Philly Joins Dozens of U.S. Cities, Creates Mural Urging Congress to Protect Undocumented Children

This weekend, internationally renowned street artist and activist JR‘s Inside Out Project rolled in to Philly. And in spite of Friday’s snowstorm, with the help of the Emerson Collective and Mural Arts Philadelphia a new temporary wheatpaste mural was created in just two days on Sansom street at 18th street. (No one quite knows how temporary, I’ve heard as short as two weeks, but I suppose we’ll see.)

The mural was created using photo portraits of hundreds of Philadelphians who support protecting undocumented children (aka ‘Dreamers’) living here in Philadelphia and around the U.S. In fact, Mural Arts just posted to Instagram saying that the final total of participants here in Philadelphia was 403! Photos were snapped in JR’s well-known black, white, and polka dot photo-booth style on site in truck parked next to the mural as it developed.

Philly’s new We Stand with Dreamers mural joins over 30 similar temporary wheatpasted murals of varying shapes and sizes in cities and towns across the U.S., a nationwide art project aimed at pushing Congress to pass the Dream Act and save undocumented youth from deportation before the end of the year!

The Dreamer truck is one of over 100 “group actions” (as the project calls them) around the world that the Inside Out Project has helped to facilitate. From Ecuador to Nepal, from Mexico to Palestine, the Inside Out Project inspires group actions on varied themes such as hope, diversity, gender-based violence, climate change, and much more. Each Inside Out Project group action around the world is documented, archived, and exhibited online. To date, over 260,000 people have participated, including now a bunch of passionate Philadelphians!

See where the Dreamer truck has been, and where it’s going, here!