MLK is also Moving the Lives of Kids through murals

When reached by phone in Wilkinsburg, Joy Taylor can hardly be heard for the sound of shouting children obviously having fun. Inside a church in Wilkinsburg, the kids are working on a mural about Pittsburgh’s landmarks and history, using brightly colored paints.

Helping them create the scene are two adult artists — hip-hop pioneer Paradise Gray and Aaron Regal, who used to be one of these kids painting murals. And this mural is one of 15 local kid-painted murals set to pop up around the area this summer, thanks to the MLK (Moving the Lives of Kids) Community Mural Project. Begun in 2004 by local mural artist Kyle Holbrook, it has sponsored more than 200 such murals in the Burgh and 500 across the country — even a few in Brazil and Haiti.

These multi-week efforts to create murals teach pride in place, and offer kids the chance to do something the whole community can see and admire, Taylor says.

New this year is Fashion for the Future, through which at-risk girls learn the business with professional artists and designers, who help the kid make their own clothing line. The first group of girls is in the midst of the inaugural program in the Hill District today.

The MLK Community Mural Project is working in East Hills, Penn Hills, the North Side, Oakland, Hazelwood, McKeesport and elsewhere this summer. Taylor says it is always trying to expand its reach to new communities and new demographics each year.

“There are so many distractions that keep them from focusing on the positive in themselves,” she says of the program’s young participants. “They get an opportunity to give something back to their community and have a voice. A public art project really gives them a chance to say something — and to say something positive.”

Writer: Marty Levine

Source: Joy Taylor, MLK Community Mural Project