A Tale of Two Sisters

A Tale of Two Sisters is located at the Charles Santore Branch of The Free Library of Philadelphia in the city’s Southwark neighborhood. Artist Rebecca Simon Miller led students at the Southwark School to consider memories and story ideas based on three prompts related to their neighborhood in South Philly, and created story arc outlines in their sketchbooks. Miller and other program leaders then took them on a walk around the neighborhood, with digital cameras. Each student took photos to use for a story illustration, and worked with Miller to select images for printing. The students then used their printed photos, plus watercolors, oil pastels, colored pencils, and other materials to create a collage illustration, singly or in small groups. The different groups then shared out these collages and considered ways of tying them together into a story using language.
Miller combined the imagery/ideas of many of these collages into two mural designs, drawing language for the first design from the students’ writing, combining student stories into a single text, “The Tale of Two Sisters”, using as much student language as possible:
Once upon a time, in faraway mountains, there was a lake with a beach. Near this place, two sisters lived, and they were inseparable. At the end of the day their relationship was always stronger than before.
The world was growing tense around them.
One day, they felt they wanted to find a moment to themselves, without other people or problems, and so to freedom and tranquility they went. This had always meant the lake, however, on this day, walking the familiar way to the beach from school, Grace and Sui began to have a rare argument.
Their feelings grew to a boil, as the path wound around the high banks of the lake. Sui, in distraction, missed her step, and slipped instantly into the water. Shock was the only thing she felt.
Panicking, Grace called “HELP!” for her sister.
Then, Sui felt herself rise up from the water, and realized something had saved her from the lake. It was a fish! A silvery fish lifted her up to the shore, where Grace waited.
She could breathe! They could both breathe.
Grace pulled her from the water, and comforted her sister. Though Sui had been caught by the fish, it was her sister’s bond that had called forth the help they needed.
The relieved sisters trusted each other more than they had ever before, and ever after they would look out for the silver of a particularly large fish, when they walked the path to the lake.
About the Project
This mural was created as part of the We Will Write the World, a project centered on increasing childhood literacy by encouraging playful learning through public art, billboards and murals. This project encouraged dialogue and interactions between grown-ups and children through large-scale public art pieces in the Literacy-Rich Neighborhoods of Fairhill, Germantown, Logan, and South Philadelphia.
The project integrated with the Reading Promise campaign, the nation’s most comprehensive early literacy campaign, which was designed for and with Philly families to effect Read by 4th goals which is grounded on the understanding that children who read well by 4th grade have a better chance at school and life success.
Billboards and murals produced throughout the project are centered around five Reading Promises: Make Reading Together Our Special Time, Talk It Up, Champion Your School Success, Create With You, and Protect Your Right To Read.

Youth Engagement
In spring 2022, the second phase of the project kicked off with teaching artists adapting an art-based curriculum for a series of workshops in school and afterschool programs involving children ages 5-12. Children participating in these workshops generated stories and illustrations to inspire Storybook Mural artwork. Lead teaching artists included: Lisa Jungmin Lee, Rebecca Miller, Julia Gutman, Sabriaya Shipley, Moneek Pines-Elliott, and Dominique Tocatlian.

Storybook Murals
Over the last year, mural artists were invited to produce child-friendly Storybook Murals in different locations across the four neighborhoods—maintaining continuity between them, similar to a storybook trail or story-based scavenger hunt. Mural designs use as a reference the materials generated in the spring 2022 workshops. Mural artists include: Rebecca Miller, Manuela Guillen, De’von Downes, Andre Chaney, Jihan Thomas, Khalid Dennis, and Daphne Smallwood.
Murals are located across the city at Logan Library, Jay Cooke Elementary, Germantown ArtHaus, Julia de Burgos School, Cosmi’s Deli, and Charles Santore Library.

In October, 2022, We Will Write the World went to the Please Touch Museum during the month of October—Mural Arts Month. The activation invited hands-on mural-making, and visitors had the opportunity to view billboard and mural artworks produced as part of the project, as well as the illustrations of young people who inspired the mural designs.
Each neighborhood team was made up of strong, community-based organizations and Reading Captains. These teams, along with strategists and communicators at Mighty Engine as well as local artists, are working together to develop messages and designs for the art pieces.