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Alright, today is April 29th, 2023 we're at Paul Robeson Park in Petworth and we're here to celebrate the belated birthday of Paul Robe-belatedly celebrate the birthday of Paul Robeson. Could you tell us your name? My name is Ray Michael Bridgewater. Ray, would you mind telling us a little bit about your connection to this park? My connection with this park is in several ways. I live down the street from this park and come pass this park many of times. There's been several groups I've been a part of that was a part of the rebirthing of this park and other parts in the Petworth area.

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And when you say, rebirthing, could you tell us a bit about what this park was like when you first encountered it? What it was like when we first encountered was just bushes and-and overgrowth of grass. So, the first thing we did, one of the things that we did the organization that I formed was-is called the Assembly of Petworth. It was from a grant from the Kellogg Foundation, 1 of 3 in the country. One of the first things we did was a urban environmental cleanup and restructuring. So, all the schools in the area of McFarlane, Roosevelt, Petworth, Powell Elementary, became a part of it, the Petworth Library became a part of it, the Upsure Recreation Center and the Upsure Teller Garden Center. So, the whole idea was to to clean up the parks and restore the parks and-and-and bring it back to a aspect where people can actually sit down and-or walk or play or-or enjoy nature. That's fantastic. About what year are we talking about? Or years? We're talking about 25-30 years ago in that aspect.

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So the nineties. Yes. And that was even before the sculpture. It was before the sculpture was placed here. (*Daniel Kerr: Okay*) we have several parks that we help. This was one. There's a part dedicated to Mary Church Terrell down the street at 13 and Arkansas. What we did when I was a member of the Urban Forest Council of a DC. We had access to trees and was able to plant bushes. So that's what we did. We helped adopt some of the parks in the area, plant trees and flowers and so forth and fix it up. Later on it was fixed up and then later on was fixed up again. This is where we are today.

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That's terrific. And so these trees, you played a role in planting them? Yes, yes. That's wonderful. And if I understand this correctly, you had some role in the naming of the park? We had a-a small role in naming the park. Our main thing was to make sure that the park was kept clean and that the trees and everything, it was maintenanced. We were a part of the group that became to make sure that there was an artist, when-when the funding became available, we made sure that the park was adopted and and thus it was named after Paul Robeson.

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Fantastic. And why-why did you choose Paul Robeson? Well, I have a personal story for Paul Robeson, but it-we wanted to adapt some of the great black artists, civil rights leaders, and so forth. So Paul Robeson, this was one of the first parks in this area that was developed and thus it was named after Paul Robeson. Could you tell me about that personal story? That personal story? My uncle, Jake Green, played for Paul Robeson when he was over in east Europe, traveled through our Russia and China.

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And what was his, what was his instrument? He played the piano. Basically, when Paul Robeson did concerts, he only had a pianist accompany him. Oh that's fantastic. And your family, and where are your family located or? Where-I'm a Washington. D.C. born baby, a Freeman Hospital baby. So, we're going back awhile there. So my uncle played for him when he was overseas.

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Oh that's terrific. Okay, so there's that DC connection as well. There's-there's a lot-it's a lot of connections to Paul Robeson. We're very proud of this park. We're very proud that its kept. The grass has kept cut, the pavement and everything was redone for even more enjoyment, the benches were placed here for people to-to enjoy nature. And could you tell me a little bit about how you came to appreciate the trees and the nature? Obviously, that's core to your work, is bringing that piece here. Environmentalism is a big core of what we do. We concentrate around health and technology, and environment is a part of health. So, as I said, I served on the Urban Forest Council. So, what we did was help groups adopt parks, help groups adopt particular areas, we would put out small grants for them to coordinate within that respective community, the kids and the grown-ups decide what they want to do with the park and we take it from there, we help bring in the trees and the bushes and so forth and-and redo it.

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That's terrific. And so, how did you become interested in forestry and urban forestry? Very. very easy, we use the turn Tree Huggers so I was a Tree- As a child? Well, that's the terminology (*Daniel Kerr: Right, right, no I-yeah*) amongst the Urban Forest Council is Tree Huggers. Growing trees, put-planting trees and beautifying the community, our local community or the group hands together neighborhood club. We had our garden contest and so forth. So, the whole idea was to make the community beautiful.

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I see. And-and is this-let me just say, I'm also a tree hugger so and I'm just really fascinated by that kind of the history of urban forestry and was this something that your-your parents passed on to you or this love of nature or how? Always the-the love of nature, all of that is-my parents passed on to us. We-we were as a kid cutting grass and everything. So you get to appreciate the trees and so forth, the shade that it creates the-the air that it helps clean-help clean and process. And the whole idea is making the community beautiful, making the community livable for those who've been here for many, many years. That's fantastic. Is there anything else you'd like to share with us today? This is, this is a great day. Paul Robeson. My background is mass communication, so film and theater is part of my background. So Paul Robeson was a great, great artist and performer and he was a great athlete. He could have been a great football player or rugby player so he was just as much as a great athlete as he was a great performer and humanitarian. And a person who looked out for the workers, he was very big on the union workers and so forth.

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Thank you so much, I appreciate it. My pleasure.