Tokens of support for Beto O’Rourke, made in Brooklyn
A Red Hook artist's coins are popping up in Texas to promote the Senate candidate challenging Ted Cruz
Marilyn Descours, a 65-year-old retired baker and restaurateur in La Grange, Texas, is an avid supporter of Beto O’Rourke, the Senate candidate who’s aiming to upset Ted Cruz. Her husband thought she was crazy when she showcased her support for the Democrat on the bumper of their car, for all in their red-leaning town to see. So when she saw on Instagram a photo of a small, irregular-shaped round object, something like a coin painted red, white, and blue, with the raised, hand-lettered slogan “Beto/Better,” she was intrigued. Eventually, she tracked down the item’s creator, a Brooklyn street artist named Beriah Wall.
Wall, 71, who lives and works in Red Hook, has been living and making guerrilla art since the 1980s. The “Beto/Better” coin Descours saw is part of a unique, sprawling, decades-long project, wherein he disperses his tokens in obscure nooks and crannies of the city landscape. He might tuck them into the stonework of building facades, throw them into school yards, or leave them balancing on the door of a parked car if the driver has a bumper sticker he likes.
But Wall’s work manages to spread outside New York. He gives boxes of the tokens to friends traveling abroad, or admirers like Descours who contact him online. When Descours received a box of O’Rourke tokens, she immediately began distributing the coins in La Grange, leaving them on ledges, on the driveways with O’Rourke signs nearby, and impromptu spots like a bench outside of a grocery store.