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Today is Saturday, April 29th. We're at the celebration of Paul Robeson's birthday at Paul Robeson Park in Petworth in Washington. Could you tell us your name? My name is Natalie Campbell And are you in the neighborhood? Yes, I live two blocks away.

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Oh, fantastic. And what brings you out today? Well, I first learned of the Paul Robeson sculpture celebration from-from one of our local ANC reps. I was really excited to hear what happened last year that actually someone in local government had organized a teach-in and a celebration of public art because I work in public art. But usually those things happen because of a museum education department comes in and decides you know we're going to learn about this thing and this was really a grassroots group of, you know, local government, the people from the arts community, people from local universities. All kind of coming together to celebrate something, a sculpture that makes a park beautiful that we walk past every single day and a lot of people don't know anything about it. So I just thought it was like this incredible, you know, opportunity. Why doesn't this happen more often? That's great. Could you tell us a little bit about the that's sculpture right behind you. I'm assuming you were referring to? Yes, the sculpture, Here I Stand, Paul Robeson. Black, Bo, red baited and whited out. Can we? This is my daughter, Hope. she also walks past the sculpture everyday. This is Alice. She also walks past the sculpture every day and what-and what I know about it is that it's, it is a-Can you guys let me like finish for a sec? Okay, thanks. I mean what I know about it is that I what I was going to refresh myself on, is the year was. (*Dan: Yes, and I should know that*). I think it was, I think in the 70s that-that artist Uzieke Nelson got permission to claim and beautify the space with a welded artwork that is Afrocentric in its theme and honors, the spirit of Paul Robeson. And is, you know, kind of-and Uzieke, Mr. Uzieke has made several of these throughout the city, sort of on his own initiative, with his own resources, and his own creativity. Beautifying something that we would otherwise be sort of a traffic triangle, you know, really, he's really a great example of place keeping, you know, and just an opportunity to, to share more with locals about the cultural traditions of our-of our city, and how they're connected to broader movements. So, I'm super, I'm super excited about to have Mr. Uzieke Nelson's work right here in the neighborhood, and I wish more people knew about it.

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That's wonderful. Could you-for its-I understand it, the role of arts in building community in the city and the public space is very important to you. Sure. And I think you've gotten at some of this, but I wonder if you might talk a little more about why you value the arts? Sure. Well I work in exhibits for the DC public library and I work right next to folks from the archives in our local history center and and I also care deeply about public art or the public realm, public culture and-and so-(*ambulance/fire truck siren goes off nearby*)

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That's part of public life, huh? Part of public life. But if you-if you follow the conversation about public art and arts and creativity in Washington, D.C. then you probably hear a lot that art is a vital part of the social fabric of the city. And I guess the question is, what does that really look like, right? And so for this celebration to be initiated by sort of a grassroots group of people saying there's art right here in our neighborhood, that people need to know about. There is an artist who's a living, local treasure who's still around, who wants to share more about his-both his inspiration, the theme of his work and the technical skill that it takes to build artwork in public space. And so, let's honor him. Let's let more, let's use this as a teaching opportunity. I think it's really great. I mean, I think art education and preservation work, like artists themselves, requires resources, right? It requires people, it requires a space in which to do the work, it requires money, it requires labor, material. So I mean, I think that this is an example of a group that's leading the way to say this matters and it kind of forces the rest of us to think a little bit about what we can do to look after the cultural work in our own neighborhoods. Thank you very much. Sure, that's great.