Maxwell Park Neighborhood News

by Bryan Farley

Artist Daniel Camacho, his wife Robin Lovell, and their family moved into the Maxwell Park neighborhood in November 2001. Camacho says he and Robin got involved with the Maxwell Park Neighborhood Council the following summer after Camacho’s 10-year-old son and a friend were jumped by a group of older kids. Currently, World Ground Café on MacArthur is displaying his artwork. He also teaches art for Melrose Leadership Academy public school’s after-school program.

Maxwell Park artist Daniel Camacho paints a community art project during the 2011 Day in the Park. Currently, his artwork is displayed at World Ground Coffee Shop. Photo by Bryan Farley.

“Robin and I knew about the neighborhood group,” Camacho says. “We had seen them cleaning the street near Walgreens and had joined them a few times. We posted a note to the listserv, telling neighbors what had happened. Walter Williams, one of our neighbors, organized a series of neighborhood walks. It was an amazing response, thanks to Walter and the organizing that Jan (Hetherington) and others had done. The first walk, there weren’t very many people, but after a few weeks, the neighborhood walks grew very popular. Lots of neighbors, City Councilmembers, even the chief of police joined a walk.”

Camacho didn’t stop there with his community involvement. He joined Luan Staus’ (from Laurel Bookstore) work group of five or six households that get together throughout the year to do home improvement projects on each other’s houses. He’s also involved in the Laurel Art Works collective, and is getting to know more artists in the neighborhood. He says there are a lot of people who are using art to bring people from the neighborhood together. He says there are many talented artists, photographers, musicians, painters, poets, and other professional artists who live in this neighborhood.

Camacho also believes neighbors should get to know Melrose Leadership Academy (and the principal, Moyra Contreras), a great little public school in our neighborhood. The school has a dual-immersion bilingual program, and kids from all backgrounds can learn Spanish and English. It also has a farmers’ market, and lots of arts and enrichment during the school day and after school, and some of the teachers live in or around Maxwell Park.

You can see Daniel Camacho’s art on display at World Ground Café.

Find out more about Bryan Farley at his blog, www.bryanfarleyblog.com.