Baldwin Harbor photographer creates book of kids posing as historic Black figures

A Baldwin Harbor photographer is building bridges between generations through her art, recruiting kids to recreate images of historic Black figures while they learned about their heroes' trials and triumphs.

The images of Tricia Messeroux’s book, Toddlewood’s Engineers of Equality Project, will be displayed throughout February and part of March at Westbury Arts. The 145-page book, which features young children of color dressed up as their heroes past and present, was created shortly after the death of George Floyd in police custody in 2020, Messeroux told Newsday.

It highlights past trailblazers such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the late Georgia representative John Lewis, and American abolitionist and social activist Harriet Tubman, while also paying respect to more recent artists like filmmaker Ava DuVernay and rapper Kendrick Lamar.

“With all the craziness and negativity that’s happening in the world today with racial injustice, I really want [the viewer] to see this book as a celebration of life for the people who made a difference… for them, their family, and for the future generations,” Messeroux, 50, said. “Using children, the innocent, beautiful children, as the new face of engineers of equality is the way I wanted everyone to embrace it.”

When creating the book, Messeroux put out a casting call for potential doppelgangers of the famous figures and received more than 3,000 responses. She said the process of  selecting candidates was “painstaking” as many of the children were talented and reflected the icons, but ultimately about 30 kids, between age 5 and 12, were chosen.

A West Hempstead brother and sister duo, who recreated King Jr. and DuVernay, were among the participants. Keith, 11, and Kelly Boston-Hill, 8, said they were thrilled to participate in the project.

“I felt like it was an inspiration. Like I was really a part of that time period and like I was really a part of the civil rights movement,” Keith said.

Keith, who aspires to be either a professional tennis or baseball player or a doctor, said the project taught him that “you can be anything that you want to be in life.”

His younger sister, Kelly said it was “good to be transformed into a film creator that was really famous at the time.”

The hopeful fourth grader said she wants to be an actress, singer, dancer and doctor when she grows up. She quoted Duvernay by saying “If there’s only one person in your dream it’s not big enough.”

The pair’s mother, Donyshia Boston-Hill, said Kelly’s portrait even caught the attention of the famous director, with whom they eventually connected.

“It’s my goal to ensure that they have leadership skills, and they are prepared for any opportunity,” said Boston-Hill,. “We try to instill not only the creative arts in our household … but our family is also big in education.”

Another featured artist in the book and show is Nia Thompson, 11, of Queens, who portrayed Tubman. “Well, it taught me self-reliance, Black empowerment. It taught me about Harriet Tubman too and how she probably felt in [certain] moments,” said the fifth grader at Buckley Country Day School in Roslyn.

Nia described herself as an actress and activist who is trying to write her own book and hopes to be a model one day.

Her aunt Felicia Scott, who works as a diversity, equity, and inclusion consultant, said: “For me, I would say there’s a lot of gratitude and an immense sense of relief that she’s coming to this understanding and awareness, not just of who she is, but the importance of our difference for everyone.”