The Arlington Hills Community Center is a joint facility serving a diverse population and is co-run by Saint Paul Parks and Recreation and the Saint Paul Public Library. The once barren field received a complete transformation into a high-quality, accessible field for a community with a strong interest in soccer.
Collectively, MNUFC and The Toro Company donated $30,000 to fund the field rebuild. While the field was leveled and a new, water-efficient Toro irrigation system was installed in late May, the rebuild itself took place on June 2, with around 50 volunteers from MNUFC and The Toro Company. Volunteers were led by Ryan Moy, heads groundskeeper for MNUFC, and Boyd Montgomery with Toro, both professionals in sports field management. Volunteers laid down sod for the field and completed other beautification projects. Additionally, prior to the installation of the sod, Water in Motion and Irrigation by Design both spearheaded the implementation of the irrigation installation to ensure the longevity of the field.
The field was officially unveiled on August 25 with a sign designed by Minnesota-native Myc Dazzle, who’s work can be found in several other community centers around the Twin Cities. Additionally, Minnesota United goalkeeper Eric Dick and midfielder Niko Hansen joined the unveiling and coached a group of 25 program participants to break in the new pitch.
Confronting the uncomfortable in hopes of bridging the divides. A new series from Twin Cities PBS that reveals true stories of racism experienced by Indigenous, Black, Asian and other people of color in Minnesota. Along with a promise of anonymity, each subject interviewed has a hand in designing their own character and giving it a pseudonym. No roosters were harmed in the making of this series.
Frogtown: This is Home is a documentary project sponsored by the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs at the University of Minnesota.
Tou Saik Lee (a Frogtown based poet and organizer) and I tag teamed the project as Producers and Co-Directors. We assembled a team comprised of videographers, Pete Stude and Dante Davison, and project manager, Laurine Change.
The purpose of this project was to shine light on our vibrant, but often overlooked, community through the eyes of its artists.
Across the city and across the country, young folks have been at the center of social change during the past year-and-a-half of racial reckoning.
Black youth from Minneapolis continue these strides through Wise Ink’s collaboration with 826 MSP to create Rehumanize Me: A Black Youth Anthology.
Re-imagining Black joy and healing through poetry and personal narratives, the anthology serves as means of cultural reparations, according to Dara Beevas, CEO at Wise Ink. “Each book in this project serves as a bridge to healing for Black and Brown communities and education for the general community while also being a financial vehicle for an author to reinvest in future projects if they choose to," Beevas says.
826 MSP is a youth writing center located in South Minneapolis that helps with tutoring, free writing resources, publishing, and more. The anthology project not only puts the money and the proceeds earned from Rehumanize Me into the hands of these young authors; it’s also an opportunity for Black youth to be published at a young age.
“Written during a time period of immense political and social upheaval for our city, in Rehumanize Me, these young writers turn our focus to reclaiming their humanity—full of complexities, nuance, and multitudes,” said Samantha Sencer-Mura, executive director at 826 MSP.
Seven Black students ages 15-18 functioning as an editorial board submitted, edited, and led this project from inception to completion. Other young writers’ work were submitted and included within final publication, incorporating stories from immigrants, mixed-race Black youth, Queer Black folks, and those with disabilities.
The result is a piece that centers “liberation, healing, self-determination, and Black-joy,” reads a press release.
“There are pieces in this book that aren't necessarily about the political piece of being Black in this world. Some of these pieces are literally just about everyday life,” Yahanna, author and editorial board member, says in the Kickstarter video. “I think this book really humanizes us.”
About this Project
Client: The City of Saint Paul (St. Paul Parks and Recreation).
Team: Tou Yia Xiong x Discover Dope (@MycDazzle x @FaithReigns)
Creative Field: Illustration, Graphic Design, Art Direction
Tools: Adobe Illustrator
When the design team put their heads together to imagine the new Frogtown Community Center, they explored with the City of St. Paul, Minn. where best to allocate one percent of capital funds for art, as ordained by the city. Early on, they agreed upon an artist-designed terrazzo floor for the center’s public spaces, which opened in September 2019.
Agreed upon also were several goals for the artwork: the floor design should be unforgettable while honoring the center’s diverse, vibrant population. They also needed it to be durable and easily maintained. The terrazzo floor beautifully accomplished these goals.
Mr. Pomroy saw the project as a “once-in-a-generation chance” to have a hand in affecting such a powerful impact on the community. As they engaged community members in developing the design concept, they discovered that Frogtown had long been home to first- and second-generation Hmong and East African immigrants. They wanted to create an inviting space where generations of neighborhood children could grow up and feel at home.
