Do you ever have those seasons where you become hyper fixated on a specific interest for a time? I’ve been through many, whether it’s one musical artist, a new TV show and all of its accompanying lore, or a certain style of dress. A few years ago, I found myself drawn to the Afrofuturist movement and aesthetic, particularly jazz musician Sun Ra’s cosmic mythology as a separatist political philosophy in his 1974 film Space is the Place. Ra was a pioneer of the Afrofuturist movement who made it his mission to redefine historically negative images of Blackness through art, helping his community reclaim narratives and ultimately take steps towards creating observable social change.
That fixation came flooding back on the afternoon of Saturday, August 5, as I watched AGONZA’s Mural Battle take place at this year’s PVDFest. Here were four talented artists, brushes and spray cans in hand, with urgent stories to tell. It’s not too often that audience members like you and I get to witness exactly how the artist transforms a blank canvas into an intricate piece, especially when there’s a clock involved. It never ceases to amaze me how the pros make each decision, each stroke, look effortlessly easy to execute. On this day, Kennedy Plaza became an agora for voices that have historically been excluded from formal political discourse.
The competition delivered just that kind of atmosphere. Winner Lanita (@lanitaest93 on Instagram) captured the audience’s attention, hearts, and minds with a powerful depiction of her Lady Justice holding scales, a tribute to the Black Lives Matter Movement that addressed the ongoing police violence against Black and brown bodies in America with fearless directness. Her piece stood alongside equally compelling murals: RISD grad Lizzy Sour’s (@lizzysour) bold postcard with her signature intricate pattern running alongside the border declaring “From the river to the sea,” confronting the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza; Savonnara Alexander Sok’s (@savonnara401) vibrant but haunting portrayal of a traditional Cambodian mask dancer in ICE detention, reflecting the immigrant and refugee experience; and LT Duarte’s (@do_art3) contribution with a piece themed around the saying “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” and the effects that violence has had on children around the world.
“The competition and time limit push artists to tap into a raw, instinctive creativity,” AGONZA explains. “There’s no time to second-guess it; it’s about trusting your craft and leaving it all on the wall.” This pressure-cooker environment strips away doubts and hesitations to reveal the truest versions of both the artists and the communities they represent. Rather than just acting as spectators, the audience gets to become part of the creative process, and were able to cast their votes for their favorite piece on their phones in real time.
For AGONZA, a Dominican and Puerto Rican Artist whose murals have been recognized throughout PVD and who worked tirelessly to organize this year’s battle, the event was about so much more than competition and recognition. “I feel a responsibility to create work that both honors my heritage and challenges the erasure of our stories,” she reflects. “My murals are about representation; they preserve cultural memory, celebrate identity, and push back against narratives that silence us.” Her platform creates space for artists to engage in a beautiful intersection of aesthetics and social justice. “Aesthetics matter, beauty draws people in, but once they’re standing in front of the work, there’s an opportunity to speak to deeper issues,” she shares.
While the competitive format might seem to contradict the typical association of community art with more collaborative or open-ended exhibitions, AGONZA sees it differently. The time constraint and public setting create what she describes as “an opportunity for public engagement that transforms the act of painting from a solitary process into a shared experience.” I didn’t just see the final products that day. I spectated the initial strokes of paint, got to stroll the plaza and take in all the great music being performed around me (while sipping on a delicious Kuquat lemon peach green tea, courtesy of Angkor BOBA Tea House), and returned to a strikingly different work of art than when I left. The Mural Battle allowed us as an audience to see artists vulnerable during their process, their decisions made, and breakthroughs that normally would never leave the studio. If an artist is meticulous in their process, but no one is around to see it, was it easy? “When people feel included in the making of art, they carry that sense of ownership with them,” Agonza says.
The political weight of all four pieces demonstrates how the format of the battle serves to elevate urgent social issues. Artists working under pressure, in full view, inevitably had to reach for their most authentic truths in their pieces. The result is public art that rejects being a decorative backdrop, instead demanding engagement with the harsh realities these artists and their communities face daily.
“I’m very conscious that public art can either uphold or challenge the systems around us,” AGONZA notes. “So I try to create work that reflects the lived experiences of marginalized communities, honors their resilience, and sparks dialogue.” This year’s iteration of the PVDFest Mural Battle proved that when artists are given a platform, the support of their community, and the pressure of friendly competition, they don’t play it safe. They lean into the messaging that matters most, telling their communities’ stories, challenging oppressive systems, and sparking imaginative realities to defy the status quo. Although the paint on a mural might take a few hours or even a few weeks to dry, the conversations that these artists generated through their work will continue for years to come.