Activating 381 Park Street!
On June 26th we had an awesome community potluck! Park Street residents, including neighbors who had lived on the street for many years, gathered to share dishes including home cooked food from Trinidad and delicious barbeque chicken. With the donation of a grill to the cause, our potluck became a cookout as well with the summer smell of grilling inspiring neighbors to come by with burgers and dogs. Kids got involved in drawing and arts and crafts.
Louisa Winchell is our summer graduate student fellow from Tufts University Urban & Environmental Planning and Policy.
We did a vacant lot visioning activity led by Louisa, who had posters and printed packets to gather input on various brainstorming questions about the past, present and future of the Park Street lots. This activity, based on Monument Lab's Field Trip Activity, helped us learn about each other. We found out who had been on the street for the longest, and some common experiences and concerns about the neighborhood. Finally we had our first live music performances on the newly constructed stage in the back of the lot. The spoken word, hip hop, and jazz guitar performances brought so much energy to the crowd. The musicians were awesome and the atmosphere was festive, promising more events to come! We had performances by guitarist Jack Kern, spoken word poet Durane West, and Adim Leir (on Instagram @kinrosscommunitycenter).
Louisa: This summer, I am supporting BNCLT, artist John Ewing, and Park Street neighbors in developing the "Placing Park Street" public art project, which is one of several efforts BNCLT is using to activate the vacant lots at 381 and 357 Park Street. As part of this project, I am researching the history, present, and future of these two vacant lots as threats to, or tools of, community control. The community potluck was a great opportunity to meet residents who live on Park Street, including people who have been here for 20, 34, 35, and even 44 years! Between performances, crafts, and delicious homemade foods, longtime residents shared stories about the building that used to stand at 381 Park Street and burned down in the 1980s, and "hippies" that used to hang out on motorcycles at 357 Park Street in the 1970s. I am looking forward to learning more about the community's story of, and vision for, these vacant lots!