This piece is entitled, Facing the Rising Sun by Kayla Nixon, an accomplished artist, SNMA member and medical student at Mayo Medical School in Rochester, Minnesota. 

As one of Kayla’s earlier works completed in 2003, this linocut print is the result of a project on art making a social statement.  She immediately looked to her African American heritage and the struggles learned of as inspiration for this piece.  The famed Negro National Anthem, “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing”, by civil rights leader James Weldon Johnson was further inspiration since it very powerfully describes this heritage.  The song is also close to Kayla’s heart since Johnson was a native of her hometown, Jacksonville, Florida, and a past principle of her high school.