NEW ORLEANS — On the corner of law and New Orleans in the 7th ward, Hardin playground is home to the next mural by Brandan “BMike” Odums.
A sign, a change for those who call this park home.
“I’m hoping to see a lot of positivity and they trying to bring it to that park where I played baseball football. [I] played in that same area [over] there,” says 7th ward resident Jamal Bradley.
This is the first major undertaking for BMike since coming off tour with Will Smith.
The visual artist who owns StudioBe in the Bywater created a mural for the image on Smith’s recently self-titled book.
Odums says he chose to work on this project now because he wanted to amplify a message echoing through the city.
“All these hands like in a huddle just to show the metaphor of us being on the same team as a community and us coming together like we do well in New Orleans.”
He says projects like this give him an opportunity to engage with young artist like Anne-Marie Boseman
The teen visual artist has been painting alongside BMike since this past summer, she was a part of BMike’s annual summer camp for young artists in New Orleans.
Boseman says now more than ever she’s leaning into her art community, “it’s very hard to do…to be productive if you don’t have a support system to do so.”
She says it’s hard to ignore the amount of crime being committed by other young people in the city, but also knows she’s one of the lucky few to have found art as an outlet.
“I feel like they obviously shouldn’t do that, but I also want people who are doing stuff like that to find help or to find something productive to do,” said Boseman
A reoccurring theme of a lack of opportunity for the city’s youth.
Odums says he believes engaging with young artists like Boseman allows him to be more effective in his outreach to the city’s creative youth.
“In a lot of ways,” says Odums, “they are like the thermometer, They are our temperature check to let us know how well we are doing, where we need to improve, where we’ve been messing up. When you look at them, they are a direct reflection of our priorities of our investments. It’s important to listen to them to understand what their wants and their needs are. That’s one of the main reasons why we continue to engage and make sure to provide an opportunity for young people.”
A lasting image representing a community united.