catapult magazine

Joe Lapp grew up in the northeast section of Washington, DC, in Kenilworth, an African American neighborhood that is dominated by a government-built housing complex called Kenilworth Courts.  The son of an Amish-Mennonite pastor who started a mission and a church in the community, he returned to Kenilworth in 2003 to do some research and writing about his family and the neighborhood.  While living there he began to work with found objects as an artistic medium.  Joe studied literature, creative writing, and performance art at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  He is a published poet and has written a grant-sponsored booklet on Kenilworth history.