Presenting in Community Partner Meetings
Being in meetings with our community partners was a great opportunity. It gave us a chance to talk to other people and hear what they had to say about our mural sketches. At the meeting they told us they wanted to see more people, so we added more people to our mural. Also it gave us a chance to explain why we drew the sketch for the mural, how we came up with it and why we added certain things. We explained how we came with the mural design by putting all of our ideas together and we explained that we added the bird rowing the boat because it shows how humans and animals work together. Getting feedback from other community partners was a great way to help us improve our murals.
-Clara Acquah, StreetWise: Hunts Point
A Better Bronx
When we first presented our sketches and ideas of the mural I felt like they wanted us to dive deeper into the issue and be more creative with our work because some of our ideas were too narrow. For example we had too much wildlife in the picture. They did want some type of wild life, but they also wanted better streets, refuge zones, bike lanes and signs. I felt like they wanted us to focus overall on traffic safety as well as environmental issues. At first, when we started presenting I was a little discouraged but after motivation from my associates I felt more confident and in fact excited to present.
- Yoiky Brito, StreetWise: Hunts Point
Presenting in Community Partner Meetings
The Community Partner meetings went pretty well. We showed them our sketches and the designs. They had productive feedback that was very helpful and it wasn’t said to put us down. Everyone was respectful and enthusiastic about the mural and that is why the mural came out like it did. Everyone seemed determined to make the mural come out as it should, showing a solution to the problem. Because of that, I wasn’t at all daunted by the crowd of strangers inquiring about how we came up with what we came up with. Most of what the community partners wanted changed was right on target.They wanted us to focus on what we wanted the community to know and that is where the major changes came from. Overall talking in front of the community partners was a challenge that was easily overcome.
- Mone Alexander, StreetWise: Hunts Point
Presenting in the Community Partners Meetings
During the time when we sat in the Community Partner meetings and the Community meeting, I felt nervous. I didn’t know if they’d like what was in the mural or not. But, once everyone saw the final draft of how the mural was going to look, I think it stole everyone’s breath away. I know because it sure stole mine. Everyone was being positive and giving us great feedback about what we created. The best part was that there really wasn’t a lot of feedback because we did such an excellent job. But, the ideas everyone brought to the table to take the mural one step further were outstanding. I wouldn’t have thought about the hand-banner idea that one of our community partners from NYC DOT gave or I didn’t really think the truck stood out, but when someone pointed it out, I saw it for myself. All in all, this experience was great and I would do it again just to see the smiles and hear the people telling us we were doing such a great job. A couple of people actually came up to us and asked if we could do a mural on their walls! That was completely awesome!
Talking to our Community Partners and the Press
I’ve always been shy and feared criticism but confronted my fears head on this summer. While presenting at the design presentation I feared that everyone would just immediately hate the design, and because I was presenting it would be all my fault, but we got a lot of good feedback and everyone seemed excited about our design. I felt way more confident about speaking in front of people and sharing ideas. While being interviewed by the Epoch Times I was excited about talking and letting people know about our mural. After receiving so much positive feedback from everyone I had spoken to, I was no longer afraid to talk to anyone about our mural. I felt like I had discovered a talent and could be a spokesperson or something. None of that would of been possible if I wasn’t working at Groundswell.
Aylin Gonzalez, StreetWise: Hunts Point
DOT Liveable Streets Corona Photographer: Rich
Work Time!!
DOT Liveable Streets Corona Photographer: Rich
Look the camera guy!!
(Andre And Ivann)
