community former mayor, co-owner of Ground Zero Blues Club, and art collector just outside of the club. I pitched him the idea, he ran with it, and 3 months later, I found myself living in one of the apartments upstairs from GZ and working on a mural with three middle-school students on the side of the building. I had never done mural work before, but I knew I wanted it to be from the kids’ perspectives of the community, which already had a ton of blues-related murals. We spent time walking around downtown, talked about the parts of the community that they liked and the vision that they had for Clarksdale, and then I assisted them in creating a composition for all those ideas.
Sanders Painting Residential Repaint Specialist
We came to know you from the painting you made of Hebrew Union Temple in Greenville. How did that piece come about? Like I mentioned, I was born in Greenville and continued to go back there each year to visit friends. As I got older, I started realizing how spe- “Rosenwald” in Marks, Miss. cial the Delta was. I suppose when you grow up in a place, you know it so intricately profit or community organizations to receive that it’s difficult to see it from a bird’s eye per- future donations from any sales of the art inspective. I began reading about the histories spired by their community. It’s a standard in the contemporary art world of Greenville and the Delta, and I became a lot more aware of how many cultures had always that when an artist sells work through a gallery, lived in that part of the state. I learned that the artist and gallery split the sale of the piece. Greenville had over 40 Chinese grocery stores Since I am not represented by a gallery, I begin at the turn of the 20th century, that there were thinking about what a different financial model strong Lebanese and Italian communities, and may look like. I suppose that donating money back to the communities is another way of that the first mayor was a Polish Jew. When I started the Project, I connected with acknowledging the value of these stories that Will Coppage, an old classmate, writer, and aren’t mine and these communities that aren’t current director of the Washington County mine. And as we know, nonprofit organizations Economic Alliance, to set up an interview in have many terrific community initiatives in the Greenville. While I was there, I couldn’t help but pipeline and often don’t have the financial renotice the Hebrew Union Temple downtown — sources to actualize those plans. it’s such a beautiful building and really stands We’ve done a lot of reporting on the hisout. I immediately read every sign I could find tory of Rosenwald schools, and you’ve done (the temple was closed) and took lots of photo- this really bold piece, too, on the Old African graphs. Later, I read more about the tremendous American High School in Marks. What atimpact this congregation has had on the Green- tracted you to this building? ville community and knew that this would be I spent an afternoon in Marks, interviewing an essential story for The What’s Good Project Velma Benson-Wilson, the current Quitman series for Greenville. County Economic and Tourism director, and a You’re donating 20 percent of the profits from the limited run of 100 prints back to Hebrew Union. That’s really kind. You’re giving back not only to HUT, but to a couple of other religious institutions in the state, and a public school art program. With the interview participant from each community that I paint, we identify a few non-
Marks native. One of the places she highlighted during our time together was the Rosenwald School, which is nearly 100 years old and one of the few Rosenwald Schools left in the state. In 2015, she wrote a successful application to have it designated a Mississippi landmark, and she has a vision of someday transforming it into a performing arts venue to continue its legacy as
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