PEN World Voices Festival: ArtLords Community Mural
In addition to attending the “Writing Humor for Kids, Seriously” panel sponsored by the PEN Children’s and Young Adult Books Committee, I attended several other events at the 2025 PEN World Voices Festival. One that stood out for me was the creation of a mural organized by the ArtLords collective from Kabul, Afghanistan.
Over the years, the World Voices Festival has used Union Square in New York City as a venue for interacting with the wider community on issues related to literature and intellectual freedom. Two years ago, PEN put together an exhibit on book banning, including the works of two panelists at the 2023 festival, Zetta Elliott and Kyle Lukoff. This year, Union Square was the site of a community mural that is now touring schools and community centers throughout the United States and Canada.
The ArtLords signature on the mural, in white.
The group ArtLords designed the original mural and outlined the parts of it that community members were invited to paint. The group, which calls themselves “artivists” began in Kabul in 2014, more than a decade after the US and NATO invasion that toppled the Taliban dictatorship. At a time of US occupation and civil war, space also opened up for women to become educated and gain agency in their society, and dissident voices to express themselves through literature and art. On their website, ArtLords write:
Our story began with a bold vision: to use the blank walls of Kabul as canvases to paint messages of peace, hope, and social change.
As Afghanistan’s first organization to start mural painting in Kabul, we have transformed the city’s landscape, turning somber blast walls into vibrant expressions of community voice and resilience.From our initial projects addressing social issues, ArtLords has grown into a global movement, reaching all 34 provinces of Afghanistan and beyond. Our murals, often a reflection of the collective Afghan experience, have become symbols of the country’s unyielding spirit and desire for a harmonious future. We’ve marked significant milestones along the way – from our award-winning ‘I See You’ anti-corruption campaign to our international exhibitions and peace-building initiatives.
They add, “Our mission extends beyond the mere creation of art; it encompasses sparking meaningful conversations, challenging prevailing norms, and building a future where cultural diversity, transparency, and tolerance are not just celebrated but are foundational pillars of freedom and democracy.”
A neighbor drew a cartoon.
With the goal of “sparking meaningful conversations,” the artists and PEN volunteers fanned out across the square to talk to passersby. At first, I found it awkward to approach strangers to introduce them to the mural, but I learned from the artists, who interacted naturally with the people from the community. By the end of the day, I, too, was inviting people to participate in the creation of the mural, along with my principal duty of washing the artists’ brushes. At first, we painted the large sections, leaving the more delicate work to the professionals. Later, people from the community wrote messages of peace and solidarity with people suffering from war in Ukraine, Palestine, and elsewhere. Some called for the restoration of our democracy and civil rights in the U.S. Others wrote more personal messages or used parts of the mural to tell their stories (as I did, incorporating a thought bubble with one of the mural’s butterflies).
My own contribution, a mashup of T.S. Eliot and the Butterfly Effect.
I had a conversation with a retired nurse about emigration and exile. Is it better to leave a repressive land, where one cannot pursue goals or use talents fully, or stay and fight for an end to the repression? It’s an essential question for scientists who can no longer work on their projects or use their years of education and research in their home country. The same for people who fear for their lives, as the night before this event, I read a comment online about Hannah Arendt: Had she not fled Germany, and later Nazi-occupied France, she would have been a name on an Auschwitz memorial rather than one of the most important philosophers of the twentieth century. Of course, for those of us who aren’t the world’s Hannah Arendts and Albert Einsteins, or whose most productive years are behind them, the calculus is different. It’s different also for those who have families, and cannot put themselves in danger to leave their young children orphaned. But then again, what if the children are in danger, or are in such a bleak place that their lives will also be harsh and limited if they remain?
These are all questions the members of ArtLords have faced as the Taliban returned to power in all their repressive fury. It’s also one the ones living in the U.S. face as the government ends Temporary Protected Status for Afghani refugees who helped U.S. forces during the war and took advantage of the opening for women and freethinkers.
Check out the work of ArtLords and look for the mural if it visits your area. I didn’t get a chance to photograph the finished mural because I was at the CYAB panel on the second day of the project. But enjoy the photos of the work and stay tuned for the link that I will add to the finished mural once it’s available on PEN’s website.
The mural, almost completed, with all the messages added.
