Franklin Strong: In the worst of times, the love shines through

A video was posted to the City of Franklin- Mayor’s Office Facebook page on April 10 by Ed “Tiger” Verdin, the city’s director of public relations, who also happened to be the director of the video.
The three-minute, 56-second video plays to the song, “Rise Up”, by Andra Day, performed by LaDaisha Bowles-Webber, and depicts Franklin citizens, civic leaders, first responders and medical personnel all making the same heart gesture with their hands as the camera soars through panoramas of Franklin during the coronavirus pandemic.
Bowles-Weber said she was nervous about singing the song because of its difficulty, but that once she found a connection to the subject matter of the video through the song, she made it her own.
Thirty-one thousand views later, Verdin said, “I have been contacted by the Lt. Governor, Netflix, local media, a media group out of Silicon Valley, and a media group out of New York, all praising me for the video,” so it appears that Bowles-Weber’s fears were unfounded.
Of the inspiration for the video, Verdin said, “Through my love of Franklin, I just knew that not only were people seeking something—people needed something. I think they were just hoping for something. They were waiting for direction, for somebody to give them something to hold on to, just to let them know that our passion was still there.”
After the idea for the video, Verdin contacted Franklin Mayor Eugene Foulcard, who said, “Let’s roll with it, because I think this will be very inspirational for a great deal of people in the city.”
Foulcard added, “I’ve always appreciated ‘Tiger.’ He runs it by me and says, ‘Hey man, what do you think about this?’ and when he first ran it by me, I said, ‘Tiger, let’s roll with this.’
“I appreciate his level of expertise in doing what he does.”
Bowles-Weber said of the finished product, “I was beyond pleased. I can’t even find the words to explain it. When he (Verdin) first brought it up to me, I fought him over the song. But, I was able to connect to it.”
So, Bowles-Weber and her husband Dale went to the Teche Theatre for the Performing Arts and filmed her singing “Rise Up” in the Teche Theatre, scenes of which are interspersed throughout the video.
“I gave him (Dale Weber) my vision of how I wanted him to shoot it, he gave it to Tiger, and the rest is history,” she said.
It reportedly took Verdin a total of two weeks to put the production together.
Speaking of his vision for what he wanted the video to convey, Verdin said, “Whether it’s a hurricane, or this crisis (COVID-19)—hope, love, and community is always going to be there, and people are going to be there for each other.”
Bowles-Weber added, “That’s the beautiful thing about the performing arts, we are a voice for those who may not have a voice, or are unsure of how to use it. That’s where we come in, and I think that video sums up how everyone in that community feels right now going through this pandemic; and we are going to rise up and we are going to overcome this, and we are still going to be Franklin-strong.”
Foulcard exercised his mayoral prerogative and asked everyone in the city to please stay inside and abide by the stay-at-home orders still in place.
“Let’s not let spring fever turn into corona fever,” he said.
To view the video, visit: https://www.facebook.com/cityoffranklinlouisiana