The city reached out to a group of local artists, Megan Faith, Tou Yia Xiong, and Myc Dazzle, to collaborate on the design. Their vision of a whimsical depiction of frogs, lily pads, flowers, and bubbles in a pond reflects how this center is a place that celebrates differences.
Hmong artist Tou Yia Xiong explained that the artists choose a frog pond to playfully represent the neighborhood’s geography and diversity. His favorite feature in the design is the rippling waves. Constructed of waterjet-cut curved metal strips, the ripples greet visitors at each entranceway and provide way-finding cues throughout the facility. The ripples overlap as they approach the central lotus flower. Mirror chips lend shimmer to the water in a range of shades of blue.
Another engaging element of the design is in the east/west hallway, where art mirrors the building’s function. The floor maps the lifecycle of a frog, from egg to tadpole to adult, pointing the way from the youngest children’s rooms through to the teens’.
The 2,350-square-foot floor in epoxy thin-set terrazzo incorporates aggregates of glass, mother-of-pearl, mirror, and marble. Waterjet-cut brass and zinc divider strips serve to separate the 24 different colors and outline the figures.
The floor was installed in a “terrazzo by numbers” method by Terrazzo Design of Menomonie, WI. Crews poured six to eight colors each day over five weeks. Some of the colors had as little as one gallon of mix. For others, up to six wheelbarrows of mix were dispersed in designated sections throughout the floor.
Winter 2017
Coming Soon!
We were tasked with creating a conference workbook and creating a bevy of characters to serve as archetypes for the workshop Paula Forbes created around BIPOC empowerment in the workplace.
The 100% Campaign is bringing Minnesotans together – people just like you – who believe we need an equitable clean energy future for everyone in our state.
With both organizational partners and individual endorsees, the 100% Campaign is grounded in the idea that “to change everything, we need everyone”. We are organizing a cross-sector, statewide, multi-racial, intersectional campaign to build an equitable clean energy economy that works for everyone in Minnesota.
About this Project
Creative Field: Illustration, Character Design, Caricature
Tools: Clip Studio Paint
Descriptions coming soon
Community Policing and Other Fairytales
Wouldn’t a police-free world create chaos and crime?
A curated comic collection with work by Jonas Goonface, MYC Dazzle, Dennis Madamba, Ferraya Mollie W, Ricardo Levins Morales, Micah Bazant, ad MPD150.com.
Police abolition work is not about snapping our fingers and magically defunding every department in the world instantly. Rather, we’re talking about a gradual process of strategically reallocating resources, funding, and responsibility away from police and toward community-based models of safety, support, and prevention.
This pamphlet can be downloaded for free or purchased in bulk from MPD150.com.
About this Project
Client: Frogtown Neighborhood Association
Creative Field: Illustration, Graphic Design, Writing, Research, Public Speaking, Marketing, Consulting
Tools: Adobe Indesign, Adobe Illustrator, Clip Studio Paint
Late 2016 I was commissioned by the Frogtown Neighborhood Association to write "SMaPl: A Living Document".
Read the document in its entirety HERE
SMAPL is an acronym for Small Area Plan. A Small Area Plan is an urban planning document that envisions how we, the community, would like Frogtown to evolve over the course of the next decade and beyond. Once submitted to the city and reviewed, our plan will be absorbed into the City of Saint Paul’s Comprehensive Plan, which is a collective vision for the whole of Saint Paul.
What made this Small Area Plan different others, aside from turning this edition into a graphic novel, was this decade's Small Area Plan was designed to be a "living document".
A Living Document is alive with the pulse and energy of the community, meaning it lives off the page i.e. while we wait for “the powers that be” to consider, approve, and implement our proposed Policy Recommendations, the community is on the ground taking the steps necessary to ensure they're moving closer to achieving the goals outlined in the plan.
A Living Document is ever evolving--it's dynamic. It’s the community deciding to take their well being into our own hands, by taking initiative, organizing, and empower themselves.
Again, this project was super close to my heart because I was a Frogtown resident for fifteen years of my life.
I'm super excited and nervous to see how it's received by the community. It took me a very long time -- a gah damn year to be exact -- to finish, making it my biggest project to date.
About this Project
Creative Field: Illustration, Character Design, Graphic Design
Tools: Adobe Illustrator
Commissioned by the City of St. Paul to create a Poster, Book Insert, Post Card, Half Pager, and PSA Characters commemorating the adoption of $15 minimum wage.
Summer 2019
