Wyckoff Gardens is a public housing development located in the Gowanus area of Brooklyn. As the Wyckoff Gardens Community Center looked for opportunities to support the community’s revitalization efforts, the Center's Director contacted Groundswell to create a series of murals. “Roots and Wings” is the second mural in this series created by Groundswell's Teen Empowerment Mural Apprenticeship (TEMA) afterschool program. In envisioning the mural, the community spoke of four critical themes that they wanted the mural to address: Unity, Family, Employment, and Education. The TEMA team related these themes to Civil Rights journalist Hodding Carter, Jr.’s famous adage, "There are two lasting bequests we can give our children. One is roots. The other is wings.” Unity and family give us roots; employment and education give us wings. Inspired by this idea, the team created a lyrical mural which uses a large bird as its central image. The bird soars on leaf-like wings and is also rooted in the earth. The portraits included in the mural showcase residents of Wyckoff Gardens.