Commissioned by the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations as part of the NEA’s Art Works program. Tell Me Something Good was created in collaboration with the New Kensington CDC and Somerset Neighbors for Better Living. The project supported a community garden located in the “North of Lehigh” neighborhood through garden improvements and a opening celebration. At this celebration, community members were asked to “tell me something good” about their lives and their community. They painted their words on posterboard to create a free-form poem across the chain-link fence of the garden.
A selection of the portraits taken during the event are on permanent display in the community room at the NKCDC’s new affordable housing development, Orinoka House. The photographs are printed on acoustic deadening panels, “place making” both practically and artistically.
The project was also exhibited in the winter of 2018-2019 at the Kensington Storefont. This drop-in, arts-based center - located a few blocks from the community garden - is a safe space situated at the epicenter of Philadelphia’s opioid epidemic.
