This year, Voices of Wards 7 and 8 asked residents to reflect on the city’s storied legacy of go-go; how its food deserts have impacted the way people live; and why expressing love builds community. Now, DCist/WAMU’s photojournalist Dee Dwyer asked them to look forward: For this edition, Dwyer wanted to know what they hope to achieve next year, both for themselves and for their communities.

One of the threads was connection — connection with the natural world and the city’s rich resources, and with creative communities in other cities. Jerome Nesbitt wants to break stigmas around the health of D.C.’s water to encourage more people to play in outdoor spaces. Rhonda Henderson, meanwhile, is motivated to break out her kayak.

“We just want to continue to see our people, see Black people,” says Aaron Stallworth, who helps lead The Dap Project. “We want to do that in any way we can, whether it’s finding the nuances of the latest book we read and about how it relates to us as Black people, or taking that photo of a coach that has been in a neighborhood for over 30 or 40 years plus, and hearing his story about what it means to be a member of a Black community for all that time.”

Others left on a rejoinder to feel hope. “[For] every dark night there’s a brighter day,” William-Billy Harrison of Project Purpose said. “You can make steps towards the light, and one day you’ll be in a light.”

Their responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Jerome Nesbitt, co-founder of “The Green Scheme” 

The work I do with The Green Scheme actually encompasses both Wards 7 and 8. We do a lot of work, urban ag work, with youth development groups and the Department of Parks and Rec. Whoever has kids, we pretty much are trying to service them in some form or fashion. A lot of that more recently looks like field trips to The Well at Oxon Run – where we run our outdoor classroom space – where we take kids in the creek, teach them about water quality and the importance, especially Washingtonians, of the environment and how we can play a role in that. So, we try to catch them as young as possible, not steering them toward green jobs, but letting them know that green jobs are out here. I think a lot of time as Washingtonians, these aren’t jobs that are pushed towards us or are even put in the forefront of our interests. So, just trying to expand their horizons as far as what opportunities can look like in that space.

Business-wise, we have a big goal. We recently met with DPR’s (DC Department of Parks and Recreation) leadership. One of the goals that we expressed with them was that every student, DCPS or KIPP student, any kid that’s coming through these DPR programs should somehow, in some fashion, make their way to The Well. Part of that is to break some of the stigmas down about our waterways in the city that we grow up with like ‘Stay out of the waters it’s dead bodies’ or ‘Don’t drink D.C. water’. Just trying to break down some of the stigmas that we grew up with and have been embedded in our culture.

Definitely, a major goal is to get as many of our youth participants in the creek, to the farm and to outdoor spaces, but also getting more family involvement – that’s a big gap. What’s going on in the city currently with the violence a lot of those things that are happening is families aren’t complete and we’re not supporting them. We’re using the well as a hub to bring people together, bring community together, bring families together, exposing them to resources and programs that are happening they might not be aware of.

One of my biggest personal goals is that I’m challenging myself to go into spaces that I’m not as comfortable in. So like, do more public speaking, do more interviews. That’s not usually where I find myself. I’m usually more so in the background doing the program, doing the nitty gritty stuff. [I’m] trying to get more comfortable in those spaces.

Rhonda Henderson, co-founder of The Dap Project 

For 2024, with The Dap Project, we’re going to continue telling stories and telling stories about Black folkways and the intersection of those Black folkways and art, culture, and politics, but rooted deeply in Black community. So we are talking with people who are living this out on a day-to-day basis and have deep stories that reflect where they come from, where they’re going, and how they’re paying attention and influencing the world around them, particularly in a city as dynamic and changing as D.C. And then I think we resolved to explore a different medium. So we’ve done photography – we’re curious about books and the written word. I would love to hear responses to our photographs in a written format from people of all age ranges and different places and walks in life and from [different] neighborhoods. I’m also really interested in collaborating with other creatives in D.C. and in other major cities.

I’m resolving to go a bit more bold and to explore topics that are really important to us politically. I’m curious about exploring reparations and how that movement is continuing to gain traction over the decades that it’s been advocated, and then also exploring abolition and what abolitionist movements have happened here in D.C. and how that’s continuing to shape our culture. Those are fundamental policies that impact how Black and brown people live and move, particularly here in D.C. And so we want to uplift those voices and talk about the solidarity that we can apply through the lens of Dap to those movements that really impact us and help us to get free. So that’s the resolution. We are going to move closer and more creatively to get free together.

The personal goals are, okay so, I have a kayak now. Yes, a girl has a foldable kayak.  I’m going to take that out when the water gets warm and be more active and continue to exercise and stay fit mentally. Keep up with my nieces and nephews and spend time with people who I really love and care about.

Aaron Stallworth, co-founder of The Dap Project 

We just want to continue to see our people, see Black people. The mantra of The Dap Project is ‘I see you’, and we want to do that in any way we can, whether it’s finding the nuances of the latest book we read and about how it relates to us as Black people, or taking that photo of a coach that has been in a neighborhood for over 30 or 40 years plus, and hearing his story about what it means to be a member of a Black community for all that time. Rhonda mentioned doing things more here in D.C. – in Wards 7 and 8 alone, there’s so much more we can explore, let alone the rest of the city.

