We fly for a liberated we, we rooted in flight is a public artwork inviting passerbyers to join in the journey of collective flight.

Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo’s body of work, F.L.I.G.H.T. S.C.H.O.O.L., invites community into the life-long commitment of giving flight, breath, safety, care, prioritization and long-lived lives, to Black, Indigenous, queer, Trans, non-binary, people of color, and all oppressed peoples. Spanning three sites (YBCA loading dock door, entrance to the Third Street courtyard, and a line of doors at the corner at Third and Mission Streets) the work can be viewed in sections, but is encouraged to be taken in a whole, perhaps even by moving across the street to get a full view.

With this large-scale work, the artist asks: What does flight feel like for our movement elders and youth rising up? How can our actions, gestures, and work come back to the soaring our people must do to survive? What are the spaces we learn to love each other in and invite in deeper dialogues of liberation? How can my wings always always carry you, always always carry us, into a justice-filled tomorrow?

As we root deeper into a collective commitment for the liberation, freedom, resistance, and care of folks on the margin, our wings get stronger, we are soaring, we fly for we.

Commissioned by YBCA and the Yerba Buena Community Benefit District Grant for Public Artwork.