Brooklyn-based artist Ayana Brown has created a touching series of drawings paying tribute to New York’s essential workers who are the front line of the COVID-19 epidemic.
Taking inspiration in some cases from individuals she knows personally, the series portrays women dressed in work clothes or uniforms for jobs at grocery stores, construction, healthcare, the U.S. Postal Service and Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
In the caption of of the grocery store worker, Brown encouraged readers to tip the people packing groceries. For an Mass Transit Association bus driver, Brown wrote, ” THIS THE LADY THAT LET ME GET ON THE GATES AVE B52 WITH OUT MY SCHOOL METRO 💙YALL KNOW THIS LADY 💙 KEEP HER SAFE !!!”
In addition to face masks, each of the individuals portrayed by Brown are wearing distinctly New York-flavored outfits, accessories and hairstyles. Under a C-Town apron, one woman wears an Adidas tracksuit combined with door knocker earrings and Ugg boots while a construction worker combines camouflage cargo pants with Timberland boots and a construction helmet adorned with a happy face and a Pan-African flag.
Check out Brown’s drawings below.
