Blueprint North

Blueprint North painted by Cesar Viveros, with accompanying poem by Ursula Rucker, is located in the Norris Square neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The mural was one of two painted as part of Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia. The program’s goal was to end youth homicides in the city by the year 2016, by leveraging the resources, expertise, and capacity of a wide range of community and government stakeholders. Each panel of the mural is accompanied by a poem written by the community and compiled by Rucker.

Panel one features portraits of children riding bicycles, accompanied by text that reads: “street rhythm/el ritmo de la calle…/pounding cut, pulsing veins,/hearts bloating with…/promise and pain/laughter and rage/hope and heartache.”

Panel two features a pair of large hands outstreched towards the viewer paired with the poem: “this mural will teach children/and pastors, and thugs and/passer-bys/how to forgive…it speaks/from the heart of this place…/this neighborhood will not be/ignored…/it is important…you can’t silence/this neighborhood…/this neighborhood is alive…this/neighborhood is power.”

Panel three shows the generations of a family and is paired with: “girls with hoop earrings/will walk by this mural/smacking their gum and talkin’/about boys and they will stop/and say…/this mural – it is truth, it is/passionate/it is beautiful…/and then they will go on down/the street, hoop earrings/swinging, catching sun’s light,/talking about boys/and feeling proud that this mural/is here.”