(lively music) (lively music continues) - Good evening.

I'm Anaridis Rodriguez.

Welcome to "Generation Rising," where we have conversations that explore solutions to the inequities our diverse communities face every day.

Tonight, I'm joined by Harold Starks and Kate McNamara from My Home Court, a nonprofit organization on a mission to foster community by renovating city basketball courts and parks, and installing large scale works of art.

Harold and Kate, thank you so much for being with us.

- Thank you.

- Thank you for having us.

- It's great to be here with you and talk about My Home Court.

Let's start with our viewers with a brief introduction of who you are and your connection to My Home Court, Harold.

- Okay so, Harold Starks, I am currently the associate athletic director for community DEI initiatives at Providence College.

I am also an alum, graduated in the '80s.

I am a former basketball player as well and been back now at Providence College for the last 16 years.

- Wow.

- And one of the founding members of My Home Court.

- And Kate, you are the executive director?

- That's right, I'm the executive director and my background is really as a curator in contemporary art, which is how I kind of found my way to My Home Court.

Failed, you know, middle school basketball player.

Was too tall at a young age but- - Same.

(laughing) - Yeah.

Thankfully Harold keeps me on my toes.

But I'm on the art side, And it's been a pleasure to work with you guys for the last five years.

- Wow.

It's been five years.

So PC holds a special connection to My Home Court because of your background but also because that's where the idea kind of came to life, right?

- Yes, so it's about six years ago, I was at a golf outing with some other alum and a good friend of mine, gentleman by the name of Pete Peterson, we actually graduated together at Providence College and he was also the first person that I met at Providence College when we got out of our cars in that August of 1982-ish.

And we said hello.

And lo and behold, many years later, we were sitting at a bar talking and Petey was talking about doing something with art and basketball and basketball courts.

And I really wasn't listening to him.

I was trying to watch the game and- - [Anaridis] Was it a PC game?

Probably!

(laughing) - It was.

And I just kept saying to him, "Yes, Pete.

Yes, whatever you say."

Not knowing what I was getting myself into.

And the next day, I think we were working on the name of our nonprofit.

- Wow.

And then in 2018 you unveiled Fargnoli Park- - That's right.

- Which, if people have been to Fargnoli Park on Smith Street, they probably know My Home Court already because it is hard to miss the beautiful mural that's painted on the basketball court.

How did that come about?

- I think working with the Parks Department.

Yeah, Providence Parks Department for one.

It was a great collaboration that we started with My Home Court, Providence Parks Department and Providence College Galleries.

So those three entities really came together and we decided we wanted to do something pretty neat in the neighborhood.

And once again, the name of My Home Court really came about from Theresa Peterson, who is the wife of Peter, Pete Peterson.

And she came up with the idea of My Home Court.

And it struck a chord in me immediately 'cause I said, "I remember my home court growing up and the name of it was The Pit."

So it just came together and I said, "I want the kids in the neighborhood to grow up and have their own home court."

Again, mine was The Pit.

Theirs could be Fargnoli Park on Smith Street or whatever it is but just a neat idea.

Something for us to give back to the community.

- You've expanded since, right?

That was 2018.

Now you've commissioned art for five different courts.

So Fargnoli Park is my home court (chuckling) because that's where my family lives.

And we absolutely love it.

It brings us so much joy to visit the park and see all the different colors and all the people who gather at the basketball courts, which are very popular.

But for other people, it could be the Cranston Street Court or the court at Harriet & Sayles Park, which is the Polanco Court.

Tell us about the evolution of how you have grown since you came on board, Kate.

- Sure.

Well, 2018 Fargnoli came about.

Pete, the Petersons, Harold, the former Providence College Galleries director, Jamilee Lacy, decided this was something worth continuing and expanding on.

I think seeing the impact, seeing the ways that community, communities really, plural, came together, utilized the court, thinking about how art can expand into different spaces.

You came together, became a nonprofit, necessity of having an executive director.

And I have had the pleasure of working as a team to really think through and strategize how we move forward, which courts, in relation to our Providence Park Department partner, we kind of expand into.

And then thinking through what happens off the court because there's so much that does happen off the court.

I think of the pandemic.

