Special to South Florida Times

It was a year this Wednesday since an earthquake that devastated Haiti and took hundreds of thousands of lives. The aftershock caused massive health problems and homelessness keeps growing.

In tribute to the victims, the art community, led by Haitian artists, came together to design and paint a 5,000-square-foot mural commemorating the first anniversary of the earthquake.

Chris Purdy, an artist with MLK Murals, who has worked on the colorful mural, said it is designed to capture Haiti's past, present and future.
“We also want to remind people that, in order to overcome adversity, people must learn to give back. Everyone who has come to these shores and has experienced some kind of prosperity should and must give back,” Purdy said.

Marie Louissaint, president of the Little Haiti Optimist Club, said, the mural was a combined effort of the Optimists, MLK Murals and other organizations.

Youth Expressions, a program for Haitian youth, donated the wall of its building for the painting. From time to time, some of the youths from the organization stopped by to help with the painting, said Eric Lopez, program manager for Youth Expressions.

The mural was designed by artist Kevin Morris. Working against time, about a dozen artists managed to finish the work, sealing the paint on Monday in time for its unveiling on Wednesday,

“This entire project has been embraced by the community,” Purdy said. “Although I am not from Haiti, I am a descendent of the Caribbean. And I am doing all I can to help. We are doing a good work for a good cause.”

Other artists who donated their time to paint the mural include Cairns “Nice” Athouris, Drew Carry, Veronica Estrada, Gino (a tattoo artist), Kyle Holbrook, Bayunga Kialeuka, Kevin “Smurf” Morris, Addonnis Parker, Jones Pierre, Serge Toussaint and Darrin Watson.

Louissaint said Pierre, a member of the Optimist club, suggested that a statue be created to mark the anniversary, but the mural got the nod because it was “more cost and time effective.” 

The project started on New Year's Eve, with the priming of the wall of the building at 7900 NE Miami Ave. The painting started on Jan. 3, giving the artists 10 days to complete the project, Louissaint said.

Purdy said many of the artists are already well established, including Gino, whose art is sold to famous rap stars.  Holbrook has done mural projects all over the world, including a recent work in Haiti, where he helped put some 7,000 Haitians to work.

“This is an example of what can be done when the community pulls together,” Purdy said.

Pittsburgh's Hill District is getting a makeover -- one abandoned building at a time.

Starting July 5, a team of professional artists and roughly 200 Hill District students will spend a month using paintbrushes to fight neighborhood blight. The Broken Windows Project, named after the criminological theory that blight breeds crime, is billed by artists as a way to turn eyesores into artwork, while teaching students about the history of the Hill.

"We are always looking for ways to do something social through art," says Kyle Holbrook, executive artist for the MLK Community Mural Project. "This is cleaning up the community."

Holbrook, well known for his murals all around the city, says Broken Windows began on a smaller scale last summer under the name Windows of Hope. With the help of city officials and local historians, he says organizers identified 75 vacant buildings -- many slated for demolition -- worthy of an artistic facelift.

About 100 Hill District students then spent time researching their historic neighborhood's past -- from jazz greats like Lena Horne to famous playwright August Wilson -- and then recreated that history lesson on plywood. Holbrook says they finished enough artwork to cover the first floor of 22 Hill District buildings, including August Wilson's dilapidated childhood home, on Bedford Avenue.

Two large murals cover the first floor of the Wilson home -- one featuring a child's rendering of the playwright's face peering over a white picket fence, a reference to his Pulitzer-winning play Fences. Next door, an abandoned building now boasts a mural paying homage to the Pittsburgh Courier, complete with a typewriter painted above the historic black newspaper's name.

"[The artwork] is really beautiful," says Kim Ellis, executive director of the Historic Hill Institute, who praises the project's emphasis on history. "It makes structures that appear to be worthless worthy again."

In addition to the 200 Hill students, Holbrook's team includes a dozen professional artists, interns from local universities and volunteers from Teach for America. This summer, Holbrook says, they plan to paint murals for the remaining 53 buildings on their to-do list, as well as finish the upper floors of the 22 buildings they started last year. He says most of the buildings are located on Wylie and Bedford avenues.

Although many of the buildings are slated for demolition, it could be years before some of them finally meet a wrecking ball. "While the buildings are here, we might as well beautify them," says Pittsburgh City Councilor Daniel Lavelle, who represents the Hill. "It's a very worthwhile project."

"It gives [the community] a sense of pride and a sense of hope. It shows that progress is being made," says Samantha Davis, project manager for Broken Windows. "It seems small -- it's just artwork -- but it can hold a lot of power."