A Native American Artist’s Stunning Protest Mural Wins the “Art on the Streets” Award

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The 66-foot-tall painting depicts the artist’s 14-year-old daughter, her face covered by a handprint that symbolizes missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, on the side of a downtown Colorado Springs building. Painting as an act of protest and education is artist Gregg Deal’s way of calling attention to “a silent epidemic,” he says. And his mural, Take Back the Power, just won the city’s Art on the Streets award.

His daughter helped him paint it; she wanted to help her father give voice to the many who are voiceless. “As a Native person, I get to be up there representing Native people and this epidemic,” she told the Gazette. “I think it’s very important that we get that type of representation.” To create the mural, her father partnered with the Haseya Advocate Program, a nonprofit resource for Native survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. “Any amount of awareness” is essential, says Monycka Snowbird, an advocate with the program. “We’re hoping people see this, google it, and get more background.”

Watch the 5-minute video of the mural’s creation, with inspiring comments from the artist and his daughter. A Recharge shoutout to the Gazette’s visual team, including Katie Klann, for the powerfully produced video.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

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