The Sunshine Bridge

Elizabeth Eads: Thanks for hitting Play. This is The Sunshine Bridge - a show dedicated to community and diverse perspectives in Louisiana. I’m Elizabeth Eads. Ten years ago, it would have been unusual to see a mural in Baton Rouge…and then the Walls Project showed up. The community reactivation organization has to date seen to completion 130 murals and sculpture installations in the city. And there are always plans to do more.

MLK Fest is a big event for the organization. During the week of Martin Luther King Day, BR Walls, together with over 200 organizations and many more individuals get together to volunteer and help with blight remediation, community cleanup, and other community-minded activities. The Walls Project makes its contribution with a few murals each year, designed and planned by artists and painted by the work of many hands. Morgan Udoh is BR Walls Project’s Public Arts and Placemaking Program Coordinator. She sat down with me to talk about how the project works and its plans for MLK Fest 2022.

Morgan Udoh: So the walls project started in 2012, uh, by our executive director, Casey Phillips, who is a native to Louisiana. Um, but had spent a good amount of time over on the west coast, and in coming back realized that there was so much potential here in Baton Rouge that just wasn't being realized. So he…the initial p oint of the walls was to literally throw paint up on the walls.

EE: Right.

MU: Um, and to figuratively break down the walls between people in the community. Um, he saw a lot of the division that while it has improved as of 2021, um…it's still there. We're still working on it, but, uh, there’s a lot of improvement there, and coming together for art projects is a great way to get people to put down their emotional barriers…

EE: Uh-huh.

MU: … and talk informally about their hopes and dreams for a community space and how they can collaborate with each other. So it started with the walls. Um, and now it's so much more than putting paint on walls. We have the futures fund that is a tech training for young professionals and teens with our teen tech academy, um, and photography as well. We have our Baton Roots Art Farm, which is a community farm on Howell Park that is ever expanding, um, and produces tons of fresh vegetables and hibiscus for hibiscus tea. I actually made some recently is so good. Um, and teaches community members how to grow in their own backyard so that we can take hold of our own livelihood, which was really important during the pandemic.

EE: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no. So like, yeah, you've got all of these different things going on. I don't even know where to start.

MU: Yeah.(laughs)

EE: Whenever I first went….Look. So, uh, it was some years ago. I don't even remember when maybe it was like maybe 2013, somewhere in there that my sister signed me up for an Instagram account.

MU: Okay.

EE: And, um, somebody… just some person liked a photo of mine and in returning the like, it somehow took me to one of y'all's murals.

MU: Awesome.
EE: Yeah. And it was just kind of just this really weird.

MU: Just serendipitous.

EE: Yeah, and it's this mystery person that, that we just really liked each other's stuff. But anyway, so there was a lot of BR Walls Project stuff that was there. And there was just some really cool murals, and it was at the time that things were still beginning. So I wound up at your website, and I go, “Look at how much this is grown!”

MU: Over 130 murals and sculptures included.

EE: And it's kind of amazing because also just driving around town.

MU: Mmhmm.

EE: You know. You go, “When did this mural pop up?"

MU: Oh, they pop up overnight. We're working on one right now on Highland for our transportation coalition. Oh, that's another part of the walls(laughs).

EE: (laughs)

MU: So the walls formed a partnership with MetroMorphosis to form a One Rouge, which is the weekly series of conversations around the nine drivers of poverty as defined by HUD. And it is to spark conversation between over 380 plus nonprofit and profit groups that are working in the capital area around like homelessness and food insecurity and transportation being a barrier and English as a second language being a barrier, all these things that everyone is working on in silos, but we can get so much more done when we work together. So we have these weekly calls where we just all hop on these Zooms and we talk about a key issue and we really dive into it, and we share what everyone is doing and there's opportunity to be like, “Hey, can you help out with this?"

And, “Yeah, I'll provide you that.” And it’s just absolutely beautiful.

EE: So these Zoom calls, how does this kind of work? Is it, is it like Baton Roots? And then The Walls Project gets together… and The Futures Fund? Is that how?

MU: So, our executive director, Casey, along with other members of our team, and actually we just hired a person that is Alison Bates who's going to be leading the One Rouge effort because it is a lot of work. It is planning ahead of time because we have two to three featured speakers every Friday who lead the conversation. I've been helping out by running the chat, just adding resources into the chat as they pop up. It's very…. It’s planned yet informal.

EE: Uh-huh.

