Dora McQuaid Replaces Sandusky on Heister Mural
In November, Jerry Sandusky was erased from the Heister Street mural. Now he’s being replaced.
Local muralist Michael Pilato is back, and he’s making a couple changes to his mural on the east wall of the Penn State Student Bookstore. As you may recall, back in November Pilato took Sandusky out of the painting and inserted a blue ribbon in his vacant chair. Today, that same seat will be filled by Penn State alumna and sexual abuse activist Dora McQuaid.
McQuaid is a poet, public speaker, and activist who currently resides in Sante Fe, New Mexico. According to her website, she “combines her passion for language and performance with her dedication to activism, using poetry, performance and speaking to raise awareness of the issues of domestic and sexual violence, and teaching writing, performance, creativity and social justice as means of empowerment and healing.”
“The title of the mural is ‘Inspiration’, so the people in the mural are inspirational people,” Pilato said, “With just the blue ribbon there, you still saw Sandusky.”
That isn’t the only alteration to Pilato’s mural though. A blue ribbon was added to the Nittany Lion, located on the bottom-right hand corner of the wall, symbolizing awareness for child sexual abuse.
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