Mayor Parker and the city of Philadelphia launch $1 million public art program to address gun violence
'Healing Verse Germantown: The Streets are Talking' combines poetry and public artworks, and is funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies-led Public Art Challenge.
A year after Philadelphia was awarded a $1 million grant for a new public art and community outreach project by Bloomberg Philanthropies-led Public Art Challenge, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and the city have launched a public art and poetry project to combat gun violence in Germantown.
On Thursday, the city announced the start of the “Healing Verse Germantown: The Streets Are Talking” initiative, which invites residents to participate in a series of in-person and online poetry workshops focused on the city’s gun-violence crisis.
The two-year program is a collaboration between Bloomberg Philanthropies, the city’s Creative Philadelphia office, and poets Trapeta Mayson and Yolanda Wisher. Rob Blackson, codirector of curatorial programs at Philadelphia Contemporary, will serve as the project’s arts coordinator.
Wisher, a Germantown resident and former Philadelphia poet laureate, said the Mayson-led writing sessions will be grounded in a safe, “trauma-informed approach.” Participants will attend creative writing sessions and write poems about their experiences with gun violence, which will then be used to inspire public artworks and be heard on the Healing Verse Philly Poetry Line, a toll-free line that Mayson developed to offer callers a 90-second poem by a Philadelphia poet.
“This is really about approaching the issue of gun violence through a 360 approach,” said Wisher, who’s organized poetry workshops with Mayson for over 20 years. “Having these spaces where we can be together and have collective moments of healing and expressiveness can really disrupt the cycle of violence.”
Through additional partnerships with Pushing Progress Philly, the Every Murder Is Real Healing Center, and other advocacy groups, the project will work with residents who volunteer to attend creative writing sessions. Blackson will use their poems to create 20 temporary public art installations throughout Germantown. The exact locations will be nominated by community members.
The grant money will be used to fund the multipronged project, to compensate the efforts of partner organizations and collaborators, and to hire staff and cover marketing expenses. Kelly Lee, chief cultural officer for the city, previously told The Inquirer that Mayson, Wisher, and Blackson will also be compensated for their work.
The grant, led by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is aimed at encouraging city mayors, artists, and community groups to develop solutions to significant urban issues.
Philadelphia was one of eight cities selected from a pool of 154 cities from 40 states. The other winning cities are Atlanta, Baltimore, Honolulu, Houston, Orlando, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City.
While the number of shootings in Philadelphia dipped in 2023 and continues to see a decline in 2024, gun violence remains well above historical norms. More than 400 people were killed last year, and Germantown has been disproportionately affected by gun violence.
From 2020 to 2023, there were 204 shootings in Northwest Philadelphia, resulting in 42 deaths. There have been 19 fatal shootings in the 8th Council District in 2024, according to city data.
Chantay Love of EMIR Healing Center believes “Healing Verse Germantown” will encourage residents and community leaders to be more strategic in their approach to gun violence.
“If you understand gun violence and how we have gotten here, it’s going to take time,” Love said. “We have to recreate the environment to what we expect it to be, and artwork has always been instrumental in healing people from gun violence. Artwork has to be a part of the healing and prevention process.”
Wisher, too, doesn’t think “Healing Verse Germantown” will solve the city’s gun violence in one fell swoop. But she believes the program will lead to broader conversations and a “ripple effect” of advocacy that vibrates for years to come.
Between the workshops, art installations, and expanded hotlines, Marguerite Anglin, public art director of Creative Philadelphia, said the goal is to reach upward of 5,000 Philadelphians. By the end of the two-year mark, Anglin hopes “Healing Verse Germantown” will serve as a model for other Philly communities affected by gun violence to embrace.
For more information on the public art challenge, visit publicartchallenge.bloomberg.org.