MU: Like, anyone can be a part of the conversation: community member. It doesn't matter. You don't have to be a part of a nonprofit. You could just be someone who lives in the neighborhood. And you can join in the conversation. Ask questions, offer your insight. It's the…. I've never seen anything like it. It is the essence of community. It is just people coming together with whatever skills they have to try to work on a problem. And it’s awesome.

EE: So is it, is it just like a community problem that somebody decides?

MU: So we're focused on poverty. There’s… and forgive me, I'm not going to know all nine drivers off the top of my head.

EE: I wasn’t going to ask ‘cause I was like, that's a lot to remember(laughs).

MU: (laughs) Yeah. But there are… so, we're focused on those nine HUD drivers of poverty. So, transportation is one of them. Not having access to adequate transportation or social over-reliance on single family cars, not having public transportation, not having roads that are safe for both pedestrians, bikers, and cars. That is an issue that surrounds transportation, and transportation impacts your economic viability. So, if you have issues with getting to work…well, then how are you going to make your money? How are you gonna support yourself or get to the doctor's office? Get mental health care? A lot of the nine drivers interconnect. There's a lot of intersectionality between them, but we've had conversations with most recently the leader of Baton Rouge Area Foundation. They've been working on that railway connection between New Orleans to Baton Rouge, all the way to Mobile. So that's something they're already working on that fits within that issue that we're trying to solve, but in the middle of those conversations, additional issues or things that community members are noticing pop-up.
And so let's say in the middle of the conversation on the statistics around transportation and what our actual capital has, someone says, “Well, I love riding CATS, but it would be a lot easier if there was a mobile app where I could track where my bus is, so that, you know, it'd be just a little more efficient.” And we may have someone on the call whose work is in that space.
And so it's a launching point for multiple solutions that can lead to improving that issue.

EE: Okay. So people basically get on this Zoom call, andyou guys just kind of have a variety of topics that you might be addressing.

MU: Yeah.

EE: So, how does this get back into the art? Do you, do you have a zoom call and then you say, “Oh, let's paint a mural about this.”

MU: So the art is the visual catalyst. So there are nine drives of poverty. And nine murals. One that we recently completed over in Scotlandville was Drawing The Line, and it's regarding housing insecurity and how affordable housing is just not as accessible or as fruitful as we need it to be. There's tons of people who don't have homes and not enough homes that are available to put people in. So that mural kicked off the housing coalition. So it starts with a zoom call with everyone. And then it breaks off into a separate coalition of people who just want to focus on that one issue.

EE: Okay. But it all starts with a mural.

MU: It starts with a mural as a visual reminder of - This is what we need to solve. This is the problem.

EE: Okay. Um, how do the murals get organized?

MU: Whether it’s a community driven one like this, or a business just wants a mural, it starts with someone reaching out to us and saying, "Hey, this is my idea." Or, “I have a blank canvas… a wall. Have at it.” And we will discern the concept, write it up, provide some inspiration images and send out an RFP to our over 80 artists, artists that we work with, the majority of them, Louisiana folks. But we get some people within the Southeastern region as well. And some folks who used to live here in Louisiana, but have moved on, you know? The Midwest or wherever.

EE: Right. How we do(laughs).

MU: Yeah. I, myself, am a Midwest transplant.

EE: Where you from?

MU: I'm from Indiana.

EE: Okay.

MU: Yeah. But my grandparents were from Georgia, so I'm just going back to the South.

EE: Sure, why not?

MU: (laughs)Just going back and forth. But yeah, we send that out. We get our submissions back and our art and design council, which is comprised of artists and art business owners with years of experience. They review them to make sure that the submissions fit our standards of excellence. So be it. And then we take those top three to five and we send it back to the client or the community member, and they choose the one that they like the most and request some final edits from the artists, and then we get to painting.

EE: You just start doing it.

MU: Yep.

EE: Now, I saw on the forms that you have. You know, if you're interested and you would like somebody who's more experienced to kind of guide you…. So, it looks like these murals are not something that's just done by one person.

MU: No. Particularly MLK Fest, it's primarily volunteer led. We have the artists to help set the design and plan out. But then from there it’s like a large paint by numbers, which is awesome because you don't have to worry about having the skillset because the artist is providing a direction for you.

EE: That’s really interesting because you do wind up getting experience, you wind up learning in that process.

MU: Yeah.

EE: So I would imagine that if you, if you kind of take to it at a certain point, you might eventually kind of step into a directing role.