We were able to open the Cranston Street Tot Lot, and that was a court that we did from the ground up.

So usually we work with courts that are under-resourced or need some resurfacing.

And this was a project we worked collaboratively with Providence Public Housing Department, and built a court in this really intense global moment.

And I want to say, you know, for me, as someone who comes from the art side of things, when there are so many doors closed, museums, galleries, or even thinking about people who don't feel comfortable walking into these spaces, these public sites, these public artworks become so valuable.

And you might be playing and you're there to play the game, but you're gonna notice something, you're gonna think about it differently.

It might be an entry point into your first experience with contemporary art.

So a big project has also been to think about education.

How do you create language for these courts?

And so we've been working on different signage projects.

It's been amazing to witness how different communities utilize the courts.

And, you know, jump in, Harold, if I'm getting ahead of myself.

But, you know, people are, it's a civic space.

So if you're using the court to play basketball, you see people set up in chairs, barbecuing near the court.

I've seen fashion shows take place on the courts, and different theater performances.

I mean, public space is such an incredible place.

And I think something Harold and I and the whole My Home Court team has been definitely spending time thinking through how we create different educational opportunities, different outreach with the stakeholders that are so important to the many diverse communities that make up this small city of Providence.

- Yeah.

How did you realize, Harold, that there was a connection between art and basketball?

Did that, obviously it started with that initial meeting with the Petersons that you talk about.

- Yes.

So I didn't know there was a connection.

(panelists laughing) I'm a basketball player, I like going to the court and playing basketball.

But, you know, the idea came about, Pete saw something in the news or whatever and it was about a gentleman painting the courts.

Not something that has been uncommon.

You see basketball courts all over the place with some type of paint on there.

But to bring in an artist, totally different.

And I'm getting educated every day on the artists and what all of that means.

But some of the joy that I get is, every time we have an opening of one of our projects and when we cut the ribbon, to see the kids, I mean all of the work for that year and a half that it took to get to that point is worth it at that point in time.

Just like Kate said, there's some kids playing basketball, there's some kids on skateboards, bicycles, throwing a football, just sitting down in the corner, it's a community place, it's a safe place.

And again, I get back to The Pit where I grew up, all of our parents knew where we were.

- Yeah.

- And it was safe.

We just knew we had to be home before dark, otherwise there would be consequences to pay.

But Fargnoli is one of those places.

It has a waterpark, it has, you know, like a grassy area.

So there's a lot more going on than just basketball.

But the marriage between basketball and the art has just been great for us.

- [Anaridis] There's a lot of life happening all around.

- Yes.

- So, Harold, when you do realize that there is this connection between art and basketball, you were mentioning off camera that you thought it was just going to Home Depot and picking up a couple of buckets of paint.

(laughing) - Absolutely, (chuckling) so, in the very beginning stages, it was actually Friends of Friar Basketball, FOFB, a bunch of guys that we all got together after coming up with the idea and went and we had a meeting with Jamilee Lacy, who was the former director of Providence College Galleries.

And we sat down with her and we were talking.

And a bunch of guys know nothing about the art world, and we said we had put a certain amount of money aside for an artist.

And we told her the amount.

And we could see right away the look in her face was like, no.

And we were way off.

You know, 'cause we said, "Okay, we'll pay someone a little bit of money, go to Home Depot, get the paint, and voila."

She corrected us in a hurry.

She put us on the straight and narrow and told us if we're gonna be in this with her, there's a certain way to do it.

And we trusted her implicitly.

And everything else from there was a home run.

So it was interesting.

- That is so interesting.

- Yeah.

- And Kate, you've carried the torch since.

- Yes.

- You mentioned how it's so important to have art in these unexpected places.

You touched upon that.

What is the process like of selecting an artist and figuring out what they're going to paint on the court?

- That's a really important question because that's where we start hoofing it in the community in a big way.

The last thing that My Home Court ever wants to do is to put something up without acknowledging, speaking with, engaging the folks that are in the houses across the street from the park, the council folks who are overseeing that jurisdiction.

And so when we are first offered a handful of courts by Providence Parks Department, knowing that these are the courts in need, we do site visits, many site visits.

And then it's reaching out to the most obvious stakeholders.

