New park features Youngstown's first labyrinth

The meeting of Market Street and West Indianola Avenue in Youngstown’s South Side isn't exactly quiet, with cars crisscrossing through the busy intersection, but city officials hope a new park will bring some peace.

A key part of that peace is a newly installed feature called a labyrinth. It looks similar to a maze — but in the words of Kellie Kirksey, the founder of Creative Wellness Solutions, it's quite the opposite.

“A maze is a puzzle. A maze is for you to get lost in and turn this way and turn that way, ‘Oh, it's a dead end,’” Kirksey said. “[A labyrinth] gives you a short path. You don't have to think about, ‘Do I turn here? Do I turn there?’ You're just to be exactly where you're at and follow the path.”

It’s an ancient practice, but one that Kirksey said aligns with modern science, as studies have shown meditative walking to improve mental and physical health. 

“Cultivating peace is intentional, and we can do that with our hearts, with our feet,” Kirksey said. “Perhaps when you're going in, you're releasing something. ... When you get in the center of the labyrinth, ask yourself, what are you receiving there? What's there for you? What's on your mind? And then you return.”

Kirksey established a 501(c)(3) organization, the Urban Labyrinth Project, and “made a lot of noise” around Youngstown to advocate for bringing labyrinths to the city. In the end, she connected with 6th Ward Councilwoman Anita Davis, who already had plans to create a park on Market Street that would give residents the opportunity to “just rest their minds a little bit.”

“This neighborhood is my home, so I know the history of the violence that took place here,” Davis said. 

“We’ve survived, and now we need to thrive, and you can’t thrive in a desert.”

The Market Street Park, funded by a combination of city dollars and American Rescue Plan funds, was originally slated to fully open in May or early June. Davis says the new expected timeline for opening is mid-July. Alongside the labyrinth will be rain gardens that Davis says will take stress off of the city's sewer system, and a gazebo that will provide shade in the center of the park. But for Kirksey, the opening of the park isn’t the end — her goal is to eventually have labyrinths on all sides of Youngstown.