Homewood youth tap solar energy as ‘gateway’ to betterment

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Homewood youth tap solar energy as ‘gateway’ to betterment
August 14, 2015
By Daniel Moore

When Jordan Blackwell and DaVontae Garner hit the studio to polish their latest rap composition, the Homewood teenagers were faced with the challenge of trying to rhyme “kilowatt-hour.”

The duo emerged from the session with a 3-minute song — loosely inspired by Drake’s “Energy” — that helps explain why Homewood residents were turning their heads on Frankstown Avenue on Thursday.

Community leaders unveiled “Renaissance Gate,” an installation of solar panels mounted in a run-down lot where a rusted sign marquee used to stand. The panels were aesthetically angled to both take in sunlight and surround the steel frame of an arched gate, which 14-year-old DaVontae said symbolized a gateway to a new Homewood.
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