Braiding Seeds Mural
We are fundraising to raise money for a beautiful mural on the front of our building called “Braiding Seeds” and we wanted to share the story behind the design process.
Our mural design is an image that weaves together the story of past and present, healing, education and the natural world. Our design is inspired by the story of African ancestors who saved seeds by braiding them into their hair before being forcibly brought to the new world. This act of saving seeds created an opportunity to preserve traditions, heritage, food and medicine. We want to shed light on this story of resilience while incorporating the stories from our community. The plants in the mural, as well as in the garden, will incorporate remedies and desired healing that people in our neighborhood have or have desired to have in their own lives.
The braids will represent a strong feminine energy and the weaving together of our stories. Our hope is that we can wrap the braids around the front of the building to be picked up by another mural artist to create a prolific collage of women of color. This will be an homage to the community we are prioritizing in the Our Time space.
We are working with local artist Jaz Erenberg on the design. “Jaz Erenberg is an Afro-Latina Community Artist and Arts Educator in Baltimore City. Her projects aim to bridge the gaps that exist between communities, by focusing on resilience and joy.
‘Braiding Seeds’ will be a mural that grows up and out of the medicine garden it rests behind. We will feature plants that tell stories of healing, tradition, and history. We will make final decisions on the plants featured in this mural after we engage with our community. Along with the plants we will have long colorful braids. There will be black hands folding seeds into the braids. The braids will create a flow that gives texture and narrative. The braids will look like growing stems and rows of sown seeds.
We are weaving this mural project in with a medicinal public garden in an effort to support community healing. We plan to build an interactive public space using the green space at the front of our building, directly in front of the mural. We propose to develop an educational medicine garden that will influence the mural’s story. This garden includes raised beds themed on specific remedies to help educate and create access for community healing. Raised bed themes discussed include the heritage box, reading corner + sleepytime box (which would include a free little library full of cookbooks and recipe books + sleepy time herbs), anxiety/nerve remedies box, (kitchen) burns box, pollinator box, stomach box, blood related box, culinary favorites box, and addiction recovery support box. We will have wheelchair accessible raised beds. We will seek community input on remedies and stories to incorporate in the garden’s design and signage by connecting with neighboring clinics and food pantries.
We believe that this mural will act as a beacon to drawing in the community. We want to center healing in our work and our engagement with our surrounding neighbors and we believe that this is the perfect opportunity to begin that conversation.
Support our mural fundraiser by buying the Braiding Seeds coloring page, designed by Jaz Erenberg.
