In addition to his work as a public defender with The Legal Aid Society, Antony Posada is the founder of Project Attica, an organization devoted to engaging youth and under-served communities in social justice issues through art-based activities.
Born in Miami in 1985, Posada had a father who was incarcerated and a stepfather who was involved in the drug trade. Street violence in the ’90s became so dangerous that his family moved to Medellin, Colombia. After notorious cartel leader Pablo Escobar was killed and his stepfather was murdered by paramilitary groups, the 15-year-old Posada was sent to live with his grandmother along the Woodside and Jackson Heights border. Posada learned about mass incarceration while on visits to his biological father, and at age 17 he had a life-changing experience with law enforcement that would lead him to become a public defender.
He was stopped by two plainclothes detectives on 37th Avenue and 77th Street in Jackson Heights during the height of the stop-and-frisk era.
“So I’m paralyzed, don’t know my rights, and they proceed to arrest me and charge me with possession of marijuana and I go through the system,” Posada recalled. “I go through the very office that a few years later I would be working at as a public defender.”
He founded Project Attica in 2010 as a proactive response to the criminalization of his family and the overpolicing of his neighborhood. The goals are to raise public awareness about the status of marginalized youth and the crisis of mass incarceration and to strengthen communities by promoting art projects for underserved youth, combating stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination, and educating residents about their legal rights.
Posada’s latest project, in collaboration with Colombian muralist and painter Cesar Figueroa, is a community-based mural titled “Our Magical Playground of Dreams” at the entrance to the Playground for All Children at Flushing Meadows Corona Park, as part of its We Art Strength campaign highlighting the themes of respect, unity and solidarity and emphasizing diversity.
“The mural is a celebration of the power of imagination coming to life in the playground where children are free to be themselves,” Posada said. “The mural tells the story of unity through children interacting with each other in the spirit of joy. This work highlights community well-being through the magic that children emulate at every moment.”
The We Art Strength program from Project Attica and Creating Something Special is rooted in the understanding that when people come together to create and express themselves, their mutual bonds are strengthened and communities are enriched. The families that make up Creating Something Special include parents of children with varying degrees of autism that engage in art-making activities to practice well-being, empowerment and freedom.
“This mural means everything for me: inclusion, pride, happiness, liberty, kindness and love,” Creating Something Special Founder Esther Samora said. “Because it is a project that was born in the heart and to depict it on the wall of the Playground for All Children makes it even more special because for years, we have worked there bringing families together with their children who have special needs making this park a magical place.”
The mural is part of NYC Parks’ Arts in the Parks program, which permits temporary public art in parks across the five boroughs. The mural is located at 111-01 Corona Ave.
“Sharing and understanding the lived reality of the people in the neighborhood to depict their emotions and visual metaphors allows me to be a part of them,” Figueroa said. “When promoting the language of doing and building together with the community it shows the heart that moves us all when we come together for the common good.”
