“Healing Verse Germantown: The Streets are Talking” — a public art project years in the making — is officially kicking off on April 11, aiming to provide healing through poetry to community members impacted by gun violence.

Since launching in September 2024, the project has engaged community members through 10 poetry workshops and a 24-hour phone line featuring healing poems and mental health resources. Now, a public art exhibition will combine poems from the workshops with artwork throughout Germantown.

Details of the project

“Healing Verse Germantown” is supported by Creative Philadelphia, the city’s office of arts and culture. According to Marguerite Anglin, the public art director of Creative Philadelphia, the city was one of eight across the country awarded a $1 million grant through the Bloomberg Public Art Challenge.

The funding was designated to address an urgent civic issue. Co-artistic leads Trapeta Mayson and Yolanda Wisher, along with public art coordinator Rob Blackson, collectively chose to focus on Germantown and the impact of gun violence on the neighborhood.

The project began with poetry workshops hosted between October 2024 and February 2025, facilitated by Mayson and Wisher. Many of these workshops were open to the public, while others were dedicated to health care workers, first responders, young people, the deaf community, and men in a transitional supportive-services program.

More than 200 submissions were eventually narrowed down to 19 poems that reflected Germantown’s wide-ranging experiences with gun violence and healing. The project leads then searched for local artists who could create visual installations for each poem. These artworks will range from sidewalk murals and sneaker designs to virtual reality (VR) experiences and free bouquets of flowers.

Blackson helped identify artists best suited to turn the poetry into visual works.

“The responsibility was to do as much as I could to highlight the poems and lift their voices and messaging through the artworks themselves,” Blackson said. “It’s really a vehicle for people to experience the poetry in a way other than on a page.”

Poets and artists

The 19 selected poets each took a different approach to the project. For instance, college student Carmelo Whitehead wrote “Outside My Window” to describe the realities of seeing scenes of violence from inside your house.

“It’s such a traumatic thing to see right in front of your house,” Whitehead said. “I don’t know how people are able to go back home and look out their window the same again.”

Whitehead focuses on themes of mental health through the concept of a window, as some days are stormy while others are clear. His poem also takes on another deeper meaning because of Whitehead’s personal experiences: His uncle, Allen Taylor, was killed in 2020 as a victim of gun violence.

“We had a really, really good bond,” Whitehead said. “We had a secret handshake we used to do each time we saw each other and he would take me and my cousins on random trips, like Dave and Buster’s or the park down the street. He would always be there. I can’t remember any time where he let us down.”

Whitehead’s poem will be part of a collage on a SEPTA bus station shelter. Another poet, Andre Saunders, will have his poem displayed on a sidewalk outside a Mighty Writers location. Saunders’ poem is titled “Dreamers,” and focuses on optimism and believing in yourself. He is excited to have his poem on the sidewalk.

“I remember being a kid and seeing the names on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,” Saunders said. “I wanted mine to be something that lives beyond just a moment. I wanted it to be like a landmark or monument for something bigger than myself.”

Another featured poem is “Hawkeye Took Flight,” by RuNett Nia Ebo, whose son Diallo Gray — known as “Hawkeye” — died at the age of 26. The installation will feature a vibrant bird sculpture by Tim Rusterholz and a handmade banner by Olivia Dwyer. This piece will be located at 6000 Germantown Ave., at Harvey Street.

Dwyer said that sewing the banner by hand has been a meditative process, and she appreciates the choice to not do a digitally printed option.

“I think it’s really cool to bring the hand into it in a direct way,” Dwyer said. “I don’t think necessarily this has been a vocalized intention, but something that feels special about it to me is the way it brings the hand into something that’s about processing grief. If you were to have something digitally printed and crisp and clean — grief isn’t like that. It feels beautiful to bring humanity into it in a physical sense.”

‘A new form of healing’

Healing Verse Germantown is scheduled to run to June, at which point some installations may be removed, while others might remain on view through agreements with private property owners or acquired by the city’s permanent public art collection.

Blackson said those involved in the project are eager to create a space for community dialogue, healing, and creative expression.

“Germantown, as many know, has gone through a lot of violence and … sadness because of the gun violence epidemic,” Blackson said. “This project’s ambition is to lift up the stories and memories of many people who’ve been unfortunately involved in gun violence problems in Germantown so that through the poetry they can access a new form of healing.”

Learn more at healingversegermantown.com or call the 24-hour poetry phone line at 1-855-763-6792.

Maggie Dougherty can be reached at Margaret@chestnuthilllocal.com.