PRINCETON, W.Va. – Lori McKinney is a product of Princeton, graduating high school, then heading off to college, and even hit the road to travel abroad during her studies in musical theater.
She says it was her experiences in other parts of the world, where music, art, and culture colored the communities that she visited, that fueled a vision when she returned home in the early 2000′s.
She says she and her husband found Mercer Street at the dawn of a rebound after decades of decline.
“There was like a dark cloud hovering over the street and people, there was a stigma. And people didn’t want to come down here,” McKinney said.
McKinny heads up the non-profit, Rif Raf Arts Collective, Inc. She says thanks to collaborations with artists, musicians, city leaders and the people who live in the Princeton community, a real renaissance has taken place on Mercer Street, adding those who worked towards change embraced what it could be, not the state it was in.
“Artists in particular, creative with a sort of visionary mindset, can see like the power of possibility and look at something like a blank canvas. And understand that when creative energy moves, you know, it can flourish anywhere!” McKinney said with a gleam in her eye.
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