Artist Matty Owens, 22, creates justice-themed artwork at the Dorchester Art Project in Fields Corner. (Courtesy Sam Correa)
On a corner in Egleston Square which I pass almost every day once stood an artistic statement: a mural that doubled as an epitaph and a vision board. The wall was adorned with subaltern messages that resonate to an audience today: I have a dream. Stop the violence. I ll do what I can to survive. One local news station described it as a social blackboard and a cry for happiness, the messages having been painted by local Puerto Rican street youth who called themselves the X-Men.