Hannah Drake Sparks Hope in Smoketown
Louisville poet Hannah Drake is taking on predatory signage in the historically black neighborhood of Smoketown one billboard at a time. Driving through the region with WFPL reporter Ashlie Stevens, she points to intersections throughout the neighborhood with layers of signs advertising "We buy houses — cash fast!" and "Cigarettes here!" As Stevens rightly points out, "this kind of advertising can take a toll on residents." So, in collaboration with IDEAS xLab, "a Louisville-based organization that tackles community health issues through the arts, she came up with a plan: replace the predatory advertising with poetry. The initiative is called One Poem at a Time." Let's check in with Drake and Stevens there, beginning with Stevens's reporting:
First, she surveyed neighborhood residents about their feelings regarding the signage.
"I talked to Aubrey Clemons — he started Hope by Hope in Smoketown — and he said, 'I was just so sick of these companies selling us failure,'" Drake says. "You know? And you think, people don't notice that. But when we did the surveys, everyone noticed it."
Then she collected positive quotes, phrases and photographs from residents, which she then turned into signs. Drake received grant funding to purchase over a dozen billboard spaces and is spending this week hanging her creations.
She points to one sign hanging over Shirley Mae's Cafe on Clay Street, which features a cluster of young children inspecting a row of plants.
"Those are kids from YouthBuild working there," she says. "It says, 'We thrive when we work together.'"
Others say things like "Anything is Possible with Hope" and "If your dreams don't scare you, they aren't big enough."
Though the sentiments are beautiful, Drake's project isn't just a beautification initiative. She says one Smoketown resident said the negative signage indicated they were living in a neighborhood with a "self-esteem problem." Drake hopes this project can help heal some of the health effects of that — one billboard (and poem) at a time.