With deliberate brushstrokes, 11-year-old Abdiasis Abdi applied blue paint to the sidewalk outside the Phillis Wheatley Community Library in Rochester June 21. Abdi was one of the helpers painting a new Story Walk to replace the faded and chipped mural outside the library.
“They do it every eight years,” he explained of the painting project, which was coordinated by Healthi Kids. “This is the first time I’m doing it.”
The Story Walk was first painted in 2017. Upgraded display boards will allow the library to change the stories on the Story Walk frequently.
Artist Chloe Smith’s vision for the new mural was guided by kids’ and parents’ ideas provided during input sessions at the library. The steering committee for the project was made up of adject neighborhood associations and Healthi Kids Coalition members, including one that first got engaged with Healthi Kids during the painting in 2017.
The mural features scenes in various seasons, outer space features with black female astronauts Mae Jemison and Joan Higginbotham and African imagery, including a Sankofa bird. There is also a hopscotch section featuring a playful caterpillar and numbers using American Sign Language hand symbols. The mural also features historical figures, including Rochester principal Alice Young and Rochester abolitionist Thomas James, and literary greats, such as African-American poet Phillis Wheatley, for whom the library is named.
And throughout, the mural has features that encourage children and adults to interact and play. For instance, the mural features circular roundabout design reminiscent of the nearby Ford Street Roundabout that invites children to follow its path.
Funding for the project was provided in part by the NYS Department of Health Creating Healthy Schools and Communities grant, the Rochester Public Library and ESL Charitable Foundations.