And then it's finding out who are the others right inside, kind of engaged with that neighborhood.

And really, you know, knocking on doors, making phone calls.

I like to use this language, like a town hall, just trying to hear how these spaces are used, what their hopes are for these spaces.

I think one of the last courts we worked on, there was a wonderful community garden nearby.

And that was so clearly an important part, where Davis Park, excuse me, Davis Park.

And so it was trying to figure out how can we kind of acknowledge or respond to or play off of that relationship.

And so that is kind of an ongoing conversation that starts at the very beginning, or range of conversations, and just kind of open ears and helps us think through the selection of an artist.

We try and work within our rich community of artists that live here, near and around Providence.

Really want to make sure we give opportunities to Providence-based artists.

And we also look out nationally.

So the last court that we did was with this pretty very well-known artist, Sanford Biggers, which was kind of a coup for us.

An artist who's kind of between New York and Los Angeles, a robust museum career but who didn't hesitate to say yes when we asked.

And then it's kind of connecting Sanford, not only to the range of communities but to that court in that area.

This is the Ninth Street Court that we are about to complete.

Half of it's done, weather was so terrible last summer.

But he then started speaking to different historians, researching the area.

This is something that we help support as well.

And was thinking about how that area had been raised.

It had been kind of formally black neighborhood, and that had changed.

His own personal work is thinking about the Underground Railroad, (clearing throat) I'm so sorry, and quilts and the use of quilts and that potentially being these signifiers to support (clearing throat) beautiful, beautiful work.

And so ended up kind of connecting to that history to the area and thinking about the quilt as being a way to examine the court.

And I'll also just add that, as much as it's exciting for us to bring a range of artists and ideas to the community, for an artist, we're also looking to support an artist's career and a process.

Because most of these artists have not worked in that scale.

And so, myself as often the curator or Jamilee Lacy, our former collaborator, so much of it was also just thinking through and talking with the artists.

Like, how might this design start from point A and really shift and change to become graphic, expand?

You want to make sure the court is also playable.

So, I can't tell you how many times artists we've worked with have said, "This court has impacted my practice moving forward."

And that's something, just another aspect of this, that I think brings a lot of joy.

- And you mentioned off camera also Polanco Court and how that has a very special story behind it, and speaks to what Kate was just mentioning.

Can you tell us a little bit about how you identify this court and worked with the artist to tell a story?

- Yeah so, again, it was a court that had been neglected over time.

There were tree branches growing around the basket.

So it was a place that really wasn't used much to play basketball.

And there was an unfortunate shooting, a drive-by shooting, and a young man by the name of Omar Polanco was killed.

Just an innocent young man.

He wasn't doing anything other than being outside playing.

And I think the family wanted to do something to honor him.

So I think their first thoughts was, let's just plant a tree.

And somehow we got involved and like, no, let's go further than a tree.

Let's redo this space in honor of Omar.

And the artist got involved and heard about the story.

And, again, I think if you go and visit the courts, you can see the artwork and how he tried to incorporate the story of Omar into the work on the courts.

So.

- Yeah.

- And one of the other things that we found out that has been important to our process as we go forward is having the artists and giving them the opportunity to talk about the project at the end.

So right now, at the end of every project, we'll have the artists, and they'll have some sort of speaking engagement reception to talk about how they came up with the idea to paint.

Otherwise, a lot of people, they have no idea.

But to hear it from the artists themselves is awesome.

- And you have a big celebration.

Like you have a dance party, you have a DJ.

- Oh yeah.

- The whole block comes out.

- Block party.

- So, that's what's happening with Ninth Street.

When's that happening?

- Yes.

I'm not sure.

I'll leave that to the curator.

(panelists laughing) - We're finished.

- I just want to know when the basketball backboards are being delivered.

- The Ninth Street Court is a little bit different this year and I don't think we're setting a new standard by any means.

But because it's a pocket park that's both a basketball court and a tennis pickleball court, we decided to do both.

And because of the weather, I don't know if anyone remembers, hopefully we all just blanked out all that rain last year and then immediate cold.

We were able to get the basketball court done.

So we'll finish the pickleball tennis court next month, month of May.

