station North District

Last week Ale and I went to station north district and met Andy, who owns the Cyclopse bookstore, and Russel, who owns the wind up space. This week we followed up on our first encounter by going to hear a young, local bad play at the wind up space. Andy had expressed the previous week the need for the promotion of the arts in the district to attract people and to uplift he community in general. Russel had talked about how much he appreciated the young music scene in the district, especially the jazz. I also talked to a girl who had grown up in Baltimore about community arts. She told me that there was someone in her neighborhood attempting to paint a mural of a large, friendly white man patting a young black boy on the back. I want to do something the community will enjoy, something that may inspire them, not to spread some patronizing, degrading message. After talking to Russel a bit, I came up with the idea of doing life sized portraits of influential musicians like Ella Fitzgerald, Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis on the exterior of buildings along north ave. Hopefully, they will bring some inspiration to the community without offending anyone, giving the incoming art scene and the old neighborhoods something to agree upon- Jimi Hendrix, Ella Fitzgerald and Miles Davis rock.

-shelby