William Wells Brown Community Center, part of William Wells Brown Elementary School, replaced Johnson Elementary and Russell Elementary and is a joint project between Fayette County Public Schools and the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government. The community center includes a full-size gymnasium, a dance studio, and a kitchen classroom for education programs.
Activities
Youth activities:
- Organized sports
- Arts and crafts
- Girls Group
- Brother To Brother
- Teen Girls “Group Jewels”
- Bicycle club
- Cooking class
- Art club
- Community gardening
- Camera club
- Step and dance team
- LEGO club/team building
- Mentoring
Teen and adult wellness:
- Zumba
- Yoga
- Senior aerobics
- Health literacy workshops
- Open court/teens weight room
- Adult coloring/book club
History
William Wells Brown Community Center opened in the historic East End neighborhood of Lexington in 2008 as part of William Wells Brown Elementary School. Both are named after abolitionist, novelist, playwright, and historian William Wells Brown. Brown was born into slavery c. 1814 on a plantation near Lexington, Ky. In 1834, he successfully escaped and declared himself a free man. A prolific writer, Brown is considered to be the first African American to publish literary works in several different genres and was one of the first writers inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame. He advocated for prison reform, temperance and equal rights for women and was a spokesman for the abolitionist movement.