St Charles

The Solitary Garden at the St Charles Center for Faith + Action

The Center for faith + Action

Building the Garden

This Solitary Garden began 10-years to the day the very first one was installed in the Abolitionist’s Sanctuary, also in New Orleans. That day also marked the one year anniversary of Herman Wallace’s freedom in 2014. It was a collective effort from The Center for Faith + Action, St Charles Baptist Church, Impacted Solitary Survivors Coalition (ISSC) and many volunteers and passersby. The construction took place over the course of 3 weekends and was completed October 19th, 2024. Read more about it in this generous article from Antigravity!

Our Solitary Gardener

Obie Weathers III, who as a teen was arrested and sentenced to death, has spent the last 24 years in solitary on death row. Using found material and media acquired anyway he can, his work emerges from a dim hole in American culture, arriving with visions of what it is like to be poor, Black, hopeful and sentenced to death in the 21st century. His creative practice extends to mentorship of young people and collaborations with university professors by providing insight gleamed from personal experience to help prepare a new generation of concerned citizens support struggling youth and interrupt systems of youth disposability. The existential, political and spiritual themes of his work are often filtered through the Buddhist and yogic practices which have helped heal and sustain him through decades of isolation.

“I’ve been thinking of aloe vera for the garden. I like its medicinal uses and its ability to survive. I like how it holds water/moisture for us. Symbolically we need those who keep us lubricated mentally, emotionally, spiritually, intellectually... so that we don’t get rusted (stuck) and useless to those around us. I remember aloe around my house as a kid. They didn’t seem to need a lot of attention for their well-being and they did scream “look at me!”. They were really reserved but were always there when I burnt myself somehow and mama used it to soothe me.”