Story written by Sebastian Holden-Kersch, who is a sophomore at Central High. He likes to play games, and to listen to music. His supervisor, Yasamin Safarzadeh, has observed that Sebastian is dedicated, self-reliant and a keen observer of the ways in which programming like the MYTURN and Positive Street Art mural internship runs. He has many ambitions, but is allowing life to unfold before him.
Location: Central Little League Club House
Dropped off at a baseball clubhouse on a scorching hot day clueless on what to do and where to go. Cigarette butts and trash littering the potential beauty this place can offer. Blindlessly wandering around the building, soon to follow a purple-haired lady inside who I had recognized from before, just to see how the place was littered in scrap and timeless relics dating back to 30 years ago. Webs and unused gear bestrewn amongst the dirt and junk-ridden floors. Everything had been a mess, but the vision for it all was enough to encourage the team to put in the work and to see where the wind would take us.
With the combined efforts of MYTURN employees and Positive Street Art, we are working on transforming this rejected property into a cleaner environment and to paint a mural centered around you. No matter the religion you are a part of, or which ethnicity you may be, this is all centered around building your confidence as a human and showing that you are seen and loved.
With the help of our sponsors and everyone else involved, we plan to have this all ready by August 17th, and to have a huge celebratory unveiling with multiple performers and keynote speakers. There will be art venders, food, live art making and a myriad of sports to partake in, and everyone is welcome to join us to witness a change for the better.
This internship allows for many intersections of different communities to come together. Mondays we are visited by Opportunity Networks, an adult disability center, Wednesdays we are visited by Waypoint youth from the Resource Center. Each visitation empowers us to be leaders and teachers to the visiting artists from other non profits. To get them to join us in drafting mural concepts and in executing the final mural. Many hands make light work, as they say.
On July 17th, while practicing our art at the Sheehan-Basquil dugout, a woman passed by with one of her sons and her only daughter. The woman’s name was Charlene, and she told us her experience with this park before it had been left to neglect. Ten years ago, in what used to be a huge park, Charlene had three of her boys play baseball here, including those kids’ dad who coached. Nobody had ever hit an out of park homerun at that time, but her son was the first to hit one that far. In Charlene’s words, “It used to be a very common spot for families to walk around.”
The week passes, the sun keeps shining and I meet Liz Morin. She is an artist from The Opportunity Network and I ask her what it has been like to work with Positive Street Art in the past. Her interest in art began a year ago after being asked by Opportunity Network if she’d be interested in art lessons. Her first bit of experience with art was sketching other’s faces without looking at what she was drawing. To add onto that already existing challenge, she would attempt to do it with as little lines as she could. After asking about whether Positive Street Art had taught her any valuable lessons in life, her response was, “It taught me how to be a more content person.”
Central Little League Club House, the canvas.
Positive Street Art isn’t always about improving the community or bettering the world around you, it’s also about building on yourself. PSA has taught Liz “how to socialize with other people, and it taught me how to be more careful with my artwork.”
My personal experience with this goal of ours is that it is going to be worthwhile. The team behind everything is very reliable and with the right amount of hard work put into it, it could be something massive for a vast amount of people. Only having three weeks to finish this can be overwhelming, but with the amount of work we’ve put into this already, it seems highly possible that we can finish in time for the big unveiling on August 17th at the Sheehan-Basquil dugout.
The Inkubator program is aimed at nurturing and growing New Hampshire’s local journalism ecosystem – support for educators, opportunities for students and pathways for future journalists, artists and creators. And beyond that, we want to engage our community in this process because together, we rise. Click here to make a tax-deductible contribution to the Inkubator.