"Before I Die" Wall Mural Project Invites Reflection on Community Values and Individual Mortality

John Martignetti constructed and installed the wall on Sunday, June 11, 2023; Andrew Garcia painted it with chalkboard paint on Tuesday, June 13 ;  Amy Muzopappa finished stenciling on Thursday, June 15, @ 5:00 p.m. By 10 a.m. on Friday, folks had added their thoughts and continue to fill all available spaces. 

by Jane Stahl

While we may not like to think about it,  none of us gets out of this life alive. None of us, sad to say perhaps, is around forever. And, as Stephen Covey suggests, if we "Begin with the end in mind" --habit #2 in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, our lives are enhanced by keeping our goals in mind and by sharing them with others.  Doing so regularly keeps us from wasting precious moments and focuses our intent and daily behavior. 
 
And so, when Amy Muzopappa and Judy Wetzel shared the impact of enjoying coffee at a small shop during their trip to Alaska that faced a wall entitled "Before I Die" filled with responses from hundreds of community members and visitors like them and suggested that our community have an opportunity to experience a similar impact, we decided instantly to "just do it!"

And, as if the Universe had it planned, the theme for the summer art exhibit and book release--"Legacy: Remembrance Matters"-- had already been decided and a grant awarded from the Boyertown Area Charitable Giving Program administered by Berks County Community Foundation. The themes fit perfectly. We were "good to go!"

So, as part of Studio B Fine Art Gallery’s “Legacy: Remembrance Matters” art exhibit and book release, the interactive mural titled “Before I Die” has been installed as a way to invite the community to participate in the studio's project by sharing their thoughts, hopes, and dreams publicly as Amy and Judy did in Alaska.

The wall is now located in the walkway between Bridget’s Place and The Peppermint Stick Candy Store which connects the Inner Core parking lot with Philadelphia Avenue. John Martignetti constructed and installed it; Andrew Garcia painted it with chalkboard paint.  Amy Muzopappa stenciled the words onto it. A "ribbon cutting" is scheduled for Wednesday, June 21, at 5:30 p.m. 

Folks began adding their thoughts within hours of its installation and are invited to add to all available space during the studio’s "Legacy: Remembrance Matters" exhibit which opens Friday, June 23, 2023, and runs through August 27, 2023.

In learning that the project has become a global movement over 10 years with over 5,000 walls created in over 76 countries and over 36 languages, we were again eager for Boyertown to join the global community in participating in this unique interactive community project. The mission statement offers a profound suggestion that the "Before I Die" project "reimagines how the wall of our cities can help us grapple with mortality and meaning as a community today.”

Studio B Art Gallery has participated in other international projects throughout its history. In 2022, as part of the studio’s “Transforming Moments” exhibit and book release, seven community members participated in sharing details from their “complicated lives” in an event modeled after the global project titled Human Library, an initiative that began in Denmark and now exists in 50 countries.

And in 2013 the studio featured an international traveling exhibition “Circus Terminal: USA” bringing together 60+ artists from around the globe. In 2017 the studio brought artists and art from London and New Zealand in an exhibit and community workshop in collaboration with “Uncooked Culture: titled “Asia Pacific.”

There's no doubt: “We are the World!” 

Boyertown’s Borough Council approved the installation. Amy has created a Facebook group page to allow the community insight about its members’ hopes and plans as comments and photographs posts are added. And while Boyertown’s Mayor Lori Carnes would like to retain the project—and the community’s responses—permanently, we suggest taking photographs of responses and posting them on the mural wall’s Facebook group page.

Chang, Lizabeth (Candy) Chang, born in Hong Kong, won Miss Chinese Toronto in 2009 and Miss Chinese International Pageant 2010 as second runner-up, is determined to help grapple with mortality and meaning as a community. She created the first “Before I Die” wall in New Orleans after the death of a woman who was like a mother to her who had so many things she planned to do.

Chang explains, “Seeing some private corner of your psyche reflected in someone else’s handwriting on a public wall can be incredibly reassuring on an individual level, and it’s a step towards seeing ourselves in one another.”

And while we cringed at the mural’s title, Candy Chang insists that communities keep the word "die" in the title, explaining that the "Before I Die" wall "should offer passersby a much-needed break from the messages in our public spaces which are trying to sell us something….free of logos, slogans, website addresses, hashtags…there’s already too much of this in the world. Each wall is created by passionate people who want to make a space in their community to restore perspective and reflect with one another. Each wall is a tribute to living an examined life. And each wall gives communities an inclusive space for personal expression, consolation, understanding and kinship.”

She continues, “There’s a lot of superstition and anxiety around the language of mortality, and we’ve seen many walls which have replaced ‘before I die’ with something more oblique and gentle, such as ‘while I’m still alive.’

“A key part of our mission is to remove the stigma of discussing death and to help inject conversations about mortality into a visual landscape that is preoccupied with instant gratification, youth, and distractions. When we become comfortable talking honestly and directly about death, we can help change the culture around it from one that is full of death denial to one where we confront mortality in a way that compassionately prepares us as individuals and as a community.”

Chang’s extended grief and depression resulted in an awareness of how much time and energy is wasted on activities and concerns that don’t matter and that prevent participation in what really matters. Her “canvas” was an abandoned house that she painted with chalkboard paint and stenciled with the prompt “Before I die, I want to ______” so that anyone could add their personal reflections on life and death.

She recalls,“By the next day, the wall was entirely filled and it kept growing. Before I die, I want to …sing for millions, abandon all insecurities, get my wife back, eat all the carbs I want, hold her one more time, be completely myself.”

She found the whole of humanity expressed: “longing, fear, insecurity, gratitude, humor, pain, and grace.” She realized that she was not alone trying to figure out what mattered in life, and she enjoyed sharing “deep thoughts,” and the assurance that the project created through the empathy that was developed.

She continues, “It has been one of the greatest experiences of my life to see this little experiment grow into a global project. I am continuously inspired by everyone’s walls, which have revealed just how much we are the same. From China to Iran, from Brazil to South Africa, the same themes emerge: We want to love and be loved. We want to do meaningful work. We want to travel the world. We want to see our loved ones thrive. We want to be at peace with ourselves. You can read many stories behind these walls in the Before I Die book, published in 2013.

“Since the first Before I Die wall, I have become passionate about creating new rituals in public life. As the world has felt more distracting, more tribal, and more alienating, I often find myself feeding my worst habits and yearning for rituals to help restore perspective. This has led me to think about the future of ritual in public life—new ways we might find emotional communion with one another, to remember that we are all walking wounded and that our shared struggles and desires far outweigh our differences. If we continue to question what our public spaces can be, our built environment can offer profound moments of communion and kinship.”

The mission--finding common ground and creating community cohesiveness--is the mission of so many projects featured in this special kind of place: Boyertown, PA.

As our beloved former mayor, the late Marianne Deery insisted: none of us is a stranger--just a friend we have not yet met. The "Before I Die" wall mural can be yet another "kickstarter" to learning even more about our shared values, hopes, and dreams. 

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