At just 20 years old, artist and activist Mary Haddad has already put her creative stamp on the Hudson Valley in a very big way. For several years, her provocative, eye-popping murals—one called “All Black Lives Matter” and the other “We Are Poughkeepsie”—have been showcased at area schools and arts centers, creating awareness and inspiring dialogue, which is exactly what Haddad had hoped for from the start. “I believe they’ve started meaningful conversations,” Haddad says. She conceived the BLM mural idea when she was a senior at Spackenkill High School, after several BLM signs at nearby Oakwood Friends School were…