We’re always dipping into our well, right? My [personal] goal for 2024 is to keep my well as full as possible. I’m married, I have two daughters. We pour into each other all the time. I think what is manifested in the Dap Project could not have happened if I didn’t have all the love and support of my wife, daughters, Rhonda, the D.C. community – because my well is so full.  I want to continue to make sure my well stays full and continue to be able to share and explore and grow creatively, just as a human, because of all that’s been poured into me.

Presto Gray, co-founder of Project Purpose

[I’m the] co-founder of Project Purpose. We have performance arts programs, we do trauma services, we have a mentorship workshop program that focuses on healing in other nontraditional ways – for instance, the dance program. We’re doing boxing now in two weeks, cooking classes, and then just taking families that’s grieving out to eat. We’ve lost a lot of people, there’s a lot of gun violence in our neighborhood this year. Sometimes we just have to be there for people. Other programs we have are workforce development for returning citizens. We’ve partnered with Giant Food right now, we’ve been in meetings all week with them to help get people back to work that are returning home from jail. We’re just pushing forward some of what we’re doing.

My business goals are to get another big contract because the more we got, the more we can do, you know? This was our first full year of operations because we started in the middle of 2022. We’re doing great, we’re blessed, we thank God for that. But we definitely want to keep it moving because we really are in neighborhoods that has a lot of attention on it. We’re losing even some of these middle schoolers that we work with, like they’re slowly slipping. [They’re] asking for services, they’re asking for activities. We’re spreading our money out now, but we want to be able to do more. That’s my goal, one or two more big contracts.

My personal goals are to go even harder with my fitness journey. Getting out of the military I kind of let myself go a few years ago. I’ve been like two years back on that, trying to eat better and work out more. So that’s my biggest goal, to keep that going and hold myself accountable. That’s my biggest goal. Another goal is to keep traveling and improve my relationship with my son.

William-Billy Harrison, co-founder of Project Purpose 

On a personal level, I want to get more stamps on my passport. I want to travel and see more of the world; I know it’s a big place. [And with] business goals, keep growing my businesses that I do have. And hopefully for, the nonprofit organization, I get a major contract with a foundation.

I would say try to make some realistic goals for yourself. You know, you definitely want to set it high, but not too high – to make it realistic – so you can attack each goal with small increments.

This may sound very cliche, but [for]every dark night there’s a brighter day. Meaning that just because you in a dark place right now, it won’t last forever. You know, you can make steps towards the light and one day you’ll be in a light.

Ronnie Webb, co-founder of Corner Water

I have a bottled water company, me and my business partner, called Corner Water. Corner water is our natural, artesian, alkaline water that we distribute out. The product was created to really get the healthiest water to the people who need it the most. And our city, D.C., east of the river, has the biggest health disparities in the city. So we concentrated on getting our young folks, our old folks, our community in its entirety to hydrate better, to drink more water, to create healthier lives.

My personal goals are to get more organization within my personal space. So just get clutter out… get clutter from my everyday things that I do. I’m starting to revamp some of those things, move more efficiently. Just keeping a more organized house, vehicle, and schedule. I think an organized schedule is going to be really impactful for me. And also I have a goal to get more professional development done for myself. I definitely want to brush my skills up in the crafts that I that I focus on.

Corner Water is definitely spreading its footprint throughout the DMV area. Our goals for 2024 are number one: to make our product more accessible in some of the major institutions. Places like the National Park Service, grocery stores like Whole Foods, Giant, Safeway, Lidl, also working in places like the airport, the National Zoo, being able to really get this product in the hands of folks that really need it. We want to distribute over probably 5000 liter bottles of alkaline artesian water to some of our most impoverished communities and to some of our seniors. So we’re looking to do that [next] year. We’re very ambitious about how much we want to give away to the seniors and how much we’re going to give to the community. But it’s not just giving them away – we’re educating them on how to make more informed decisions about what they decide to put into their body from a community health standpoint.

Luis Del Valle, artist & Ward 8 resident

I’m a local artist based out of Southeast D.C., and I’ve been working in D.C. since 1996 as a professional artist. I started out doing graffiti art in the streets and then moved on to doing fine arts.

For 2024, I’m really looking forward to some new exhibitions and I’m bringing back Love, Hope and Street Art that’s going to be happening at Honfleur Gallery in May. And besides that, I will be also exhibiting in Art of Noize. I’m also going to be participating with Black Art Today in an exhibition at BWI Airport. They have a gallery, so I’m really looking forward to that and really expanding and making my art a little bit more accessible to everyday people. So that’s something that I started working on this year, but I’m going to maximize it in 2024.

So what I’m going to be doing [personally] is I’m going to eat healthier. I’ve been on this journey, I’m eating healthier, eliminating a lot of sugar. So that’s one of the things that I started. But I’m now just going to push myself to do it even more and then I’m going to start working out. So it’s my first time telling anybody that, so it’s like a secret I’m letting out because I don’t like telling people what I’m going to do. But then sometimes I think if you say it, then you push yourself to do it more because somebody might ask me, ‘Did you do what you say you were going to do? ‘

If you put a goal, don’t try to set a goal that’s so out of your range that you would never achieve it. I think you set small goals that get you to the bigger goal, because sometimes I think we’re unrealistic about them. So I’m not going to try to lift 200lb weights –  I’m trying to start out with 50lbs or maybe 30lbs or whatever. So set goals that are reachable and don’t think that little steps aren’t valuable because they really are. So just set some goals that are realistic and don’t go too hard on stuff.