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  • Lift As We Climb

    Lift As We Climb

    Artist: Albertus Joseph (210 French installation; 208 French design & installation); Kelley Prevard (210 French design)
    Location: 208 French Street New Brunswick, NJ, 08901 US
    Completed: Nov 20, 2024
    Sponsoring Organizations: coLAB Arts, New Brunswick Area Chapter of the NAACP, New Brunswick Tomorrow's Esperanza Neighborhood Project

    This unique two-part mural celebrates the history of activism among New Brunswick’s Black and Latino communities. The first mural at 210 French St developed as a collaboration between coLAB Arts and the New Brunswick Area Chapter of the NAACP to celebrate the legacy of Black women in the civil and voting rights movement. The centerpiece of the work is the portrait of Fannie Lou Hamer, the famed civil rights leader from Mississippi who came to national prominence after delivering an impassioned speech at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. “Lift As We Climb” refers to the quote from Mary Church Terrell, an African American activist and founder of the National Association of Colored Women who championed racial equality and women’s suffrage in the late 19th and early 20th century:

    “And so, lifting as we climb, onward and upward we go, struggling and striving, and hoping that the buds and blossoms of our desires will burst into glorious fruition 'ere long. With courage, born of success achieved in the past, with a keen sense of the responsibility which we shall continue to assume, we look forward to a future large with promise and hope.”

    The mural was originally planned for a different location but came to this site with the support of New Brunswick Tomorrow’s (NBT) Esperanza Neighborhood Project. This collaboration inspired the second part of the mural on the facing wall at 208 French St. Recognizing that many current residents of the neighborhood may be unfamiliar with the history represented in “Lift As We Climb,” NBT and coLAB Arts engaged Latino residents to learn the history and pay homage with a new, mirrored design. The second wall highlights how Latino residents have followed in the footsteps of earlier movements by lifting their voices for the advancement of their community and future generations.