Growing up in Boston, Roxbury-born artist and educator Rixy never quite felt like she belonged. She identified more with her parents’ Honduran and Dominican Republic heritage than the whitewashed Boston history spread across the Freedom Trail. But with her new mural “The Midnight Ride” at Dewey Square on The Greenway, Rixy hopes to make all feel welcome in the Hub.

“I really wanted to reimagine, recontextualize and create new conversations and fantastical futures that go along with revolutionary spirit, especially as I think about different underrepresented voices,” Rixy said.

Part of the process was examining the lesser-told stories of the American Revolution during the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations. Rixy dug into what women, children and people of color were doing while John Hancock was getting fancy with his signature. One story that stuck with her was that of Sybil Ludington, a 16-year-old girl who rode 40 miles in a rainstorm to gather militia members for a conflict, a good deal farther than the famed ride of Paul Revere.

In Rixy’s mural, a powerful woman leads a more diverse Boston through its history and beyond. Her sidekick is a horse figure, a reference to the horses that carried Bostonians during the Revolution and the many horses depicted in monuments around the city. The mural is meant to reconsider the past Boston loves to live in, as well as to imagine a more equitable world.

“We’re so tied to our history, but what’s our future?” said Rixy.

This year’s mural is coordinated by The Rose Kennedy Greenway in partnership with Embrace and Everyone250. Rixy’s design was chosen unanimously from a group of open-call submissions. The mural is in progress now and will be finished and celebrated with community gatherings in June.

Dr. Audrey N. Lopez, director and curator of public art at the Greenway Conservancy said, “As Boston prepares for a transformational year in 2026 — with monumental gatherings and increased international attention — Rixy’s artwork will stand at the heart of downtown as a vibrant welcome, a beacon of imagination and possible worlds and as an invitation to reflect upon our shared histories and intertwined futures.”

Rixy said she hopes the piece brings viewers a sigh of relief and comfort followed by a feeling of empowerment and belonging. In a city still so segregated, it’s a powerful thing to have a larger-than-life BIPOC heroine on a wall outside South Station.

“I think it’s so important to create this type of impact,” she said. “To continue to make space for people who feel pushed into the shadows, feel silenced, feel minimized, so that they can make space and claim Boston as their home.”

ON THE WEB

Learn more at rosekennedygreenway.org/rixy