ABOUT RUSSELL: A PLACE OR PROMISE
Russell: A Place of Promise (RPOP) has worked in partnership with the Russell neighborhood since 2018 to build generational Black wealth by connecting residents to resources, filling the gaps, organizing gatherings and Black spaces, and accelerating the level of investment into the community. Currently, RPOP has been spearheading the home preservation of Russell homeowners and their families and ensuring that they are equipped to age in place. In this effort, we have supported 30+ Russell homeowners in repairs as well as end-of-life planning services but we know that this is only a fraction of the necessary work. Shifting the racialized narratives that plague the Russell community and passing the mic to the rightful voices, Russell residents, is an inevitable task in this work. In light of this, RPOP saw an opportunity to engage with the Russell residents of our Home Repair program and launched the Russell Storytelling Project shortly after.
home repair Program
Russell: A Place of Promise (RPOP) partnered with New Directions Housing Corporation's Repair Affair Program to provide free home repairs to 30+ resident homeowners in Russell to help them remain in their homes. Homeowners who are 55+ in age or who have a disability that limits their mobility or their ability to increase their income were eligible to participate.
Selected homeowners received home repairs of up to $6,000 in value, end-of-life planning services through the Legal Aid Society and a local funeral provider, and the opportunity to work with the storytellers of the Russell Storytelling Project to document their stories and to have their personal or family portraits made. Those very stories and portraits served as the subject matter of For the People Next Door, a group art exhibition, and can also be found on the Russell Storytelling Project website and in the project's book that will be released in 2023.
In October, RPOP hosted a home repair volunteer day during which 20+ volunteers completed minor repairs like painting and landscaping for 2 home repair program participants. Most repairs have been completed to date while those that remain are expected to be complete before the end of 2022.
The RUSSELL Storytelling Project
The Russell Storytelling Project (RSP) is made of ten storytellers, four advisors and six artists and writers, who were selected and made a commitment to amplifying the stories of Russell residents through various artistic mediums. Beginning in July 2022, RPOP staff and RSP storytellers met weekly for 6-weeks to engage in community building, shared learning, and reimagining. We created a community agreement and referenced it when needed. We learned together during art-centered workshops, created and led by our RSP advisors, respectively. Following our meetups, our RSP artists and writers were each paired with five Russell residents and were charged with conducting interviews and collecting resident stories. Through the lens of our storytellers, those very stories served as the subject matter for the timeless art you see around you. Themes of Russell history, homeownership, anti-displacement, family, and hope unite each body of work into one complex story. This exhibit, uncoincidentally dubbed For the People Next Door, is for Russell residents, by Russell residents and the RSP storytellers, some of whom are also Russell residents, proudly hold the mic. See the faces and remember the voices of those who have the keys. Russell is Our Home.
Thank you to Humana Foundation who made this project & exhibition possible!
The process
The Russell Storytelling Project (RSP) launched in July 2022 after selecting an Advisory Committee of 4 storytellers who have experience in art education, art research, art creation, and leadership in art spaces. RPOP's project leads and the advisory committee worked together to select 6 local, Black artists and writers to participate in the Russell Storytelling Project. Following selections, the full RSP team began to meet weekly for 6 weeks for dinner and to engage in community building and shared-learning sessions. Each Advisory Committee member led an art-centered workshop during these sessions with topics ranging from cultural equity to mental health to the barriers that Black artists face in the field.
Shortly after sessions began, each artist and writer were paired with 5 Russell residents to conduct interviews and collect the stories that would inform their bodies of work. Interviews were conducted both by phone call and in-person in resident homes, public spaces, and at the RPOP office. RSP project leads supported the interview process by scheduling interviews, hosting interviews at the RPOP office, and providing each storyteller with a voice recorder for proper documentation.
session 1:
History of Russell Overview &
RSP Community Agreement
In our first session together, longtime Russell resident and RPOP Lead Community Outreach Specialist, Jackie Floyd, led a discussion on Russell's rich history. We wrapped up the session with creating the Russell Storytelling Project Community Agreement, a process that was led by Cassandra Webb, Director of Place of Promise Initiative (Cities United) and RPOP Co-Lead.
session 2:
CREATIVE PLACEMAKING:
TOOLS for PRACTICE & POLICY
A workshop led by Dr. Jabani Bennett
This workshop aimed to share effective practices in placemaking that will support our individual and collective work toward cultural equity in the Louisville community. A few of the workshop's goals included:
- Building community with an idea-to-action cohort of Louisville-based creative professionals
- Exploring different equity-centered leadership approaches that can support local initiatives
- Identifying themes in lived experiences and scholarship about placemaking
- Reflecting on personal beliefs, and sustainable practices in the arts
session 3:
The Process of creating, from application to installation
A Workshop led by Ashley "Ace" Cathey
As the founder and CEO of The Healing Walls Project, an arts organization revolutionizing the way we create public art, Ace used her ample experience as an artist and in leadership to lead a workshop that touched on preparation, research, ideation, art activism, and more.
*Due to exposure to COVID-19, this session was led virtually. The photographs on this page were captured during other in-person sessions.
session 4:
dinner with russell residents
Hosted at Chef Space, a Kitchen Incbuator
The Russell Storytelling Project team made it a point to emphasize organic relationship building throughout this process. Before pairing artists and writers with residents, RPOP staff organized a dinner where the RSP team and Russell residents had the opportunity to meet, create art together and learn more about being involved in the Russell Storytelling Project.
session 5:
mental health & storytelling
A Workshop led by Ashlee Phillips
The “Mental Health & Storytelling” workshop aimed to identify the benefits of storytelling as it pertains to mental health awareness, sharing inter-generational trauma, and identifying storytelling as a form of coping and healing. Ashlee Phillips was the Speed Art Museum's Community Connections Artist-in-Residence at the time, a position in which she hosted "Mental Health Minute," a free 8-week workshop series in which she hosted a few sessions at the RPOP office.
Preceding Ashlee's workshop, we were joined by former Russell resident and Courier Journal Columnist, Betty Bayé who graciously shared her experience as a Black storyteller and gave insight on interviewing residents and shifting racialized narratives.
session 6:
creating art from stories
A Workshop led by Lance G. Newman II
"This hands-on workshop incorporated specific stories that had already been collected from Russell residents by artist and writer storytellers. Throughout the workshop, the RSP team were challenged to think critically and creatively about story depiction and illustration engaging aspects of the 6 senses.
Travel:
Baltimore, Maryland
In late October, 6 Russell Storytelling Project team members joined RPOP staff and Russell residents on a trip to Baltimore, Maryland to explore other organizations doing similar work to RPOP in housing, community leadership, and in arts and storytelling. During this trip, we visited Black Yield Insitute, a food-sovereignty organization; South Baltimore Community Land Trust; and Creative Alliance, a community performance space with in-house resident artists.
