Mural Arts helps Sharswood residents leave their mark on the neighborhood with poetry stamping

Poetry is popping up in the Sharswood section of North Philadelphia. You can’t miss it. It’s right at your footsteps. Gwendolyn Campbell’s “Nzinga” is one of 18 resident-written poems that are being permanently etched onto the sidewalks of a neighborhood that was once one of the city’s most troubled. Not so very long ago the site of high crime, drug trafficking, poverty and despair, the Sharswood redevelopment area is on the way to becoming a revived community of 1,480 mixed-income housing units. So far, 800 homes, both rental and privately owned, have been completed. Another 355 are nearly done. The Sidewalk Poetry project is part of a partnership between Mural Arts Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Housing Authority to ensure public art plays a vital role in the city’s $750 million Sharswood revitalization effort. And that the residents play an active role in the art in Sharswood. Many projects including murals are underway and more are planned.