Former Healing Verse workshop. (Photo: Steven CW Taylor; photo provided by HVG)

This story was produced as part of Next City’s joint Equitable Cities Reporting Fellowship with Resolve Philly’s Germantown Info Hub.

In 2024, two Germantowners sought to prove the pen was mightier than any weapon wielded.

Embarking Healing Verse Germantown (HVG), they invited neighbors to workshops over the past year to surface and transform grief and loss — related to gun violence — into personal and powerful reflective poetry pieces. 

This spring, those poems will evolve into a public art exhibition presented across city blocks, allowing the streets to talk — and heal, as announced by Creative Philadelphia, which holds the project.

“People who walked into [the workshops] as strangers now feel that they have a deeper connection,” said Germantown native Yolanda Wisher, also the co-curator of the project.

“[Their connection] wasn’t just necessarily that ‘We both live in Germantown,’ but it’s that ‘We both lost somebody, and we are both going through an experience of grief, and how does that connect us more than any demographic information might connect us?”

The outdoor exhibition will range in form to uniquely display poems — from sidewalk and sneaker installations to VR constellations and interactive floral offerings. There will also be a neighborhood map of the exhibition that will be released closer to its launch, which will help folks navigate all of its forms of public art.

The display is the product of former Philly Poet Laureates and fellow Germantowners, Wisher and Trapeta B. Mayson, and their 2023 Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Public Art Challenge win. The award aims to help cities use art to confront a crucial civic issue.

HVG was chosen as an artistic means of confronting gun violence in the Germantown area and was made a $1 million grantee. It powered over 10 workshops, from Oct. 2024 to Feb. 2025, hosted by Wisher and Mayson.

At the time, gun violence rates in Philadelphia were much higher coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, but since then, they have steadily decreased. In 2024, The Trace reported that anti-violence initiatives — like HVG — have made that possible.

Over 170 community members participated in the workshops, generating over 200 poems from participants of all ages and experience levels.

Many were open to the public, while others were dedicated to first responders, youth, healthcare workers, the deaf community, and men in a post-transitional supportive services program. Participants received stipends and left connected with mental health and healing resources, as a social worker was on-site. 

Did you know various poems written during workshops have also been featured on the Healing Verse Poetry Phone Line (1-855-POEMRX2), which also shares mental health resources with listeners.

From this vast accrual, Wisher, Mayson, and HVG public art coordinator, Rob Blackson, selected 19 artists whose poems will be displayed in the upcoming exhibition. Each was carefully selected to reflect the neighborhood’s experiences with gun violence, loss, and the journey of healing. 

Mayson mentioned that they “treated these submissions with a degree of care and tenderness, because we keep in mind that not everybody factors themselves as a poet.” 

Selections became a careful balancing act, looking to accurately represent the theme of gun violence and people’s experiences while looking to offer hope and healing, which Wisher points back to as being in the name.

Wisher said she was most excited to cultivate the “element of surprise” through this project, allowing joy to creep up in an unexpectedly familiar place like a bus stop.

As the exhibition moves to infuse with neighborhood streets in the coming months, Wisher hopes “they give people a moment of respite in their day; moving from place to place, task to task, there’s a reminder there of something very human, a very human experience that through a poem, you can plug into and be connected to.”

She hopes people appreciate that these are created by somebody in the neighborhood. “It’s a poem about maybe a shared experience of your neighborhood that may also speak to you individually,” she added.

Local Hip Hop artist and poet, Andre Saunders, is one of the selectees for the exhibition. He said, “It definitely feels good to be recognized and appreciated, but also it makes it even better when it’s for a great cause and something that matters of substance.”

“Opportunities like this, where you can leave your mark on something means a lot.”

Saunders felt the community aspect of the initiative from the start, saying creativity was drawn from the energy in the room, for experienced and newer poets. 

“You’re showing your vulnerability; honesty will win people over sometimes, even if your skills may lack, so I think being in those rooms, (new poets) were inspired,” Saunders said. 

Saunders gives a sneak peek into what neighbors can expect, saying, “My poem is for the dreamers, unbelievers, doers, and achievers.”

Longtime poet and Germantown resident, RuNett Ebo, was also selected.

During the workshops, she began interviewing local poets to get a sense of their process of creating poetry through expressing their loss.

Her earliest motivation for creating poetry started at age 10, when she lost her great-grandfather. Decades later, with a vast background in poetry, she has helped others find that same spark to express their grief and healing, even connecting folks directly with HVG.

“I shared with them how helpful it was for me, and said that even if they didn’t write poetry, I found that it’s an easy way to express yourself if you can’t verbalize what you’re feeling,” Ebo said. 

Ebo gave a glimpse of her piece, mentioning that her poem is called “Hawkeye Took Flight.” It centers on the passing of her son and her journey of healing and celebrating his life.

Her piece inherits its name because, for Ebo, “his spirit is still alive; his spirit is still moving around.”

When talking about how she hopes her piece will resonate with Germantown neighbors, Ebo said, “The thing that I would like for people to do is grab a hold of comforting thoughts, hold on to those things that make that loved one still special to them.”

Orienting towards the new artscape project, Wisher said she was most excited to cultivate this project through the “element of surprise,” allowing joy to creep up in an unexpectedly familiar place like a bus stop.

She adds, “Not only that, but it’s a poem written by somebody in your neighborhood; it’s a poem about maybe a shared experience of your neighborhood that may also speak to you individually.”

As locals to the neighborhood, Wisher and Mayson feel that taking part in this initiative and giving back to the community further reinforces the artistic nature of the neighborhood that they have observed for years.

“I know Germantown to be an artistic hub. This is a community that has historically been pioneering, so it’s not that unusual for [HVG] to be in this neighborhood,” Mayson said.

“We need projects of this level, with this level of funding, to be able to expose all the great artists and all the great opportunities that are in Germantown, to the wider community. I think we need more of that.”

Pryce Jamison is Germantown Info Hub’s community engagement reporter and a Next City Equitable Cities Reporting Fellow. He covers Germantown and Philadelphia, with reporting that includes features, news, solution-focused and community-focused stories.