The Bruckner Expressway is an unglamorous stretch of road which I travel twice a day to enter and leave Manhattan. Bruckner sunsets can be pretty if you are looking out toward Randall's Island, and there is something to be said for the orange reflection of the setting sun on South Bronx windowpanes - but not too much. There is however, one point of interest: a homemade 'billboard', painted in yellow with a black background - which changes from time to time to reflect the artist's outrage over one issue or another.
Currently it reads 'I am Troy Davis'. The door which opens onto the roof straddles the 'R' and the 'O'.
The previous message was painted around August 2010 in response to the increased racial profiling of Hispanics in Arizona and the proposal that all Americans ( read Hispanic Americans) carry proof of citizenship on their person at all times.The painted message in response to that debacle read 'No human is illegal', which is now a movement unto itself.
Even though the specific case of Troy Davis has faded into the background, something about the billboard still feels immediate and pertinent. Maybe its the words 'I am' facing off against the impersonal whir of traffic and the stark city lanscape which makes me want to pay attention, or at least acknowledge the sign even though I've seen it many times. We all have to declare ourselves in the midst of a din, and must do so even if there's no one listening.
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