When I first met Ebonie Randle, she was tending to the beehive in one of the handful of lots that make up Shalom & Tranquility Community Garden in the Brooklyn Centre neighborhood. 

To the tune of funk classics from a nearby speaker, Ebonie and her beekeeping student, BreJona Whitlock, delicately cracked open a wooden box containing the hive. Smoke billowed from a silver canister and hung in the air. It’s a calming agent for the bees. 

No honey this year, Ebonie said, but the bees laid hundreds of eggs. That was plenty cause for celebration. 

In the moment, I was struck by the matter-of-fact tenderness Ebonie showed her bees.  

We talked more, and, as it turns out, she had filled out the form for a photowalk with me earlier that day. She told me about her “Super Garden Kidz.” The group of neighborhood kids and teens hang out at the garden for family-style dinners, literacy lessons, Lego club, movie nights and a host of other programs throughout the growing season.

It seemed like a no-brainer: Did I want to explore Brooklyn Centre with Ebonie and the Super Garden Kidz? Yes.

I reached out to the Cleveland Print Room, a local arts and education nonprofit, and they lent me instant cameras to make it happen.

This photowalk was chaos from the jump — but the good kind. We started off with a group of about six, but by the time we turned the corner off Ebonie’s street, we had more or less doubled our numbers. Friends, neighbors and siblings started tagging along once they saw us. 

One of my favorite things about this photowalk is the framework Ebonie came up with. She posed a simple question: “What makes Brooklyn Centre beautiful to you?” She was curious to see the kids’ perspectives on the neighborhood where she’s lived for most of her life. 

They did not disappoint. The kids marched through their neighborhood, a bundle of energy with cameras. Some flocked to the same things — a cat, a mural, a baby in a stroller, a hot dog vendor — like homegrown paparazzi. Others studied the shapes of flowers or the vines on a grand but faded home. 

It’s tempting to lean into the idea that childlike wonder is behind the kids’ breathtaking pictures, but I think it’s something simpler. It’s their honesty. When they saw something they liked, they snapped a picture without overthinking.

Photography is a language. In that way, the Super Garden Kidz’ pictures are stream-of-consciousness. They don’t just describe Brooklyn Centre – they show us what it feels like to be a kid there.

The Cleveland Print Room’s cameras are digital but print out pictures using instant film. The kids didn’t have unlimited pictures like they would on a cell phone. They had to pick their favorites to print. 

The cameras also have about two dozen built-in filters. I didn’t spend too much time teaching camera operation, but they very quickly figured it out on their own. 

One kid, Sam, talkative and curious, started sifting through the filters. He found one that imitated a fisheye lens. Think ‘90s skateboarding video aesthetic. 

The sun hung low as we walked back into the garden. Sam pointed his camera to the sky, aimed at the pink-orange clouds. The filter was like magic. Later, when he looked at the picture, he saw a view of the earth from space.

“It looks like the whole world,” he said.

More information about the pictures

Ebonie and the Super Garden Kidz took all of these pictures on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025.

You can see who took each picture, along with some more details about the places and people in them, down below.

Really quick, I want to thank the Cleveland Print Room for lending me cameras to make this photowalk possible. The Cleveland Print Room advances the art and appreciation of the photographic image in all its forms, by providing affordable access to a community darkroom, gallery exhibitions, educational programs and collaborative outreach.

I also want to thank CatchLight and Report for America for supporting my work as Signal Cleveland’s visual journalist. A few years back, they partnered to create a program that places photojournalists in local newsrooms throughout the country. Signal Cleveland and I joined that program in July.

1. Homes on Archwood Avenue. Credit: Griffin Randle-Neely
2. Bushes lining the sidewalk on Archwood Avenue. Credit: Sam Fuller
3. A note Brooklynn wrote reflecting on a picture she took of two Cleveland Police officers. Credit: Brooklynn White
4. A cat resting in a driveway next to Shalom & Tranquility Community Garden. Credit: Charlee Malee Burns
5. A friend rides his bike alongside the group. Credit: Sam Fuller
6. A hot dog vendor on Pearl Road. Credit: Brooklynn White
7. A friend rides his bike alongside the group. Credit: Brooklynn White
8. A home on Archwood Avenue. Credit: Charlee Malee Burns
9. My editor Rachel Dissell and I take a look at some of the kids’ pictures while we walk down Archwood Avenue. Credit: Sariah Fuller
10. Cleveland Police officers stand in front of their cruiser for a picture. After the kids got their pictures, the officers let them take turns ringing the cruiser’s siren. Credit: Brooklynn White
11. A note Serenity wrote reflecting on a picture she took of two Cleveland Police officers. Credit: Serenity Meyer
12. A page from Griffin’s notes. Griffin taped tow pictures onto the page. The first shows his mother Ebonie with neighbors, and the second shows a mural on a tattoo shop on Dennison Avenue. He wrote short reflections about each picture. Credit: Griffin Randle-Neely
13. Neighbors sit on the porch of their home on Archwood Avenue. Credit: Sariah Fuller
14. Trees lining the sidewalk on Archwood Avenue. Credit: Charlierose Neely
15. A note Charlierose wrote reflecting on a picture she took of small flowers blossoming on trees on Archwood Avenue. Credit: Charlierose Neely
16. The Super Garden Kidz stand in front of a firetruck at Cleveland Fire Station 20 on Pearl Road. Credit: Ebonie Randle
17. A home on Archwood Avenue. Brooklynn White
18. Two men sit on a bench outside the Renee Jones Empowerment Center on the corner of Archwood Avenue and Pearl Road. Credit: Charlierose Neely
19. A flower blossom in the shape of a heart. Credit: Charlee Malee Burns
20. A baby in a stroller on a walk down Pearl Road with her mother. Credit: Samir
21. Vines and trees growing over a home. Credit: Griffin Randle-Neely
22. Serenity Meyer. Credit: Sariah Fuller
23. Ebonie Randle and her children Charlierose Neely and Griffin Randle-Neely. Credit: Serenity Meyer
24. A home on Archwood Avenue. Credit: Charlierose Neely
25. A note Charlierose wrote reflecting on a picture she took of a home on Archwood Avenue. Credit: Charlierose Neely
26. The sky, seen through a fisheye filter. Credit: Sam Fuller
27. A note Sam wrote reflecting on a picture he took of the sky. Credit: Sam Fuller
28. Super Garden Kidz hold spotted lanternflies on their hands. Credit: Samir
29. A note Samir the sun setting over a home next to Shalom & Tranquility Community Garden. Credit: Samir
30. A cat resting in a driveway next to Shalom & Tranquility Community Garden. Credit: Sariah Fuller