Sowing the Seeds of Love: Taking Care of Martin Luther King Jr. Park and Peace Memorial—creative nonfiction from Brian Garrido
Every morning, I walk around Martin Luther King Jr. Park and Peace Memorial with my dogs. Only a block away from my home, it's my neighborhood greenspace. The three of us take in the breathtaking cityscape, or at least I do, with the Salesforce Tower framed by spruces, maples, and oaks. The brown George and the black JJ for the most part sniff and run heartily. image credit: DowntownIndy.org The area, referred to in real estate parlance as Kennedy-King , was formerly considered “an African-American ghetto,” a description pulled from Wikipedia. But that reference doesn't necessarily point out the exact location. It could have been any Indianapolis area during the Sixties. I assume, though, Kennedy-King is a perfect square, using the streets east of Central Avenue and west of Monon Trail, while Sixteenth Street borders to the south, then Fall Creek fences in the north. Now, even with gentrification, many empty lots grow weeds instead of Indiana corn, situated next door to a pe...