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inRegister covers Baton Rouge's public art scene and how it impacts the community. Interview with Helena Williams

Walls Project April 2019 Newsletter

Walls Project Newsletter - February 2019 Review

Affecting the community takes consistent planning and collaboration, not an easy task to undertake. Yet for the past four years, The Walls Project has managed the cooperation of 150+ organizations to progress The MLK Festival of Service. Entering its fifth year and concentrating on Winbourne Avenue, MLK Fest 2019 plans to be bigger and more impactful than ever. The MLK Festival of Service, now known as MLK Fest, started as a grassroots-level operation led by The Walls Project. Four years and 30,000 volunteer hours later, MLK Fest is the largest outdoor volunteer-led event, not only in Baton Rouge, but in the state. The goal of the event sounds simple, but the impact is far-reaching: coordinate large-scale volunteer numbers to clean, paint, and plant an entire neighborhood. From January 18th to January 21st, volunteers work together on projects by painting, removing trash, gardening, and general beautification along Winbourne Avenue. This event poses an opportunity greater than logging in service hours. Volunteers will work hand in hand with citizens from every part of the Baton Rouge community. By strengthening local relationships across the city, we create a more connected community. Additionally, planning meetings for the event are being held bi-monthly at Istrouma High School from 3 - 5 PM up until MLK Fest begins. Planning meetings are open to the public, and act as a workshop to continue the momentum of the program. Committees include Volunteer Outreach and Organization (Pat McCallister-LeDuff of CADAV and Helena Williams), Gardening and Blight Reduction (Kelvin Cryer of G.E.E.P. and Mitchell Provensal), Painting and Murals (Casey Phillips and Kimberly Braud), and Block Party Celebration Event (Raina Vallot and Sherin Dawud of Faith’s Fifth Event Planning and Nicole D. Scott of The Bridge Agency).

The Walls Project participated in a weekend of giving back from January 18 – January 21. MLK Festival 2019 brought together volunteers at Howell Community Park. Those volunteers helped create a community garden, picked up trash and painted over the four day event. The Walls Project said these groups helped put together MLK Festival 2019: City of Baton RougeExxonMobilState FarmRaising Canes150+ partner organizations Howell Community Park is located at 5509 Winbourne Ave. Read the full article here.

Volunteers bundled against the cold used long-handled brushes early Monday to apply salmon-colored paint that set the background for a mural depicting an African plain on a wall of Katressa's Unisex Salon on Winbourne Avenue. They were among about 4,000 people taking part in the fifth annual MLK Fest, a series of service projects established by The Walls Project in honor of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. on days surrounding the federal holiday marking his birth. The festival began Friday and runs through Tuesday. Projects ranged from cleaning up trash to freshening the paint on buildings to helping artists create The Walls Project's colorful murals to assisting with the planting of an "urban farm" at BREC's Howell Community Park. “We just want to do what we can as a community to kind of brighten the neighborhood, to see what we can do to grow the economy through this kind of work and, if anything, show them they’re worth investing in," said Helena Williams, director of operations for The Walls Project and program coordinator for MLK Fest. "We want the community to rise all together.” MLK Fest service projects take place in different areas of the city each year. Last year, it was Scenic Highway; next year volunteers are expected along Plank Road. Organizers selected Winbourne Avenue this year because it is still recovering from the August 2016 floods, Williams said. Abandoned properties and blight contribute to problems with crime and a lack of economic development. “It’s been really systematically disinvested in, so there’s a lot of work to be done," Williams said. Artist Bryson Boutte worked on the salon's mural. "I'm just really excited to add something to the community, to add something that will bring some more life to this street that, for the most part, the city has kind of turned their head to," he said, standing on a ladder as he painted blue silhouettes of three women doing one another's hair. Down the street, sisters Lauren and Lena Foster savored cups of hot chocolate outside a business where they had just finished helping apply a new coat of crisp white paint. They were volunteering alongside more than 20 fellow members of the Baton Rouge Youth Coalition mentoring organization. The sisters, who both attend Baton Rouge Magnet High School, said it was inspiring to see people stepping up to tackle less-than-glamorous tasks. "It's things like that that can bring us together as a community," said Lauren Foster, 16. Lena Foster, 18, added: "One day, people are going to look at this and go, 'OK, there are actually people out here that really care and that want to make a difference in their community.'" Nearby, a partially complete black-and-blue mural of King's face loomed on the brick wall of BJ's Tire Shop as Jonathan Blake supervised 17 members of 100 Black Men's Project Excel, a mentorship program targeting 11- to 18-year-old boys. "Baton Rouge has gone through a lot in the last couple of years ... and I think it's important for the community to come together as one for a common purpose to clean up our neighborhoods, to show pride in our neighborhoods," said Blake, the project's co-chair. A man strolling through the neighborhood called out "looks good!" as Brianna Wright, a nursing student who lives in Baton Rouge, worked on her addition to a freestyle piece of art. She painted a message in light blue script: "learn your history to know who you are." "As black people in this world and this society, we need to learn our history, learn where we come from — our ancestors and what all they've accomplished, what all they gave to society, everything that we've ... created," Wright said. "I feel like that can empower the youth to know and to do anything that they put their mind to." Read the full article, here.

BATON ROUGE - Local high school students who've grown up in urban areas are learning how to plant their own food for the first time. "I didn't know onions looked like that," Tara High student Rahjae Hollins said. She and her classmates spent the morning volunteering in a garden. For some of them, it's the first time seeing the planting process because of where they live. "A lot of fats and unnatural things have been sold, especially here," student James Robinson said. "We need healthier foods." Which is why Mitchell Provensal with The Walls Project started this community garden. "I've always been interested in where food comes from," Provensal said. He partnered with the mayor's Healthy BR initiative to teach students the agricultural business and help bring healthier food choices to 70805. "There's no grocery stores, and the stores that are here don't have fruits and vegetable. So we're making it easier for people to have access to fresh and healthy food," he said. The community garden, called Baton Roots, is located in Howell Park on Winbourne Avenue It's open to everyone. "We don't have a fence. So people that are working with us, or people who see vegetables and they need something for dinner, they can come and grab what they need." Eventually, the garden will take up four acres, complete with an in-ground farm. Read the full article here.

inRegister covers the new Baton Roots Community Farm at BREC Howell Park.

225 Magazine covers the Public Art impacting the city of Baton Rouge.

inRegister covers the Futures Fund for their monthly Giving Back section.