialogue and inspire action to advance social justice and racial equity. It engages residents, schools, organizations, businesses, and children and families by way of new partnerships to stimulate long-term change through awareness and action. MoSAP sits at the nexus between an individual artist and a larger community and is driven by collaboration and the intersection of artistic expression and grassroots activism.
The Machine
Are your intentions (in)directly blocking the pathway for systemic change? Is your allyship helping or harming the cause? The motive behind this mural is for folx to question whether their actions are backed by an authentic commitment to the fight against injustice via continuous education, self-interrogation, empathy, humility, understanding, and advocacy. The fight is not conditional, convenient, savioristic, apolitical, or self-promoting. It must be an unequivocal and daily life path that rectifies the relentlessness and ubiquity of injustice. The fight also has to exist in solidarity with marginalized folx whose voices must be heard, and who need not stand in complicity, but rather rework the system from within or unplug the machine all together.
Ready to take the next step?
You’re here. You’re interested. You want to find out more. We have compiled an extensive list of resources - from local organizations, to conversation-starters, to books and articles. Becoming an authentic ally is a commitment to doing the work. Start by getting informed.
