Episode 44 KaDavien Baylor - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

KaDavien Baylor, Public Artist, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development for the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:

 

0:51 1. Pat Viser wrote a great piece on you for 64 Parishes and I’d like to begin today with her first paragraph:

 

“KaDavien Baylor is best known as a public artist—a painter of large, brightly colored murals on Shreveport’s Valencia Park and Recreation Center’s Origin Court basketball court, along the brick wall of Galilee’s Stewart-Belle Stadium in the Allendale community, inside Linwood Public Charter School, and on a fence outside of popular Uptown Bar and Lounge, to name a few. Baylor makes creativity work for him—to make change, to create hope, to heal communities, and to encourage investment and ownership. He has people talking about murals throughout northwest Louisiana and what they can do to generate dialogue around a subject or community issue. His works inspire communities to create vibrant neighborhoods people want to visit, live in, and take care of, neighborhoods that bring people together to celebrate heritage and history.” 

 

Now I want to move to a quote of yours. You once said,

 

“I want to speak to the positive identity of Shreveport. We have a welcoming identity for all kinds of people.”

 

Talk to me if you could about this above quote. And, from your perspective, what is our identity?

 

4:42 2. In speaking about some of the ways our community has been governed in the past, Councilwoman Levette Fuller recently wrote, “(It) puts distance between government and citizens and makes participation intimidating. It makes mediocrity satisfying. It has led to a malaise and apathy because we assert ‘this is just the way things are.’

 

In preparing for today I came across a quote of yours that almost offers a solution to this community apathy. You said:

 

“Public Art allows people to take ownership in their community. When they feel like they’ve added or contributed to their community in a certain way, it makes them more proud of it. That’s why we take this approach.”

 

Talk to me about your above quote. And tell me a little about your process of creating public art and your beliefs around how public art can lead to greater community engagement.

 

8:38 3. I d like to stick with quotes of yours I came across because I found so many great ones. You once said:

 

“Our people need to see diversity, inclusion and how community can come together and make things stronger and better and have a more powerful impact.”

 

Talk to me more about what you meant with the above quote.

 

9:52 4. Let’s move to another quote of yours. You once said:

 

“Shreveport is a blank canvas with a lot of people who need help.”

 

Talk more about this if you could.

 

11:17 5. Butterflies factor heavily in your murals. I’ve read that they represent our community’s beauty and potential.

 

When you look at our community, what do you see as our great potential?

 

13:12 6. Lastly, I’d like to return to the wonderful article Pat Viser wrote about you. In the article, you said:

 

“Art in public spaces reflects and reveals our society, enhances meaning in our civic areas, and adds uniqueness to our communities. I have been honored to work on several projects that I believe have started transformation within our local communities. I hope to continue to work with public art that heals communities through the creation of landmarks.”

 

What does the transformation in our communities that has begun to take shape look and feel like? And, describe in an ideal world what our ultimate transformation looks and feels like?