And so we'll be working with the mayor's office to facilitate a larger party.

And it's fun.

We've had dance troops come, we've had kind of arts and crafts happening around town.

And it's really been a point of celebration that hopefully then extends and beyond.

I guess I just want to point out, you had mentioned off camera that you were going by Fargnoli and it looked like it was time to repaint.

- Yeah.

- You know, they've cleared and there's a new blacktop where the court is.

Every couple of years, we kind of go back for a year of repair.

And so this summer, we'll also be repainting Fargnoli.

And so we don't walk away from a court and never look back.

It's something that we really engage and think through.

And to that end, the Polanco family also, they're always, they're part of the team now, it feels like, unofficially, and always have something to say about artists or designs moving forward.

- Yeah, so this is a lifetime project.

- Wow.

- Hopefully.

- Yes.

Although- - I mean, this is very personal for you.

- Yeah.

- Extremely personal.

And if I'm not mistaken, I may be off- - Yeah.

- By a couple of parks.

- Courts.

But I think the Parks Department, they run 32 parks.

So our goal is to do all 32 and then move on to something else after that.

- So, again, it's a great collaboration with them and they are great to work with, easy to work with, and couldn't ask for anything more.

But, again, I think for me on a personal basis, I talked earlier about The Pit, where I grew up in Harlem on West 114th Street.

And many, many years ago, the basketball courts were taken out of The Pit.

I'm not sure if you have any footage or anything like that, how it was, back in the- - I've seen it, you would need to climb - Climb it.

- Through, over a fence.

- Yes.

- And then like scale a wall- - Yes.

- To get to your home court.

- My home court.

Which was another reason why it was a home court, because a lot of people didn't go down there and play.

And, you know, back in the '70s and '80s when we used to play one block against the other, they weren't used to doing that, right?

And immediately they were like, where the heck are we?

And so that gave us a little bit of an advantage.

That was our home court.

So one of the things that I would love for My Home Court to do is to go back into New York City, back to Harlem, back to The Pit, which is located at Wadleigh School, and put the baskets back in.

That's a personal dream of mine.

I'm pretty sure we can get it done.

Just getting the right people in New York City to come together.

- I mean, you're on the right track.

It seems like this is kind of like a full circle moment.

I mean, did you ever envision yourself, growing up in Harlem, then you're all of a sudden a star basketball player in Providence College, and now you've entered kind of like a new phase where you're giving back to the community in a way that we haven't experienced in Providence before?

- Oh yeah, I knew it all along.

(murmuring) (panelists laughing) Right.

No.

No idea.

No idea.

And it's funny how life takes you on different journeys and different paths.

So I'm excited about this, you know, and very passionate about it.

And when this does happen, you'll be one of the first people that we let know so that you can pick up the story and we can tell our story.

- Would love to.

- Absolutely.

Put you down to New York.

- Would love to- - Yes.

- Come with you to Harlem.

- Yes, absolutely.

- But for now we need to think about Providence though 'cause you have a lot of projects coming up for Providence.

- We do.

- As you mentioned, this type of public art is not something new.

It is a growing practice.

So what has been the experience or the reflection from communities as you continue to kind of tack off one basketball court at a time?

- Sure, I mean, to just what you said, you know, we are doing this, other people are doing this in different parts of the country and the world.

Providence also is a very rich city in public art.

And so what's been really nice is also just to understand our kind of relationship to colleagues who are thinking about walls while we're thinking about courts, and really thinking about this creative capital.

Things that have been, I think, important to Harold and myself and the My Home Court team is really, again, how do we create more visibility and opportunities?

How do we connect to all those rec centers?

How do we connect to the students who, and young folks, and I want to say intergenerational, to feel like they have access and a sense of stewardship over these spaces?

So as we move forward, thinking through the range of artists that we're going to be working with, the different specific sites that we'll be kind of jumping into, it's also thinking about who and how can we involve?

Could we start, you know, a mural painting training grounds so it also equips young people with a skill set that we can then work with and move forward.

I mean, I have all, I have too many ideas probably, but that's something that I think at this point, where we can look back on five years and look forward to the next five, that we really want to start putting into our My Home Court and our strategic planning.

