“Revolution is the festival of the oppressed,” wrote Germaine Greer, a feminist journalist, in her book titled “The Female Eunuch.” True as it is, all great revolutions start with a bit of tea and some jasmine rice. At least that’s how it happened for Dana Loustalot Duncan and Gwendolyn Kelly. What started as a dinner between friends at Vietnam Kitchen slowly turned into a month-long dialogue of ideas.
The festival of the oppressed had just begun.
“We had been having conversations for a while up to that point about how to combine our passion for art and activism together,” said Duncan, the community liaison at Americana Community Center. “It was something we both believed would lead to interesting projects that we both cared about.”
The conversation that night turned to the topic of abandoned properties, an oft-overlooked issue that hit close to home for both Duncan and Kelly, and the two felt it deserved some attention.
“The goal was to get people together to talk about ideas that they had for making good use of vacant properties,” said Kelly, the director of family and youth programming at The Speed Art Museum. “I wanted people to tell us what they would do if they had control, or some kind of control, over a vacant lot.”
Kelly then decided to host an idea party at an abandoned lot next to her house in the California neighborhood of the West End. While visitors mixed, mingled, and brainstormed, Kelly opened the discussion with a question: What kind of things could families do in a vacant space like this?
Somewhere from within the crowd of artists, activists, and concerned citizens, someone offered the idea of creating a miniature golf course. The idea had widespread support, especially after Kelly discovered she had an old 1950s Popular Mechanics magazine that contained the directions and schematics to build a mini golf course.
“One of the reasons why we chose putt-putt was because it’s something that’s easily understood and people can see themselves coming out to do it,” said Kelly. “The difference between a vacant lot and an occupied lot can be seen through something as simple as putt-putt. People can see that a property has something of value.”
“[Guerrilla Putt Putt] will build a 9-hole portable mini golf course that we will use to occupy vacant lots for day-long events,” reads the organization’s Facebook page. “This project intends to provide a fun resource for neighborhoods while highlighting the threat vacant properties pose to their residents.”
Curtis Stauffer fell into the project because of his presence at Kelly’s idea party, but also because of his experience as the development director and advocacy project coordinator at Metropolitan Housing Coalition.
“My job was to find creative ways of getting the word out about vacant lots,” said Stauffer. “We used putt-putt as a way of pointing out alternate ways of making these properties useful, while creating a fun environment for people and families.”
Stauffer did a fair share of the heavy lifting during the month of September, just in time for Louisville’s PARK(ing) Day – a nationwide event where people collaborated to turn parking spaces into public places for a day.
“[Kelly] and I took one of the simpler designs from the magazine and decided to build it for PARK(ing) Day,” said Stauffer. “We really had to work quickly to get all the plywood and AstroTurf and put it all together, but we made it.”
PARK(ing) Day drew mixed reactions from pedestrians and visitors. Some asked what the point was of having a mini golf green on South 6th Street; others seemed enthusiastic and offered to donate items or lend a hand to the construction efforts.
“There have been people who showed interest in helping build the greens,” said Kelly. “And there were others who wanted to just play golf. Either way, we saw that there were people who wanted to do their part and make something of their neighborhood.”
PARK(ing) Day marked the first step in bringing attention to an issue that affects everyone in Louisville. The mission was to empower people to take action in their community, a notion that gave rise to the term “Guerrilla Putt Putt.”
Living on West Kentucky Street in the California neighborhood, Kelly bears witness every day to the kind of damage a vacant lot can bring to a neighborhood.
“In a three-block radius from where I live, there are at least 20 vacant properties,” said Kelly. “Because of that high number, it becomes a magnet for kids to run into trouble.”
Kelly added that abandoned properties tend to diminish the quality of life in the neighborhoods that have them.
“Just being in a block where every third or fourth house has weeds in the back end or trash thrown into empty parking lots – it affects the way people treat their neighborhoods,” said Kelly. “People start to have less pride in their community. It’s so destructive.”
Everyone involved in moving Guerrilla Putt Putt forward wants to deliver something unique to the city.
Kelly said her goal is to provide families with the ability to transform a place from being an overgrown, litter-filled lot into something where people can come together.
“What I want to do with this project is to find ways to look at these empty spaces and envision the other ways it can be used,” said Kelly. “The awareness that people are responsible for these places is what I want to bring. Later, when they see something they want to change, they’ll stop waiting for it to happen and just go out and do it themselves.”
Duncan said she hopes people walk away from the greens knowing that they can get involved in an issue they care about in whatever way is possible for them.
“It’s not about money for us or for the city,” said Duncan, recounting how Guerrilla Putt Putt is neither a for-profit nor a nonprofit. “We just wanted to do something positive. Once we get these greens built, that’ll help us highlight an issue that needs positive change and development.”
The movement has gained momentum through support from community organizations like YouthBuild Louisville.
The Guerrilla Putt Putt organizers feel confident that, although they currently have an urgent need for supplies, tools, and volunteer workers, their goal will be met and they’ll occupy their first vacant lot by late spring or early summer of next year.
“Louisville is a great city full of people dedicated to their community,” said Duncan. “This is about tapping into that potential.”
-Elijah McKenzie
For information about Guerrilla Putt Putt and volunteer opportunities, email guerrillaputtputt@gmail.com.
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