Around 20 years ago I went to a meeting at a high school in Manhattan with someone I was working with at the time, to discuss art and performance and fundraisers and community art projects for youth. The woman I met, Carol Prud'homme Davis who was in charge of the arts programming there was so vibrant and passionate about the work that she was doing that a number of years later when I was teaching nutrition and health workshops and going to schools and after school programs as part of the community based educational programs I facilitated, I reached out to her again to see if we could collaborate. She was no longer at that school and had moved onto another organization where she was doing wonderful work, and we connected again and had some conversations that led to more wonderful programming for the group she was working with at the time.
At the same time when we reconnected, I found out that she was an Artist herself, something I hadn't known before, and she invited me to an art show she was having. It was at a time when I was beginning to meet with more Artists again in my own life, which eventually led me to doing more curating again and putting on events in the community, which led to the opening of YES Gallery in 2022.
Fast forward to just a little over a week and a half ago when an organization named Inside Change From Within started following me on Instagram, and when I went to the page to see more about it, I saw that it was Carol Prud'homme Davis. It had been a while since I'd been in touch, but when I read the description, "Inside Change From Within provides unhoused, emerging and LES activist artists opportunities to exhibit and sell their work. As well as food equity," I felt like I needed to reach out personally and not just follow back because these are topics that I have been working within and combining for years now.
When I contacted her we met a few days later, and then I started to find out more about Inside Change From Within. Carol introduced me to a Chef, Ernst Nicolas who founded Bashir's Kitchen, who is passionate about feeding the community with healthy food, and we began discussing how to move forward with all of the ideas and experience and collaborative strengths we have to help the community thrive. I went to the Inside Arts From Within opening celebration, a show of a piece by EiLeen Doster on March 3 at Tom & Jerry's on Elizabeth Street, and it was such an inspiring time. Bringing communities together in this way around Art and healthy food and providing access to these life giving things is empowering, and it reminds me of all those years ago when I first began working in the inner city and how God used the passions and gifts that I'd already had for years to begin to help others experience the beauty of art and the nourishment of healthy food.
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