MURALS

Photojournalist Ancona (Harvest, not reviewed, etc.) takes his camera to the streets in this exploration of outdoor community murals in cities across the US. A look at the cave paintings of Lascaux, early church frescoes, and murals painted in Mexico City after the 1910 revolution place his subject in historical perspective. He kicks off with a pair of colorful photographs: “A tiny street in the San Francisco Mission District called Balmy Ally has become famous for the murals that cover its doors, fences, and walls.” “A mural painted on two garage doors shows the people resisting oppression by a military government in Central America.” A Philadelphia mural called “Common Threads” compares the hairstyles of high-school students and 18th-century women. As Ancona explains, the students assisted the artist by posing as models. A smaller photo shows the full face of the 7,500-square-foot mural, cars dwarfed in the foreground, while a detail of an African-American girl with cascading braids dominates the spread. A series of photographs depicts a mural created for a Boston housing project. Writes Ancona, “The artist organized more than three hundred children and residents to make clay tiles that were stamped, fired, and then assembled to create the mural.” Murals in Albuquerque, Chicago, and the South Bronx are also shown. A unique chronicle of our country’s diversity and an engaging look at the connection between the arts and activism: Ancona’s latest is first rate. (Nonfiction. 8-12)