How a poster from the Women’s March became a call to action for unity in Boston.

After the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that claimed the life of anti-racist protester Heather Heyer, President Donald Trump was hesitant to denounce white supremacists. He insisted there were bad people on “both sides,” equating racists with those who took a stand against bigotry.

To express his outrage over Trump’s comments, Twitter user RjayNiice tweeted a piece of artwork titled “My Brother’s Keeper” that shows Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. putting his hand over Trump’s mouth as he tweets. “This deserves endless retweets but I doubt it will,” he captioned the photo. In under a week, the tweet had claimed over 240,000 likes.

The powerful and timely image of King silencing Trump sent many on a quest to find out who came up with it: Watson Mere. The American-born artist of Haitian descent living in Philadelphia created “My Brother’s Keeper” right before the Women’s March — and Martin Luther King Day — in January.

Mere’s painting is just one of many political images in his vast body of work. He found his artistic voice early in life, in part because he didn’t speak until he was 4 years old. So from the age of 2, he says art was his only means of communication. We spoke with Mere about his creative process, King, dealing with Trump supporters, and where he thinks all of this unrest will take us next. He also shared a few more of his provocative artworks, which you can explore in the slideshow above.

https://www.good.is/slideshows/good-interview-artist-watson-mere

In the viral tweet, it appears as though someone is holding a print of “My Brother’s Keeper” at a protest. Do you know where the photo was taken?

Yes, the image was captured at one of the Women’s Marches on January 21, 2017, in San Jose, California.