Laughter, hip-hop, and the smells of soul food filled the air behind Epiphany School on Sunday as more than 200 people gathered to celebrate the unveiling of a mural celebrating Black joy and youth.
The mural, “Breathe Life: 8piphany” by Boston artist Rob “ProBlak” Gibbs, stretches across the school’s rear façade. It shows two smiling children gazing upward as pages inscribed with the school’s eight character benchmarks — respect, courage, compassion, pride, perseverance, curiosity, gratitude, and thoughtful choices — swirl amidst a cosmic backdrop, evoking the boundless potential of Black youth.
The eighth installment in Gibbs’s acclaimed “Breathe Life” series, the mural was created collaboratively with Epiphany’s students and staff. The project was supported by the city of Boston’s Un-Monument | Re-Monument | De-Monument initiative, funded by a $3 million Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant for community-driven public art.
Epiphany School students (from left) Vilmayra Depina, Jayden Rosa, and Zoe Peña pose in front of “Breathe Life: 8piphany,” the new mural they helped design as members of the student mural committee. Nathan Metcalf photo
The title “Breathe Life” comes from the idea of speaking positivity into the world, Gibbs said, “to take something negative and flip it into something positive, to breathe life into it, to resuscitate it.” The phrase, which he began using years ago in his graffiti work, became the title of a mural series celebrating Black joy and imagination across Boston neighborhoods.
“I coined it to be like a love song to the city,” he said.
Each mural, he added, “starts out with a thought. That thought turns into a conversation. That conversation turns into a composition. That composition goes into a community that hopefully influences or impacts the world.”
Located next to Shawmut MBTA station, Epiphany School is an independent, tuition-free middle school for children from economically disadvantaged families in Boston.
For A.B. Deleveaux, Epiphany’s director of arts and culture, the mural fulfills a dream years in the making.
“Rob and I had been talking about doing something for the school for the longest time,” he said. “Now, every morning I come out here for inspiration before I start the school day.”
The idea gained traction after Epiphany’s head of school saw “Breathe Life Together” on the Rose Kennedy Greenway. A student mural committee was formed to help brainstorm, and Gibbs painted during school hours so children could watch the piece take shape.
Seventh-grader Zoe Peña, a member of the mural committee, said she initially was not confident in her art but joined after encouragement from Deleveaux. “I’m not usually into art,” she said, “but after the first session I got really interested.”
Every one of the mural’s eight character benchmarks appears in her handwriting, a detail she said makes her “feel proud every time I look at it.”
Jayden Rosa, another seventh-grader on the mural committee, said the project showed him “kids our age can work on big things.” He suggested including another of the school’s mottos, “Never give up on a child,” which now appears on one of the swirling sheets of paper. “It’s a great piece of art,” he said, “because the people who were involved can come back and admire that they were a part of it.”
Tamare Gordon, an early educator at Epiphany and longtime Roxbury resident, said the piece captures what teachers strive to impart every day. “Looking at the faces and the quotes, it shows the confidence we build in children,” she said. “It’s a reminder they can reach for the stars.”
Jason Talbot, Gibbs’s longtime friend and cofounder of Artists for Humanity, a South Boston nonprofit that employs teens in paid art and design work, said the mural continues the mission that he and Gibbs began as teens in Roxbury.
“Rob’s voice is getting louder and louder,” Talbot said. “His message helps young people realize they’re worth investing in, that they’ve got a bright future.”
During a panel discussion, Boston Globe columnist Jeneé Osterheldt told the crowd that art like “Breathe Life” plays a vital civic role, especially amid what she described as efforts by the Trump administration to restrict how race and history are taught in schools and museums.
Boston Globe columnist Jeneé Osterheldt (left) speaks with artist Rob “ProBlak” Gibbs (center) and A.B. Delaveaux, Epiphany School’s director of arts and culture, during a panel discussion at the unveiling of “Breathe Life: 8piphany.” Nathan Metcalf photo
“Our history and imagination are under attack,” she said. “Art like this reminds us who we are.”
Gibbs’s work now spans from neighborhood walls to major Boston institutions like Harvard University and the Museum of Fine Arts, yet he still looks to the city’s neighborhoods as his greatest source of inspiration.
“People always ask why I keep coming back,” he said. “I never left. Greatness is already here.”
This story is part of a partnership between the Dorchester Reporter and the Boston University Department of Journalism.