MU: I think I started with the walls in 2016 as a volunteer.

EE: Uh-huh.

MU: And I just loved what for MLK Fests and I just attended every year, and now I work for The Walls.

EE: Awesome(laughs).

MU: (laughs) So yeah, you get sucked in one way or another. But yeah, we have this informal apprenticeship program going on right now that we’re…I’m working on making it formal, but we have so many artists that we work with who were once mentored by a previous artist of ours who was mentored by another previous artists of ours. I just finished two murals at Park Forest Middle and Fire Station 11 outside the North Gates of LSU that were done by artists, Diana Ladmirault Clawson who worked…who prior to doing these first two murals had worked on teams with Skinny Dope, and Skinny Dope and Bryson Boutte had both worked with Lionel Milton.

EE: And so it keeps going.

MU: And so it's just, like, keeps a constant process of mentorship, and it's beautiful.

EE: Well, tell me about the blight remediation.

MU: So that's what, like one of the pinnacle parts of what you remember MLK Fest to be is that we would go into a specific area, clean it up. So lots of dumpsters and volunteers picking up trash and moving tires around, reusing things where we can, and then the paint goes up. So it's clean, then paint.

EE: Okay. And when you're saying paint in this sense, you're talking about just painting like, a house.

MU: Yeah. So it's not just murals. Yes, of course. There's always…in the past, it was always like six to eight murals ever done. So it's a great….

EE: (laughs) You say it like, oh, it's just, so cazh.

MU: (jokingly) Eh, whatever, you know, here are the…here and there. /

Which is a fantastic weekend for our artists because it's just like, boom, a swarm of artists just go into a space and we just transform an area of town into something new and side note: I really appreciate that the areas that The Walls Project has gone into. They did a fantastic job of focusing on the history of that area, because what you don't want to do is erase the community that is there. And I feel like the walls have done a wonderful job of making sure that any painting improvements that we do helps to keep the culture of that area.

EE: And how have you tried to do that?

MU: So, we have a number of artists, including a fantastic artist who's a part of our art and design committee who reviews submissions. Part of their process is just researching an area: Who was there? What stores were there? Who, what ethnic groups used to live there? What was it before?

EE: Plural. Yeah, because, especially if you have such a mix that kind of goes on, you know.

MU: Yeah. Communities are constantly changing.

EE: Yeah, exactly. So that's kind of…how do you make sure to not erase? And that strikes me as a bit of a challenge in a certain respect.

MU: It can be, yeah. It's just a matter of being intentional, you know? Don’t…yeah. We want to see beautiful, bright colors and throwing stuff up. But take a little extra time and learn about what the space used to be. What is it now? How does it function for the people and just, you know, include those symbols and those motifs that highlight the history of a space.

EE: So, when you go into a neighborhood, do you just immediately say, "Okay, we've got artists,” you know, “Who is closest to this place?,” you know or, “Who maybe emotionally is closest to this place?” Do they go into the neighborhood and start talking to people and letting them know?

MU: Yeah, it’s always started with months of community meetings because we're not going to throw up paint in an area where you don't want it. We're not going to mess with your space. That's yours. You. We have to have buy-in.

EE: Yeah.

MU: And because of that, we really haven't had any issues.

EE: I would have a hard time imagining somebody saying, “Oh, I don't want this beautiful painting in my space.”

MU: I mean, art is subjective. Some people like the more abstract, some people like the more realist, so we're not gonna make everybody perfectly happy, but we will get to the core of what they're wanting. And at the core of it is always the, the want to be seen.

EE: Mmhmm.

MU: And so we ensure that whatever community we're working in, at the end, the work makes them feel seen.

EE: That’s really nice. So, um, again, you, you have this - Okay, MLK Fest is happening. It's a day of service…

MU: Yeah.

EE: …or it's a week.

MU: Now it’s a week.

EE: It’s a week of service.

MU: With the city taking over, it’s - Man!.

EE: (laughs)

MU: I mean, they've got all the connections, so, you know, got DPW that's helping out with the blight and the walls.

EE: Uh-huh.

MU: We're going to be focused on the Jewel J. Newman center in Scotlandville and also this really cool firehouse off of 2182 Osage Street. It was Old Fire Station 2. Fire Station 2 is now moved to Choctaw in a brand new brick building. But it's this really cool building that is… I don't want to tell too much, but it's going to be a really cool place after this.

EE: Okay.

MU: It’s not going to just be a canvas. It's going to be so much more, and Councilwoman Carolyn Coleman has a fantastic vision for it.

