YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – At a busy South Side intersection sits a place for meditation and quiet reflection.
It’s the first labyrinth in the city, and if Kellie Kirksey has her way, one will follow on each of the other sides of town.
“So a labyrinth is a pattern that has traditionally one pathway into a center point and one pathway out – the same pathway out,” said Kirksey, who is a therapist.
The labyrinth in the new under-construction Market Street Park, at the Market-West Indianola Avenue intersection, is a circular shape. But labyrinths may take any shape, from a heart to a flower, Kirksey said. They’re designed for walking meditation and reflection.
“The only thing you need to do is to be present,” she said. “You follow the path. You stay where your feet are.”
They’re found around the world but less common in urban areas.
“A labyrinth is not a maze,” Kirksey said. “It’s the opposite of a maze. A maze is a place where you go into as a puzzle, as a game, as a place you’re going to find your way out. But a labyrinth, on the other hand, is the opposite of that. A labyrinth is a sure path.”
Kirksey is a holistic psychotherapist as well as a mindful facilitator and mindfulness coach.
“So mindful walking is what it is,” Kirksey explained of walking a labyrinth. “It’s a mindful meditation. It’s a walking meditation.”
Councilwoman Anita Davis, 6th Ward, had already planned Market Street Park, an extension of the smaller Princeton Peace Park, when Kirksey approached her searching for a location for a labyrinth.
The peace park, installed in 2017, was a counter to violence in the city. Davis believed Kirksey’s idea for a labyrinth marked a complement to the park.
The Market Street Park already includes two rain gardens to alleviate stress from the city sewer system, park benches and trees. A gazebo will be added before it’s completed in the coming weeks. Davis plans for a fountain to be installed later.
Kirksey, too, wanted a place that embodies peace at the busy intersection.
“It’s critically important to develop peace in the midst of chaos,” she said. “So my dream was to bring labyrinths into cities where there’s been a lot of pain and trauma.”
There’s a labyrinth at the Ursuline Sisters Mission in Canfield, as well as one at Villa Maria Education & Spirituality Center in Villa Maria, Pa., but many people in the city likely don’t travel to experience them. Kirksey wanted to bring one closer.
She started a nonprofit organization, the Urban Labyrinth Project, and before connecting with Davis, applied unsuccessfully for grant funding to try to make her vision a reality. Her dream of bringing a labyrinth to Youngstown started in 2021, but she first learned about the structures in the early 1990s.
In May 2021, Kirksey’s mother asked her daughter what her next big project would be. Kirksey asked for her mother’s thoughts.
“She got quiet and she goes, ‘Well, I see you outside. I see you with wild flowers. I see you teaching meditation. I see you speaking. I see you know you’ve done a lot of things with healing and the earth,’” Kirksey recalled. “And I was like, ‘Oh, wow, Mom, that’s like my vision for the labyrinth project.’”
The labyrinth in the Market Street Park is based on one in Chartres, France, the labyrinth of Chartres Cathedral. It was built between the late 12th and the early 13th centuries. Kirksey visited the cathedral and walked the labyrinth last September.
When Pope Francis died in April, Kirksey attended mass at St. Patrick Church and then stopped at the park. She said the workers were struggling to install the piece, so she helped.
“So that center rosette – that whole center part – I had a chance to lay that out,” Kirksey said. “For me, that was so incredibly special.”
Pictured at top: Kellie Kirksey stands inside the labyrinth.