Ridge on the Rise

Done in 2004 - this mural was meant to tell a story of the area. The artist went through great lengths interviewing the people in the community and studying its history. With what he discovered, what stood prominent is that the area use to be home to the glamorous Pearl Theatre, where legends like John Coltrane (man shown on the far left) performed. He also included Cecil B Moore and the wall of Girard College - the location where Moore famously protested the civil rights struggle. The young girl on the right presenting flowers is for the educators and mentors that fought for her education. The woman in the center is Pearl Mae Bailey - a famed singer from the 1930s who later in 1988 received the Presidency Medal of Freedom and served as an ambassador of the UN