“Lift Every Voice” nets beautify basketball courts in Mattapan for Juneteenth celebration

After a rocky run to the hoop, Mattapan designer Glen Gaines has found nothing but perfect momentum with the unveiling of his “Lift Every Voice” basketball hoops, which reflect the colors of the Pan-African flag (red, black and green), installed in two Mattapan parks to mark today’s Juneteenth holiday.
It was exciting to see the process from idea to implementation on the playground, Gaines said.
“To see an idea like this come to fruition is an incredible feeling,” he said. “It’s not something that many people get to experience, especially not of my race. I want these networks to be something uplifting. It’s also about the idea of ​​persistence, coming up with an idea, developing a product and then having the city support it. Each of those steps is significant.”
On Monday morning, Gaines, 33, dribbled across the courts at Hunt Almont Park in Mattapan, hitting perfect jump shots into his signature goals that he said are full of meaning and are meant to spark dialogue in the midst of the game of basketball.
The Boston Parks and Recreation Department set up several nets in Hunt Almont Park and Walker Playground this past weekend to commemorate the June 19 federal holiday.
“To me, these nets are like a flag,” said Gaines, who grew up in Dorchester, Roxbury and Mattapan and hopes to see the nets in every Boston park next year. “I grew up playing basketball and wondered why the nets were only white or the colors of the USA. I collect a lot of pictures and one time I came across a photo of Lebron James as a toddler playing on a (toy) basketball hoop. The colors were red, white and blue and I changed them to reflect the colors of the Pan-African flag… I wanted to do the same thing but with a basketball net.”
That was only about a year ago, and Gaines was doing a real-world science project by sourcing different colored nets to put together a prototype. He cut out part of a red net and part of a black net, then used hair dye on a white net to get the right green color. With that, he glued them together and set out to find a manufacturer.
While the nets were being manufactured and packaged, he trademarked the design and sought support to hang them in local parks. While the nets are about “Lift Every Voice” and are meant to spark conversations about lifting everyone up together, as an artist he saw an opportunity to hang them for Juneteenth to get people talking while they played.
Getting there hasn’t been easy, he said, and while gluing the pieces of netting together was difficult, hanging them proved even more difficult. He said he’s received a good response from Cambridge, Brockton, two famous basketball courts in New York City and several other establishments — such as the district for which Springfield State Rep. Bud Williams ordered netting. All of those backers paid full price for the netting.
But he initially encountered obstacles in Boston, with little political excitement and complications in the parks department over procurement regulations. His specially designed nets cost $18.50, but the city said it could pay as little as $3 apiece, something Gaines hopes to change in the next budget cycle.
But at the moment it seemed as if everyone’s hands were tied.
Then Gaines met Rep. Brandy Fluker Oakley at the State House as he was handing nets to Rep. Williams. He told her the story briefly and she said she was willing to find a way.
“I was excited and enthusiastic when Glen came into my office and told me what he wanted to do,” she said. “I thought that was so cool and I’m glad we started this pilot project. I think it’s so important when we see a young person from our community who has a good idea that we find a way to support them. He told me about the obstacles he had faced and I said, ‘I think I can help.’ It’s amazing to see them now.”
Working with the parks department, Fluker Oakley was able to purchase the nets from Gaines at full cost using its own funds and then donate them to the city to ensure they could be installed that week.
“We think it’s a good idea and a way to elevate a community member and their design in a way that also elevates the Juneteenth holiday,” said Parks Commissioner Ryan Woods. “It also supports entrepreneurship.”
Fluker Oakley added, “I’m grateful for Glen’s perseverance and tenacity. Many people would have stopped at ‘no,’ but he reached out to me and I was just the right person at the right time to help him.”
Both said they hoped the special nets could be installed in all Boston parks in the coming years by June 1.
For Gaines, the Lift Every Voice nets have many layers of meaning. He mentioned the concepts of “revelation” and “ownership.” He also said they speak to the “unity” of everyone and that it’s OK to leave things behind once you’ve “conquered that arena.”
What he cares about, however, is that it’s not just about basketball. Gaines had an impressive basketball career in high school, starring at New Mission High School as that program grew into a real power. He then moved to New York with a sibling and earned a spot on St. Anthony High School’s (Jersey City, NJ) famed 2008 national championship team coached by the legendary Bobby Hurley Sr. But he said he would prefer his Nets to encourage non-athletes as much as athletes.
“In many ways, the only way to have a voice is to be an athlete, but even for them, at a certain point, it’s ‘shut up and dribble,'” he said. “This is really about the kid who doesn’t want to be an athlete, but wants to be an artist or a designer, and everyone thinks they’re the weird kid because they don’t want to be an athlete. That kid has a voice, too.”
The Lift Every Voice nets can be purchased at Suhrealist.com.