EE: Okay, cool. So, you know, again like… well, Martin Luther king day is traditionally known as a day of service.

MU: Yes.

EE: But yeah, so we have expanded it out (laughs)just because it's fun(laughs). Why not?

MU: Yeah. I mean, people…. We’re all inherently altruistic. We want to help. You just have to give…you have to make helping the path of least resistance. You have to make it easy for people to do what we want to do naturally, which is be in community.

EE: So how is it that people can be involved and be involved in the community?

MU: Okay. So, they have a website, uh, and forgive me, I should have had this ready, but I'm sure it's on brla.gov. The mayor has a website specifically where you can sign up to volunteer(www.mlkholidaybr.com). I’m not sure if you can sign up groups. I think it's still individual.

EE: Okay.

MU: So, yeah. Just go to the website, and it has the full list of events and every site that's being improved on there. Our two sites are on there. We’re just one piece of the really big puzzle, so there's a lot to be done on MLK Fest day. Well, actually I think it's called MLK BR, MLK Holiday? Because it's a week of events and also has a gala and there's like, some showings and some talks.

EE: (laughs)

MU: It’s a lot going. It’s going to be awesome.

EE: So if you just show up.…

MU: Just show up.

EE: Yeah. You can just show up, and you’re good.

MU: Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I might have signed up maybe two of the years, but really I was just like, Hey, they're doing something over there. Can I help? (laughs)

EE: That’s my favorite kind of way.

MU: Yes. It’s awesome.

EE: Yeah. I'm looking forward to this, and I really cannot wait to see what the end result with the murals are. Yeah, so….

MU: Yeah. We have to grow, we have to evolve. It’s…you know, now we're in a market that has NFTs and the metaverse(laughs). There’s…the good thing about art is that it's, it's just creativity in its essence. So, you can take that in any direction.

EE: Right.

MU: So, the walls, I think, will evolve well in that space.

EE: So if somebody wants to get involved just with you guys and these Zoom community calls, what do they need to do?

MU: Oh! Go to our website. www.thewallsproject.org/onerouge. It has all of our previously held Zoom events on there. We record everything. Sign up for it, even if you're unable to attend a Zoom, you'll get the recording and all of the resources in your email box afterwards. Really, the resources and the email box…that’s the big thing.

EE: That’s where it’s at.

MU: We had a zoom call. We had an emergency One Rouge call right after the most recent flood where we just hurried up and pulled together all of our partners who were dealing with food insecurity, blight remediation, any sort of services for like power…just pulled in all the resources. And I was sitting there in my house without power, but I had my phone, but I was like - You know what? This is awesome because I'm anxious. I don't know what I can do. And I got an email in my box the next day that told me exactly what I needed to do.

EE: Step one, step two, step three.

MU: Yeah. It was, you know, I, I didn't have to, you know, cause you go into thinking about, oh my friends, my students(former teacher here). My students and my family, everybody, oh my God, they need things. What can I do? What can I do? Cause one person, you know, you can't really do much, but I got that email and I forwarded it to everyone I thought it could help because they had every number you needed to call, every form you needed to fill out there.

EE: Sounds really exciting.

MU: It’s efficient! Yes!(laughs)

EE: (laughs) Very cool. Okay. Um, Morgan Udoh, thank you so much for being with me today.

MU: Oh, thank you. This was so fun. (laughs)

EE: (laughs) I think so too. I'm really excited about MLK Fest.

MU: Yes. It's going to be great. I hope everyone comes out. The more people show up, the more we can do, the bigger and better it gets.

EE: MLK Fest has events and activities going on MLK Day and then again in February from the February 16 through the 20th - that’s because of the Omicron virus. I will be out there(not sure what day or days just yet), but you can find more information at www.mlkholidaybr.com. You can sign up there or as Morgan said, you can show up the day of and help out. We briefly spoke about HUD’s 9 drivers of poverty. If you’re interested in more information about that, you can find it in the One Rouge section of The Walls Project website: www.thewallsproject.org/onerouge. These links are listed in the program description.

Thanks for listening today. Show music is by Arnav Srivastav. Special thanks and dedication for this show goes to Kevin and Ashley for all of their continued friendship, support, and unending creativity. Thanks again to Morgan Udoh. This is The Sunshine Bridge, a show dedicated to community and perspective in Louisiana. If you have comments or questions, please send an email to thesunshinebridge@gmail.com. Until next time.