In my twenties I drove from my apartment in Irvington to Newark on my way to work at the long gone retail store, Bambergers. I often wondered what it was like to be a person of color and grow up in an inner-city because driving on Springfield Avenue gave me a sense of what economic oppression meant.
Those trips down Springfield Avenue made me think about urban life and I felt it was important to understand what was going on in the communities along that route.
Then and now I do what I know best, I document what I see and reflect on it. For the past five years I've spent time with people who live in similar tough neighborhoods in Newark, Asbury Park and Trenton.
Amidst the revitalization near the Asbury Park boardwalk, I went on a peace rally with parents who lived on the West Side of town and wanted to make the neighborhood safer after gang violence was steadily on the uprise.
Veronica Gilbert-Tyson, the Director of the Mercy Center’s Family Resource Center, has been working in Asbury Park for 15 years. She says there are a lot of problems occurring in Asbury Park, including violence and homelessness. “Asbury Park has almost become a dumping ground for homeless people. Newly released prisoners with nowhere to go are given a bus ticket to Asbury Park and are not being helped to properly integrate into the community.”
In Newark while working on a film series about life after incarceration, I could feel the tension in the community in simple moments; children going to school and parents going to work or grocery shopping. To me it felt that the sidewalks were like land mines. At any moment people's steps could be stopped by an explosion of sorts. I have never felt that tension in the suburban NJ communities I've lived in. What may not be obvious is that there are citizens in inner-cities who are actively pulling together to make change—it's complex, difficult work.
Last year I met Will Condry, known to most as "Kasso" who has lived his entire life in Trenton, NJ. Growing up on Martin Luther King Boulevard Kasso says, "I've seen what the inner city can do to people—a lot of friends I grew up with are either dead, in jail or just kind of lost." As a father, he wants to see his daughter and his friend's children have a better life, "You know it doesn't have to be like this."
Kasso uses what he knows—his art—to change the face and feeling of the community by painting positive representations of people who live there. Learning from the nation's largest public mural arts program in Philadelphia, he became tired of looking at the eye sores and decided to paint over them. The first mural he created was on a surrounding wall of a now long-gone factory where with friend, James Luv-1 they painted children and Dr. Seuss imagery.
Will says, "If art hadn't been in my life as a kid, I don't know what I would be doing, it could do the same thing for another kid. They just need to have an opportunity. Everybody doesn't play basketball or sports, you've got creative people who don't have an outlet and if it's not catered to they're going to wind up doing something destructive."
Their first mural helped establish a relationship with a local town official and slowly an arts community grew. People from all over New Jersey and even further come out to support urban renewal events through S.A.G.E. Coalition's beautification program, which until recently was self-funded by the artist coalition.
S.A.G.E.'s diverse artists develop events, gallery showings, youth programming, and a community garden on 219 East Hanover Street and the surrounding neighborhood. Both local residents and Trenton outsiders decide and participate in mural and gallery events as well as "Gandhi Garden" work, which began cultivation as an MLK Day of Service earlier this year. Now throughout the summer on Monday nights they also have garden meetings and a pot luck dinner.
I've seen first-hand how difficult it is for citizens to organize a fight against drugs, gangs, guns, and violence in an inner-city community. Kasso and S.A.G.E. Coalition are making strides for positive change in Trenton. But, Kasso feels strongly about seeing that residents also become more economically empowered, which has been a positive addition to their work.
S.A.G.E collaborates with local nonprofits, business owners and elected officials—all helping to build-up civic fabric in their community. More importantly, with small steps they're spreading hope in some tough neighborhoods in Trenton.
Watch the video to hear how Kasso and the S.A.G.E. Coalition have actively engaged the community.
Watch the full-length video to hear how Kasso and the S.A.G.E. Coalition have actively engaged the community.
