State and local leaders will join with Wichita residents this weekend to celebrate improvements made to Ninth Street from Hillside to I-135.
The $3.5 million project completed over the last year includes paving, drainage and pedestrian upgrades throughout the corridor. More than 100 residents also collaborated with local artist Ellamonique Baccus by painting and placing tiles on a Kwanzaa Plaza and a new mural titled "Cultivating the Seeds of Our Future."
"What is most important to me," Baccus says, "is to make sure that the values and the stories of the community are preserved and that there's a platform for them to be heard and that when they look at this, they feel encouraged and motivated and they feel connected to one another."
The ceremony will be held Saturday, Aug. 31, at 10 a.m. near 9th and Minnesota. Parts of Ninth Street will be closed during the event.
Carla Eckels is director of cultural diversity and the host of Soulsations. Follow her on Twitter @Eckels. To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.