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The Work · Haverhill, Massachusetts

Currents of Strength

The finished Currents of Strength mural: a bald eagle sweeping over the Merrimack River, painted across a downtown Haverhill wall.

Haverhill, Massachusetts · October 2024

A bald eagle over the Merrimack River, four storeys of it, on Merrimack Street. Two weeks of painting with the nonprofit Beyond Walls — and one open day where residents of every age were invited to add a brushstroke before Jamaal finished the piece.

He called that day a Partici-paint. It worked so well that Cindi and Jamaal built an organization around it.

This is the project Participaint is named after. Covered by The Eagle-Tribune, 22 November 2024.

From the build

The community wallMake your mark

The Film

The Haverhill paint day, in four minutes.

Jamaal, Cindi, the founders of Beyond Walls, and the painters of Haverhill — the whole community paint day, in the words of the people who were on the lot.

“Don’t try to be an artist. I just want you to make a mark.”

Voices

The paint day, in the words of the people who were there.

9 clips · captions included · plays straight through · scroll →

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