In 2020, members of the North Lawndale Community Coordinating Council reached out to us with the idea of building a stage in a garden owned by Stone Temple Baptist Church. Since the garden developed organically over time, we agreed to create a masterplan that would accommodate future programming, including an outdoor stage.

• Create a masterplan that the church can use for future development of the garden
• Design spaces for cookouts, outdoor meetings, and poetry sessions
• Build a stage for artists and community members to voice their opinions, share their stories, and learn about the community’s heritage and culture.
• Promote unity and peace by bringing many groups of people together

Since its inception in 1926, Stone Temple Baptist Church has promoted unity and peace by bringing different groups of people together, especially in times of discrimination and hardship. In the 1960s northern civil rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr. used the church and the North Lawndale neighborhood as his home base. His work in creating a platform for people to come together and have a voice was a key goal that guided the development of the project.