A mural that is slowly going up on the industrial edge of Sunset Park is shaping up to be one huge Do Not Disturb sign directed at military recruiters. Its creators? A group of young women — barely out of high school — who are still smarting from what they saw as repeated and unwanted come-ons from recruiters who would stop them on the street, in school or call them at home.



“If you go to some Manhattan schools or places where the families have a higher income, you don’t see the recruiters there,” said Ebony Thurman, 18, who was once approached by recruiters at the Atlantic Avenue subway station. “But if you’re in Brooklyn or in lower income neighborhoods, that’s where you really find them trying to recruit people. They tell you that you’ll get job skills or college money. And if you’re a girl they’ll flirt with you and say there a lot of cute guys you could meet if you enlist.”

She and her friends have been clambering up a scaffolding set up on the side of a building on 23 Street and Third Avenue, where it hugs the Gowanus Expressway, since last week. But many of them have been together for a few summers already, painting murals as part of Voices Her’d, a group for young women, that meets under the auspices of Groundswell Community Mural Project, which has painted many murals in Brooklyn.

Amy Sananman, Groundswell’s director, works with them each year to select a theme, research it and then paint it. They had started thinking about this year’s theme in the winter, tossing about ideas a bimonthly dinners.

Given what was happening in the world, the idea of women, the military and recruiting soon became their choice. What was unexpected was a few of the young women had been thinking of enlisting themselves.

“I was thinking of joining because with an 80 average, I didn’t think I would get a scholarship to go to college,” said Elizabeth Yanes, 17, who just graduated from John Dewey High School. “The recruiters had a table at my high school. Every time we had a college day, they were there.”

As they have done with previous murals, they did research and invited speakers, including female veterans, to talk to them. They visited shows at P.S. 1 in Queens that examined themes of power and violence. They also delved into the uses of propaganda in previous conflicts.

Many of them learned for the first time that the No Child Left Behind Act allowed military recruiters to have access to high school students’ contact information (which explained those calls to their homes). They also learned families could opt out from receiving those calls, information they plan on including on stickers they will print up as part of the project.

Part of what they want to point out is the connection in some neighborhoods between recruiting and career choices.

“They say there’s not a draft,” said Katie Yamasaki, an art teacher who is directing the project. “But when they say they can’t afford to fund college because 40 percent of our tax dollars go to war, a lot of youths feel stuck.”

The walls of their basement studio, where they meet at a long table, are covered with their own sketches and data for the mural, which will show women clutching pencils, brushes and diplomas declaring “We Are Not Government Issued”. Smaller details include women in red gently easing parachuting soldiers back onto their feet. At street level, there will be facts and figures about the war.

Ms. Yamasaki said you can view the design in two different ways. While the bottom part can be filled with details for people who can walk by and stop, the top part has to be quickly and easily understood for drivers on the Expressway.

“It has to be something bold,” she said. “They might be stuck in traffic, but more likely they’ll be moving by at 40 miles an hour.”

The mural will be finished by mid-August. But it has already had an impact on some of its creators – especially those who flirted with enlisting – after they spoke with female veterans.

“What is shocking to me is how little time it took to get the girls to change their minds,” Ms. Sananman said. “That blew me away. Once they had the information, it took them 45 minutes to decide.”