Why this local collective thinks art is the answer to improving community health and safety

As the arts flourish in Baton Rouge and more young people gravitate toward creative pursuits, the need for stewards and connectors grows all the more crucial. For the Rose Woods collective, that means creating spaces for people to explore and share their art with like minds, and helping directly to foster such creators’ visions and careers.

“Overall, the goal has been to create an experience,” says founder and creative director Brandon “Pari$” Harris. “And then from creating experiences, it’s grown to be a creative assistance company.”

Those experiences have come in many forms. In the group’s early days in late 2018 and early 2019, Harris says the Rose Woods team focused on hosting concerts, poetry readings, painting sessions—anything to get people together and engage their creative appetites.

Public events still represent a large portion of Rose Woods’ activities. Today, the collective can be found popping up at Silly Rabbit Comedy Club, Highland Coffees and Capital Park Bar and Grill, to name a few. But from those early experiences sprang connections with many artists seeking a foothold in a stronger creative community, connections which Harris says led him to ponder ways to expand the impact of the organization.

“The main goal is to be a driving force for creativity,” he says. “So when you think about artists, and you think about people in the community who are trying to do really cool things, it’s in our best interest to support them. Because that’s what’s going to make the community that much more diverse.”

Rose Woods now aims to also provide a one-stop-shop for management, social media, photo shoots, brand design—anything, essentially, that helps an artist or brand make something and share it with the public. For example, if a rapper were to come to them seeking help organizing a live ensemble for a performance or recording, the team would help the rapper source musicians. If a designer needs help ramping up a clothing line, Rose Woods could help source models and photographers for a shoot, and also help disseminate the results on social media.

But Rose Woods also seeks connections in a broader local context not necessarily tethered to the arts.

“The creative community can be doing wonderfully, but if the community as a whole isn’t, that’s going to create more internal problems,” Harris says. “So our thought process was, why not be creative, but then also work with other people who want to see other work being done in the community.”

One such endeavor is Rose Woods’ Stop the Violence program, a partnership with local community nonprofit LA Shift. Together, the two groups organize food distribution events, presentations at local schools, and, on Rose Woods’ side, a series of graphic T-shirts bearing the likenesses of slain rappers “in an attempt to bring light to the real effect that gun violence has on our community,” Harris says.

It recently released the first item of that series, a shirt dedicated to the Migos rapper TakeOff, who in November 2022 was gunned down at the age of 28. Rose Woods also donated tees to students who attended a recent Stop the Violence presentation.

Also in the realm of Rose Woods’ community outreach is its recent CResults campaign, a diabetes prevention workout series.

Though Rose Woods maintains both firm roots and a constant presence in the world of the arts, Harris says all its activities essentially stem from the same pursuit of a future in which, quite simply, people have the freedom to do what they want.

“How beautiful would that be?” he says. “If we can just think of constructive ways to support (people), in their daily living—from community wellness to artist management—at that point, everyone’s free to create and to be as creative and innovative as they want to be.” Find the collective at rosewoodsbr.com or on Instagram at @rosewoodsbr.

This article was originally published in the July 2023 issue of 225 magazine.