The Tribune

IT was the words – as well as the art – of Keith Thompson that caught the attention yesterday.

The young artist was taking part in the annual Transforming Spaces art tour yesterday – in which members of the public travel to art studios and galleries by bus to catch a glimpse of some of the work being produced by the Bahamian community.

Mr Thompson was one of the artists at the D’Aguilar Art Foundation’s site, but his work and his words were as much from the streets of the inner city as the airs and graces of the art gallery.

His paintings showed a man being arrested and taken away in a police car – and he spoke of how much of a risk this is to so many in our society. Being in the wrong place or the wrong time, he said, can change people’s lives completely.

He talked of the fear of being in a car stopped by police who found that someone in the car had an illegal weapon or drugs – and suddenly everyone in the car finds their futures put at risk. Or worse, he said, being there when a hit is put on someone, and a stray bullet can bring that future to an end completely.

Artists hold up a mirror to our society – and sometimes that mirror is an ugly one, showing the parts we haven’t yet fixed, or the parts we don’t know how to fix. At the same time, however, art can offer a message, it can offer hope, and yesterday’s art tour showed us a glimpse of that.

Elsewhere on the tour, there was a stop at the Lewis Street mural project.

All the way back in 1958, Dr Martin Luther King stayed in a house on Lewis Street when he met Sir Randol Fawkes, and a mural has now been created there in the heart of the community.

It’s eyecatching – stretching along for some distance, and created by both professional artists and local public high school students. It’s art in a place you don’t normally expect to find art, created with those in the community and offering a voice to those whose voice might not normally be heard.

Further on again, at Hillside House, Antonius Roberts was showcasing the work of local children – handprints and artwork all under the title of ‘I have a dream, I am the dream, we are the dream”, echoing the words of Dr Martin Luther King’s most famous speech.

As we continue to grapple with the problems that afflict our society – especially in inner-city communities that struggle with poverty, violence and drugs – too often the voices we hear are the same ones, the politicians and the businessmen.

It is important then to hear from the community themselves, given a helping hand by artists or expressed by artists rising from within their midst.

In dealing with crime, do we remember what happens to those who are in “the wrong place at the wrong time” as Mr Thompson said, or are they casualties in the battle against the statistics of crime? In tackling poverty, do we give young people the opportunity to rise up beyond the limitations of their environment – or do we tar them with the reputation of the area they come from?

“We are the dream,” say the children of those communities. If you take a trip to Lewis Street, and drive past the mural there, bear those words in mind, and let’s all try to turn their own dreams into reality.