Gabriel Sosa
Gabriel Sosa (CAS’07) of Roslindale, Mass., is an artist, a linguist, and an educator. His recent public art project, titled No es fácil/ It ain’t easy, was a bilingual series of text-based billboards on view in Boston neighborhoods from July 2020 through January 2021. “These works subvert an iconic consumerist medium to bring messages of comfort, reflection, and solidarity to communities most impacted by the pandemic, many of which include high concentrations of Spanish-speaking immigrants,” Gabriel wrote in December, adding that the billboard texts drew upon sayings from his Cuban American upbringing in Miami and the poetry of William Carlos Williams. Billboards went up in Roslindale (“It ain’t easy, but keep going”), Dorchester (“Esta vaina no es fácil, pero no te atormentes”), and Roxbury (“It ain’t easy, but hold on”). No es fácil/ It ain’t easy was created with the support of the Now + There public art accelerator program. Learn more about the project at www.nowandthere.org/no-es-facil.
From the Winter-Spring 2021 issue.