Commissioned by the City of El Cerrito, this public artwork honors Black women who have fought for freedom and built communities rooted in resistance, solidarity, and care. The larger utility box features a portrait inspired by Tereza de Benguela, an eighteenth-century Black freedom fighter and community leader in Brazil. After escaping enslavement, she helped establish and lead the Quariterê quilombo, a community of approximately 200 Black and Indigenous people who had escaped slavery and forced labor. For two decades, she led the community’s political, economic, and administrative affairs and organized its defense against colonial attacks.

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The background pattern draws from the kanga, a textile worn by women in Tanzania, and pays homage to the women warriors in my family lineage who resisted colonization and oppression. The adjacent utility box features a quote by Assata Shakur calling for freedom, mutual support, and collective liberation. Together, the two designs honor Black women’s legacies of resistance and the communities they have built in the ongoing struggle for freedom.