- Are there any specific projects that you want to tell our communities watching about that are coming up in the pipeline?

Or specific programs?

- Yes.

- Kate's like, yes.

Harold?

- Well, what's really exciting is that we won a National Endowment of the Arts grant.

- Which is kind of a huge thing for us.

And we're really excited and it means we'll be able to work next in 2025 with this artist, a more internationally known artist, Trenton Doyle Hancock, who is a really fascinating artist based in Texas, Houston specifically, who is really eager to work with us.

But the NEA allows us, again, to expand on how that project might be facilitated.

So we have opportunities to bring him out a few more times to create opportunities for engagement and conversation and really build in a media program, I think.

So that's, sorry, I am overly excited about that.

- No, no.

(panelists laughing) It's like I said before, when we start talking about the art world and the artist, I just shake my head and say, "Yes."

- [Anaridis] Yes!

Yes.

- My job is to make sure that the artist knows that, okay, this is a basketball court.

You know, we're gonna have two baskets.

We need a three-point line, we need to keep the benches away from the courts.

Things of that nature but other than that, I'm just a yes man.

I sit here and I shake my head.

- You want to look at it from a, you look at it from a practical perspective, right?

- Yes.

- Like how can people play in the courts.

What are you hopeful for as you look forward to accomplishing this vision?

- Again, my home courts.

So years and years from now when two people bump into each other and they start talking, "Where you're from?"

"From Providence, Rhode Island."

"Oh, where did you grow up?"

"The Polanco Courts."

"That was My Home Court."

"Really?

Mine too!"

You know, that's the goal to see the future of what we're doing and how people will respond to the different neighborhoods, you know.

We've had some young kids come to us while we were doing the courts and say, "Hey, there's one near my house, can you do that?"

And, you know, we always say yes but, again, if it's not part of the Parks Department, we really cannot do it.

But, again, just like myself.

You know, I bump into people all the time and, "Where you're from?"

"Harlem, New York."

"Where did you grow up?"

"Near The Pit."

"I know The Pit!

I remember that place.

You had to climb down, you had to do this, do that."

That's what it's all about for me.

And, again, just giving back to the communities.

I can't stress enough what it means to me personally to see the young kids on opening day, shooting, bikes, all of that.

Just warms my heart and it makes that year, all the frustrations, the phone calls, the emails, it makes it worthwhile.

- Yeah.

- How can folks stay in touch?

We just have a couple of minutes left.

I could sit here and talk to you all day about this.

How can folks stay in touch, Kate, with your organization and maybe get involved?

- Yeah, that's great.

We welcome support in any capacity.

And we're trying to think of more ways to actually get people, you know, paintbrushes in your hand, meeting the artists, meeting the community.

So if you go on our website, which is myhomecourt.org, there are a handful of ways; email addresses, different points of support or connection, (clearing throat) which I am checking.

So, I am here, I will go through those and that is great.

Otherwise, keep an eye and ear out.

We're on Instagram.

I think that's an easy place where information gets disseminated.

Come to our next opening for Ninth Street Court.

That'll be happening, I'm sorry we don't have our exact date, but that will be happening soon this summer.

And it's a really nice way to celebrate.

- That's exciting.

- Yeah.

- For folks who don't live in Providence, where is the Ninth Street Court?

- Sorry, Ninth Street Court is right Ninth Street and North Main.

- [Anaridis] Okay.

- What is it- - I'm trying to start - saying like, Gregg's.

- What's the restaurant?

- But those not in Providence may not know Gregg's but it's just up North Main.

It's in a residential neighborhood and one though that's very beloved to the community surrounding.

- I don't think I've been to that court.

- You'll have to come.

- I guess I'll have to visit.

- Yes.

It's tucked in.

- I'll have to pay you guys a visit.

- Yeah.

- It's a very special place.

- Yeah.

- Congratulations.

Thank you for all the work that you've done.

I look forward to keeping track of what My Home Court is doing in the years to come.

- Thank you so much.

- Thank you very much for having us.

- Yeah, thank you.

- We have run out of time.

I would like to thank tonight's guest, Harold Starks and Kate McNamara.

You can watch this episode and all our past episodes anytime at watch.ripbs.org.

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