Fundraising to Awaken the Underground Railroad Mural!

On Green St. under Aurora St.
Local Black Artist Activists leading this project:
Jackie Richardson​, Maryam Adib, Cyepress Rite, Terrance Vann, Khalil Bey.
A group of Black artists, community leaders, elders, and supporters are adding critical context to the current resurgence of Black Lives Matter protests by re-imagining and expanding the Green Street Underground Railroad Mural.

Ithaca has a rich history of resistance and collective power that needs to be recovered, honored, and preserved, and that's exactly what awakening this mural with fresh new layers of paint intends to do. As formerly enslaved abolitionist, Frederick Douglass said himself:
“We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and the future."
Help fund this amazing project!
Donations will go toward:
  • organizational planning,
  • Cleaning, prepping surface,
  • high quality paints,
  • fair artivists' stipends,
  • documentation,
  • celebration!
This project is a collaboration between Southside Community Center & Ithaca Murals... made possible with support & donations from community members - like YOU!
Thank you to people who have already contributed: 
Michelle Harty, Rachel Feirman, Community Arts Partnership, Kate & John Finn, Buffalo Street Books, Sarah McNaull, Deborah Jones, Melissa Allen, Charmaine Brathwaite, Carolyn Paul-Alexander, Juliana Quaresma, Betty DeCaires, Illume Projects, David Kraskow, Nicholas Mino, Kyara Moran, Nora Burrows, Mariellen Brown, Kellie Swensen, Elizabeth Richards, Sofia Villenas, Rebecca Creamer, Margaret Wakeley, Tony Ciccone, Katharine Constas, Amanda Schaufler, Alex Sosebee, Chris Griswold, Jessy Certain, Hannah Sumner, Greta Unetich, Jennie Cramer, Shayna Grajo, Katie Sims, Yvette Rubio, Justin Chandler, Daisy Fan, Tricia Klitsch, Kelly Patwell, Lori & Dave Brewer, Nerissa Russell, Taylor Peck, Simon St.​ ​Laurent, Dorota Kossowska, Rebecca Evans, Ashley Cake, Stephanie Valletta, Stephanie Moore, Sarah House, Norma Gutierrez, Southside Community Center!
This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County.

Reading In Between the Paint Strokes

Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and unsung abolitionists.
Acknowledgment of the Cayuga Nation
​and Ithaca's hidden history.
Preserving the blueprint and
Art as a Call to Action.
​I have heard their groans and sighs, and seen their tears, and I would ​give every drop of the blood in my veins to free them.
-Harriet Tubman
Please share this page with others.
Let's send a message to our community that ALL BLACK LIVES MATTER.
Click here to join the fundraising/organizing support team.
​Ken Glover, Nia Nunn, Harry O Smith, Keyanna Mozie, Janilya Baizack, Khalil Bey, Bhavya Brushan, Marie Verga, and Caleb Thomas.
Share downloadable info...
The Time is Now.
File Size: 590 kb
File Type: png
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Look This Up!
File Size: 1033 kb
File Type: png
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Artists are Fundamental in Revolution.
File Size: 4717 kb
File Type: png
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Mural History
In September 2019, Southside Community Center youth walked to Green St. to clean years of car dust off the mural.
Underground Railroad Mural by Jonathan Matas painted in 2010.
​Click here to learn more about Jonathan Matas and this beautiful mural.