MID CITY STUDIO

Before the event, I thought it was going to rain, and I was a little bit worried about the arrangement of the boards; however, we were very lucky! It didn’t rain and everyone did a great job at setting things up on the site and getting things ready for the event. It was great to have everyone present and see everyone’s effort come together into an amazing event. I didn’t expect to see so many people; people of all kind, church people, people passing by, kids, and even homeless people, everyone was welcomed and everyone seemed to enjoy the music and the food. I had a lot of fun especially playing with the kids; their presence and energy brought a lot of light to the place. The communal feeling was very strong and I’m sure everyone was thankful for that moment. I would have loved to see live music, and wished the weather hadn’t been overcast. I would have liked to include more games, more activities, things that invite people to stay a little bit longer. I really liked how the boards were beautifully assembled I wonder if we could have thought about the site more architecturally just as we did with the boards. I would have also liked to see more color. But that’s about it!

I learned that Mid City is full of diversity in terms of people. Some of the primary concerns are based on public services such as lighting, trash, as well as the lack of public spaces and spaces to gather. I believe that for the neighborhood SAFETY is important, for the residents KIDS as well as having a sense of COMMUNITY are the most important things. Some of the positive things are that everyone I encountered was very nice and good people, however the negative thing that I learned is that most of them are poor. Community engagement could also be encouraged by engaging to the activities that they are already engaged to; I thought that working with the church community was a very successful idea.