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Layqa Nuna Yawar: Between the Future Past

Explore Layqa Nuna Yawar's Between the Future Past

Click on each section of the mural below, then hover over the “i” icon to learn more about the figures, landmarks, and fauna depicted in Layqa Nuna Yawar’s 350-foot artwork. Click here to return to the exhibition page.

Layqa Mural Guide 1A
Zea Mays, also known as the common corn or maize, is one of the main agricultural crops of various Indigenous peoples across the Americas known as The Three Sisters—beans, corn, and squash.
Kimberly O'Neal, a current airport staff member, is depicted as a Mother Earth figure posing with a rose, the New York state flower.
The Bog Turtle is the New Jersey state reptile and serves as a visual representation of Turtle Island, the name for North America given by Indigenous communities. The bog turtle is the smallest turtle native to North America, and is currently an endangered species.
Snowy Egrets are native to the New Jersey area’s marshlands.
Mathyias "Laughing Wolf" Ellis is a young Nanticoke Lenni-Lennape dancer. Here, he stands on a base disc depicting Delaware, NJ.
Dr. Hilda Hidalgo is currently a Puerto Rican community activist, gay-rights pioneer, and professor at Rutgers University. She is surrounded by a few examples of activist and campaign pin-back buttons.
The original Newark Airport Administration Building was built in 1935. In 1999, the Art Deco style building was relocated half a mile down the airport taxiway and expanded, tripling in size. The building is depicted along with current workers.
Mathyias "Laughing Wolf" Ellis is a young Nanticoke Lenni-Lennape dancer. Here, he stands over the New Jersey Turnpike and Snake Hill, a rock formation in Secaucus, NJ.
Layqa Mural Guide 1B
Broad and Market Street Intersection in Newark served as the site for The Newark Community Union Project’s Police Brutality March in 1965.
A participant of the 250th birthday of the Newark pageant in 1916 dons a Blue Jay Bird costume.
The skyline of Newark, NJ
Enrique Outeiral is currently an electrician at the airport.
Layqa Mural Guide 3
A European immigrant family is depicted arriving at Ellis Island with their belongings 1907.
Cucurbita maxima, also known as the common squash, is one of the main agricultural crops of various Indigenous peoples across the Americas known as The Three Sisters–beans, corn, and squash.
Julia Relis is a longtime security guard currently working at the airport.
The Newark Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart
Enrique Outeiral is currently an electrician at the airport.
The Eastern Bluebird is the New York state bird.
The Common Blue Violet is The New Jersey state flower.
Members of the Black Arts Movement (1965—1975), including Amiri (1934—2014) and Amina Baraka (1942—), founders of the Spirit House in Newark, spoken word collective, and Kimako’s Blues People, a community art space in Newark.
Yeimy Gamez Castillo is a local artist and community organizer. She is depicted with Newark’s Paramount Theater in her dress and her winged crown stands as a metaphor for flight.
Also known as Torogoz, the Turquoise-Browed Motmot is a Central American bird that stands for diasporic communities living in the USA.
Layqa Mural Guide 4
Yeimy Gamez Castillo is a local artist and community organizer. She is depicted with Hoboken’s Lackawanna station in her dress.
Newark Jazz singer Sarah Vaughan (1924-1990) won four Grammy Awards, as well as the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award.
An immigrant family arrives at Ellis Island in 1916.
Also known as Torogoz, the Turquoise-Browed Motmot is a Central American bird that stands for diasporic communities living in the USA.
The American Goldfinch is the New Jersey state bird.
Monarch butterflies serve as symbols of migration.
Port Authority mechanic Nathaniel Quaye holds the Kenny St. Hospital, the first black medical center in Newark.
Bessie Coleman (1892-1926) is the first African American and indigenous pilot.
Amelia Earhart (1897-1939) is the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
Phaseolus vulgaris, also known as the common bean plant, is one of the main agricultural crops of various Indigenous peoples across the Americas known as The Three Sisters–beans, corn, and squash.
Layqa Mural Guide 4A
A group of Middle Eastern refugees arrive in NYC.
Dr. Ernest Mae McCarroll (1898-1990) is the first Black woman doctor to practice at Newark's City Hospital.
Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Electra 10E plane flies above the New York City skyline as seen from Weehawken, NJ.
Hoboken, NJ-born photographer Dorothea Lange (1895-1965) points her camera to a 1927 portrait of a young immigrant mother and daughter, agricultural workers in Guadalupe, California.
Layqa Mural Guide 4B
Mathyias "Laughing Wolf" Ellis, a young Nanticoke Lenni-Lennape dancer, appears twice in this panel, standing on base discs depicting Cape May (left) and Newark (right).
Gustav “Gus” Heningburg (1930-2012) was a Newark activist and founding president of the Greater Newark Urban Coalition. He led a protest at the Newark International Liberty Airport to bring light to the exclusion of Black contractors from the airport’s expansion, negotiated the Newark Agreements, helped shape Equal Opportunity Fund, mediated the Newark Teacher’s Strike in 1970-1971 and the Stella Wright Tenants Strike in 1973.
Marsha P. Johnson (1945-1992) and Sylvia Rivera (1951-2002) were gay liberation and AIDS activists.
Airport staff member Kimberly O'Neal is depicted as a Mother Earth figure posing with a rose, the New York state flower.