Tyler BlodgettPhotography · Film · Story

Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York · Community

Community Matters 2

111 photographs

Chronogram · Poughkeepsie: The Momentum of Change (2023)News 12 · Poughkeepsie native to reopen vacant youth center (2026)

Since 2020 I've photographed and filmed Community Matters 2 in Poughkeepsie: city clean-ups, census and voter drives, a mural park, boxing and golf, leadership and etiquette programs, a summer camp, a talk series, and the dinner that closes each year.

CM2 was founded by L'Quette Taylor, a lifelong Poughkeepsie resident, to spark community engagement through events and programs for residents and youth, with a focus on the city's overlooked neighborhoods. Here it is program by program.

Straight down over downtown: rooftops, parking lots and the city grid.

Be Counted · Census 2020

The census comes once every ten years, and in 2020 CM2 took to the streets and the doorsteps to make sure Poughkeepsie was counted. Their message was simple: we all should be counted.

Dutchess County · Complete Count Committee announced (2019)

Laptop open, a young girl smiles for the camera at the kitchen table.
An elder in a CM2 shirt laughs on the porch.
Cap on, mask down, a quiet smile.
Black Father, spelled out like a dictionary entry across his shirt.
Red gloves up against the brick.
Suit, tie and the van behind him with his business on the side.
A young man in a CM2 cap stands against a mural of bright color.
A wide smile against a white barn door.

Your Vote Matters · 2020

A drive to get people out to exercise their right to vote.

Our Vote Matters

2020 · 2:45

A woman smiles on the church steps, head wrapped in silver.
A father and his two kids take up the stone steps.
Three friends mug for the camera, Our Vote Our Community Matters on one of the shirts.
Our Vote Our Community Matters, worn on a sunny afternoon.

Putting for a Purpose · 2020 and 2021

A charity golf tournament CM2 started in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, because the work for young people couldn't stop. The first year raised over $10,000 for youth programming, and the 2021 tournament funded a new youth golf program for Poughkeepsie.

A golfer points out the sponsor board beside the tee.
Six golfers line up on the course in CM2 shirts.
A tee shot against a sky full of clouds.
The grill master works a full rack of burgers.
An arm around a young golfer at the end of the day.
Sunrise over the course before the first tee time.
A young photographer settles in low beside the mums, waiting on her frame.
A golfer settles into the cart for the first hole.
A putt lined up on the green.
Crouched low, a golfer reads the green.
A big hug between friends on the course.

Let's Sit Down · 2021

A talk series that opened for Black History Month 2021 with men sitting down about the role of the man in Black culture and the gap between generations. Later episodes turned to HERstory, a younger point of view, and motherhood.

Arms open under the studio lights.
An elder draws on a cigar in the lounge.
Smoke curls from a cigar as the conversation goes on.
Rings, a watch and a worn leather armchair.
Afternoon light cuts through the blinds into the empty lounge.
Three women share a laugh in front of the window.
Two men talk it out in the barbershop.
Heels, boots and sneakers lined up against the mural.
Arms flung wide against a painted crowd.
The whole group lines up in front of the library shelves.
Mothers gather in a sunlit brick room for the conversation.

HOOK · Helping Out Our Kids

A boxing and mentorship program for young men and women. Some come to work through aggression, some for the exercise, some just to learn to box. In CM2's words, it's where action and mentorship happen.

HOOK · part one

6:48

Gloves up and eyes over them.
A masked boxer throws a jab across the ring.
Sparring in the ring while a camera rolls in the corner.
He ducks under a yellow glove, dreadlocks flying.
The HOOK crew lines up in the gym.

Right Way 2 PK · 2021

An art mentorship project at Hulme Park that paired six local artists with six young mentees to create a new vision for the park, now a mural park.

RW2PK · the mural park

2021 · 1:00

The newly painted wall loops through the park in blue, yellow and red.
A painted hand throws up the CM sign, wrapped in ribbons of the same colors.
A painted portrait watches over the park from the new mural.
Handprints in every color, pressed into the wall by the people who painted it.
Even the stair rails got the treatment.
An artist signs the wall, the last stroke on the project.
A speaker lifts an arm to the crowd at the park's dedication.
Tote bags go out by the armful as the dedication crowd lines up.
A family poses beside the mural's portrait, the baby in pink stealing the frame.
A girl grins beside the painted portrait, a butterfly on her shirt.
Laughter in the sun, a headwrap in every color of the day.

