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Alright, hello, today is April 29th, 2023. We are at Paul Robeson Park. We're celebrating the belated birthday of Paul Robeson as well as the work honoring his life. The sculpture behind you, Here I stand, with Uzieke Nelson's-and his contributions to the city. So, (*Neena Murphy Martin: Awesome*) could you tell us your name? Hi greetings, my name is Neena Murphy Martin. I-I'm a Ward 4 resident. I live in Shepherd Park, was-came to the Washington D.C. area due to the Air Force. I was stationed in the Air Force here and born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky by way of Mississippi. And so I just love D.C. I've been here over 30 years in the area and just excited about our city, our cultural heritage, and so cultural awareness and-and artistic creations is something that I've been surrounded. My mother is a retired art school teacher in Jefferson County Public Schools. And then I am also the mother of an artist and the best friend of an artist as well, I should say. So, I am not an artist myself, but I am surrounded by artists all the time. And I think to know and love an artist is-speaks volumes. You have to know their language. You have to give them space to be creative and space to be able to articulate whats driving their heart. What drives their passion that comes through their art and their activism. So I think art and activism run hand-in-hand. I am a community activist, I'm a community supporter, I'm a volunteer of my neighbors, I'm a servant leader in the Ward 4 communities. I believe that we see our neighbors and our friends and our community, sometimes more than we see our family members, and it's important for us to love one another, and be there for each other and empower one another to be the best neighbors we can possibly be to create communities that show caring and concern for others at all times. We don't have to agree, but I think if we treat each other the way we want to be treated, our communities will be even better later on, so. Could you tell us a little bit about your-your community activism and-and what kinds of things that you've engaged in? Yes, well, last year on February 8th, of 2022, I was carjacked in front of my house, so I'm actually a victim of a crime and from that I learned that there's different entities within our city that can help victims of crimes. My biggest thing was I did not want this to happen to any of my other neighbors. So, my question was, what can I do to help them be safe? So I went on the mission to find out how can we engage and create a neighborhood watch. How can we get trained to be the best neighborhood watch and and learn about public safety in our neighborhoods. How can we be proactive instead of reactive to our things that are happening in our neighborhoods? How can we get out the information to those who aren't in-on the internet? How can we reach those individuals who just pretty much are in the house and don't have internet or you know, email or text messages? How are we reaching the masses? And so one of the things I did was I had a virtual, at the time because we were in the middle of COVID, I had a virtual neighborhood watch and public safety training event that I recorded and I make that available to neighbors who want to see that. The second thing I did was I started a neighborhood annual block party. So this year will be the third block party. I have MPD come with Detective McGruff. I have our DC fire department come. I have our Office of Unified Communications, they bring Cell Phone Sally, and it's just a big event where we have food and festivities, and fun, and also information awareness for our neighborhoods. The different programs we have to help with crime prevention of the D.C. government agencies, and also the nonprofit organizations that are in our city that can help as well. So, those are some of the things that I do. More recently, I've been working with the fourth district commander, Herard, and re-establishing and reinstituting our 4th District Metropolitan Police Department citizens advisory council helping to bring it up to standards and being good standing and to help us re-establish, our 501 c 3 status so that we can help both our officers, our police officers, and also our community residents businesses, build a more collective, communicative environment, so that we can talk about the things that we need. We can collaborate on those things and we can move forward on what's best for our communities here in Ward 4, the fourth district of MPD.

00:05:02.700 - 00:08:02.000

That's terrific. Now you did tell me that you were raised in Kentucky. (*Neena Murphy Martin: Yes*). But you also told me you've been in this neighborhood for 30-some years, right? I've been in the DMV for over 30 years. The Air Force brought me here. I was stationed at the National Security Agency. I served duty at the Pentagon and also CIA. So, I am a Washingtonian by force of the Air Force, but it's truly my home. It's, you know, I love my neighbors, my little neighbors next door they call me Auntie Nene. So, we have a couple of new baby's coming, and I'm just waiting-Auntie Nene is ready for them to come. So, yes, I'm the Auntie Nene on Northgate. That's great. And so, and-and how-how has the city kind of changed over the course of this time that you've been here? Well, I think with the resources, as far as some of our government agencies losing resources, I think it's bringing more of a forefront of communities to connect again. I think one of the things that COVID did was, you know, it kind of slowed people down for a second. Slowed people down. People started to cook at home more. People started to look inward more, to get their homes together more. You also got to see whether some of the needs of some of your residents who don't have internet at home, who don't have cable television at home, who actually don't have the luxury that some people have like, we could stay in our house all year and not really coming out, but everyone doesn't have that luxury. So I think one of the things that I've learned over the past several years is that we really have to reach out and check on our neighbors to see if they're okay. Not wait for a pandemic, not wait for something tragic to happen, but have opportunities. community engagement opportunities, where neighbors can come out and get to see each other and not view each other at a funeral or something like that. I think it's important that we have community engagement opportunities as much as possible. You know, anyone knows they can call me day or night. I'm an early bird and a night owl, you can call me day or night. You can stop by. We can have coffee or tea or I can come to you. It doesn't matter. I think that's very important. That's what I've noticed over the past several years is that the need for community caring for one another has really grown. The need for it. And understanding the cultural diversities, our city is changing. You know, we have many, many cultures who are now in the city and we have to respect and understand the cultural diversities that cross paths. We are interrelated and interdependent on each other. And I think it's important for us to understand that so that we can, you know at the end of the day we're all the human race, we get up every day, we put on our pants, and we breathe air. So we have to share this world, share this district and it's important for us to know each other and get to love each other on that. Does that help you?

00:08:02.000 - 00:08:36.700

Anything-last thing you'd like to say or share? Last thing I'd like to say is I love DC. I tell everybody, come to D.C., come to D.C., you know, we are a wonderful city. We are a strong, resilient city and we have gotten through so many things and we are going to be the best capital in this nation anyone can ever see. We have a great group of servant leaders here and I'm just thankful and humbled to be a part of that group. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very much.