In July of this year the war in Iraq claimed its 100th female soldier. With the military overstretched and wars on two fronts recruitment of young women continues to grow. In an effort to address the issue of military recruitment in their communities a group of young women painted a three story mural in Sunset Park, NY just off the Brooklyn-Queens expressway. It reads: “Arm Yourself With the Knowledge to Think for Yourself. We Are Not Government Issue.”

Organized by Groundswell, a New York City based non-profit, the mural reflects the military experience of women in Iraq and reveals the deceptions that recruiters use to target young people in poor neighborhoods. Katie Yamasaki, an artist and muralist with Groundswell, says that the project is part of a larger effort to give young women of color the opportunity to create large scale public art projects about issues that affect them directly. Menshahat Ebron, an Assistant Artist at Voices Her’d, Ebony Thurman, a student at Medgar Evers College who worked on the mural, and Helen Benedict the author of The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq, discuss why the mural and projects like it are important.

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