{"id":7583,"date":"2018-06-12T18:13:51","date_gmt":"2018-06-12T22:13:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=7583"},"modified":"2018-06-13T06:56:00","modified_gmt":"2018-06-13T10:56:00","slug":"ekua-holmes-sunflowers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2018\/06\/12\/ekua-holmes-sunflowers\/","title":{"rendered":"What Happens If You Plant 10,000 Sunflowers At The Heart Of Boston\u2019s Black Community?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Friday morning, Ekua Holmes<\/a>\u00a0(pictured above) was outside the Grove Hall Public Library in Boston\u2019s Roxbury neighborhood with folks from the Urban Farming Institute who were helping her plant hundreds of sunflowers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you come upon a massive field of sunflowers,\u201d the artist tells me, \u201cwhat would that do to the spirit, what would it do to the emotion? Would it make you smile? Of course it would.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holmes\u2019s \u201cThe Roxbury Sunflowers Project\u201d was developed via the Public Art Accelerator program from independent public art curators Now + There<\/a>. It launched on June 2, when she gave out seed packets to more than 100 people. More folks sent her notes asking to take part, so last Thursday night, she gave away seeds to 25 more people.<\/p>\n

In addition to planting at the library at 41 Geneva Ave., she\u2019s working to get sunflowers planted all across Roxbury, often considered the heart of Boston\u2019s black community\u2014in a vacant lot across the street, at the 95 Thornton Community Garden and Farm, at Freedom House near the intersection of Crawford and Warren streets, (where she\u2019s also planning to make art for the windows showcasing the project\u2019s themes), at the Nathan Hale School at 51 Cedar Street, at Hawthorne Youth and Community Center at 9 Fulda St. by the Haley House on Highland Park, at people\u2019s homes and gardens.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve distributed probably about 8,000 seeds,\u201d Holmes says, \u201cand I have another 2,000 in my car, in the tub over there, that will go to other institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Seeds<\/a>
Seeds for Ekua Holmes’s “The Roxbury Sunflowers Project.” (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activisms (and our great festivals) by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Holmes grew up in Roxbury and still lives there. After winning the Caldecott Honor in 2016 for illustrating the Children\u2019s book \u201cVoice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement,\u201d she\u2019s illustrating two new children\u2019s books that are due out this fall\u2014\u201cThe Stuff of Stars,\u201d about the cosmos, from Somerville\u2019s Candlewick Press and \u201cWhat Do You Do with a Voice Like That,\u201d about Texas Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, from a division of Simon & Schuster. She serves on the Boston Arts Commission. Since 2011, she\u2019s been the community coordinator for sparc! The ArtMobile, operated by Massachusetts College for Art and Design\u2019s Mass Center for Art and Community Partnerships. And she\u2019s run two galleries\u2014including Renaissance Art and Design Gallery located at times on Newbury Street and Roxbury\u2019s Piano Factory (from which she is presently being displaced).<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been attracted to sunflowers, from a young age. I decorate my house, usually with fake ones,\u201d Holmes says.<\/p>\n

Via Now + There, she developed her plan for a \u201cmassive sunflower planting in Roxbury.\u201d It\u2019s one of six projects by seven artists supported through the organization\u2019s Public Art Accelerator. \u201cThe goal is really to allow Boston artists to create more art. We bring emerging and mid-career artists through six months of curriculum, looking at everything it takes to create good public art,\u201d Now + There Executive Director Kate Gilbert says. \u201cI like to think about it as the technical, emotional and financial support for public art.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilbert says, \u201cThey don\u2019t have to come with an idea. They don\u2019t have to work with a certain community group if they don\u2019t want to. It\u2019s all about the artist\u2019s vision.\u201d Each project is then given $15,000 to $30,000 in funding, Gilbert says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a closed system. There are people who have figured out how to make public art. They\u2019re really good at it. And the agencies go for what\u2019s safe,\u201d Gilbert says. \u201cWe really wanted to make that investment in the pipeline. \u2026 I wanted to give artists that first leg up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Iris<\/a>
Iris Lapaix (left) and Magnolia Monroe plant sunflowers in front of the Grove Hall Public Library for Ekua Holmes’s “The Roxbury Sunflowers Project,” June 8, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI thought that this sunflower because of its special attributes would make a great symbol or emblem for Roxbury,\u201d Holmes tells me. \u201cLife is a struggle. That sunflower is so resilient that it will survive the struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Holmes, the sunflowers represent a radiance that \u201csustains us even when things are not how we want them to go.\u201d The flowers serve as a metaphor for heliotropism\u2014\u201cturning to the light.\u201d They attract bees. They\u2019re said to draw toxins out of the ground. With the profusion of seeds the flowers produce and their deep roots, they symbolize the hardiness of Roxbury. \u201cThese flowers intend to survive and they intend to come into being and share their great beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon, Holmes pictures, \u201cAt certain turns in the neighborhood, you’ll come upon fields of sunflowers and that infuses you with positive energy. \u2026 Let that sunflower represent that we\u2019re planting a seed for the future, we\u2019re planting seeds for tomorrow, seeds of hope, seeds of love.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activisms (and our great festivals) by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\"Folks<\/a>
Folks from the Urban Farming Institute plant sunflowers at the Grove Hall Public Library for Ekua Holmes’s “The Roxbury Sunflowers Project,” June 8, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Friday morning, Ekua Holmes\u00a0(pictured above) was outside the Grove Hall Public Library in Boston\u2019s Roxbury neighborhood with folks from the Urban Farming Institute who were helping her plant hundreds of sunflowers. \u201cIf you come upon a massive field of sunflowers,\u201d the artist tells me, \u201cwhat would that do to the spirit, what would it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,105],"tags":[37,389,390,162],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7583"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7583"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7599,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7583\/revisions\/7599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}