As our community works to ensure that housing, transit, food, and recreation are accessible to ALL our neighbors, we know that relationships are at the heart of any strong community. We've learned this lesson from so many of our neighborhood “wisdom keepers,” who created community not with bricks and mortar, but with pancake breakfasts, interracial basketball leagues, midnight chess leagues, and welcome baskets to new neighbors. The contributions of these everyday residents--especially older women performing unpaid labor--is too often overlooked, and more important than ever to remember and memorialize in the face of displacement, inequality, and a deadly pandemic.

Through this project, we will collect and honor the stories of our neighborhood "wisdom keepers" through an oral history collection and we will create a permanent public art display that will memorialize some of our most treasured community builders. By prominently centering these experiences we hope to preserve and share our community's true legacy, mourn neighbors we've lost in the pandemic, give roses to those who are still with us, and carry their inspiration forward in building "the beloved community."

Please use this form to nominate a Lawrenceville resident who has made a lasting contribution to the community of Lawrenceville and making sure all our neighbors are cared for. We especially aim to honor the contributions of long-time women, and other historically marginalized, excluded, overlooked, and underappreciated. Nominations will be reviewed by Lawrenceville United's AdvantAGE Steering Committee and used in partnership with an artist to select candidates for honoring in the public art display.