Clean ups · 2021 and 2022

Where CM2 began: L'Quette Taylor was organizing park and street clean ups in 2018, before there was an organization. Since then, city-wide clean ups have gone block by block across Poughkeepsie, and the youth-led cleanup in 2021 brought out 150 volunteers.

WPDH · Massive Clean-Up Planned for City of Poughkeepsie (2021)

Youth City Cleanup

2021 · 5:10

From above, volunteers gather where the park's paths meet, ready to fan out.
Poughkeepsie Is Better, across a volunteer's back.
Supplies in her arms and a laugh she can't hold in.
Four volunteers stand behind the morning's work, a heap of full bags at the curb.
Three volunteers in work gloves pose with the bag they've been filling.
A volunteer drags a full bag across the grass in front of a painted wall.
One more bag goes up into the truck.
Gloved up and grinning, the youngest crew pulls weeds from the sidewalk cracks.
Volunteers spread out behind the big POK letters.
A quick picture in front of the sign before the next block.
In waders, a volunteer works her way up the creek.
A teenager holds the bag open while a small helper drops in what she found.
College volunteers pile their bags beneath the clock tower.
A selfie in the park, gloves still on.
A long mural of neighbors lines the basketball court where the youth cleanup begins.
Everyone in one frame: the youth cleanup crew fills the court.
Students work the planters, pulling trash out from between the roses.
A paper cup caught in the rosebush, next on the list.
A shopkeeper raises a fist from his doorway as the cleanup passes.
A camera operator rolls on the crowd, gimbal steady and mic up.
A laugh under a winter hood, rake in hand.
The youth cleanup heads out down the street, a bicycle leaning in the foreground.

Leadership Program · 2022

Young people training together in the gym, push-ups, drills and teamwork, as the ground that leadership gets built on.

Nose to the floor at the bottom of a push-up.
A push-up and a reach across the gym floor.
The group strikes a pose against the blue gym mats.

Etiquette & Spice · 2021 and 2023

An after-school masterclass in etiquette, poise and life skills. Over eight weeks young people learn manners, cook with a professional chef, make meals for neighbors in need, practice public speaking and learn to dress for success, then graduate in tailored suits and gowns. The 2021 class graduated eight young men and women and cooked 100 meals for the less fortunate.

Etiquette & Spice · Etiquette and Food Dynamics

2023 · 1:17

Gold runners and place settings wait for the 2021 graduates at Changepoint Church.
Graduates line up on stage in suits and gowns, certificates in hand.
A place card tucked at the cuff reads Mr. Taylor.
A graduate reads his speech at the podium, red tie and pocket square.
The stage between speeches, balloons in black and gold.
The young women stand in their gowns as a speaker addresses the room.
The young cooks crowd in to watch the chef's demonstration.
A pot bubbles in the foreground while the chef shows the young cooks the next step.
Apron on, a young cook stirs a pan of vegetables.
Lined-up bowls and one hand pointing to what goes in next.
Tongs, greens and focus: plating in the restaurant kitchen.
A row of salads, finished one by one.
The dining room fills for the dinner the students cooked.
Two young diners at a table, one looking straight into the lens.
A young photographer turns the lens back on us.
Students and residents pose together during the photography session.

Extraordinary Youth Summer Camp · 2023

CM2's summer camp for Dutchess County youth, built around STEM enrichment to head off the summer slide, with field trips and leadership alongside the learning. It now serves about 150 kids a summer. In July 2023 the campers spent a day at Camp Nooteeming: kayaks, rowboats, fishing off the dock and games on the courts.

Summer camp · Camp Nooteeming

2023 · 0:58

The gate at Camp Nooteeming.
Campers gather in the woods before the day begins.
A pickup game on the camp's basketball court.
Life jackets on and paddles up, the campers head for the kayaks.
Two campers in life jackets wait in a rowboat on the lake.
A line in the water off the dock, bracelets on the wrist that holds the rod.

End of Year Dinner

The dinner that closes the year, in a restaurant lit up on a winter night: certificates, speeches, and a cake with the candles lit.

The restaurant glows through the glass on a winter night.
The chef points straight at the camera from behind the bar.
A smile behind the flowers at the dinner table.
A laugh in a patterned cardigan.
A certificate changes hands in front of the chalkboard wall.
Two men crack up in the middle of the speeches.
The cake arrives, candles lit.
Two friends side by side at the end of the night.
I have a dream, chalked on the restaurant wall for Martin Luther King Day.
A ballfield seen from straight above, the diamond worn into the grass.
Dusk settles over the city as the ballfield lights come on.
Night falls on the river, the bridge lit from end to end.