Building Peace in NYC.
Summer is always an exciting time for Street Libraries! This summer, ATD Fourth World New York organized three Festivals of Arts and Learning; at the Jamaica Family Residence Shelter in Queens and in the communities of the Brownsville Housing and Ocean Hill Public Housing Development in Brooklyn.We have fostered relationships with each community in different ways. At the Jamaica Residence Shelter a working relationship began with the activities director over 14 years ago and for the past 4 years has continued as a weekly activity for children and parents at the center. We have been involved in the Ocean Hill community for fifteen years through our weekly Street Libraries where we have been able to strengthen our relationships and trust with community members. In contrast to these long standing affiliations, this was our first experience in the Brownsville Housing Development community, where many people didn’t know us very well. Fortunately, the Tenant’s Council of the Housing Development was very welcoming and enthusiastic about helping us better understand the neighborhood and build trust between the Festival’s facilitators and the community. Ongoing violence has been a major challenge in Brownsville and the Council saw our relationship with the neighborhood as a means to combat the issue that affects many.
We were thrilled to work with these communities and support an atmosphere of creativity and team building. We read the book “Mouse Paint” by Ellen Walsh together with children and came up with the theme of “Colors and Sustainable Arts.” We had a variety of unique activities that engaged both children and parents. Papermaking and clay making were the two main activities at the Jamaica Family Shelter and in Ocean Hill. Other fun activities were free drawing, storytelling, and making fruit salad and ice cream! The papermaking entailed recycling old newspapers to create newphoto books in which each person then decorated. Participants went above and beyond working with the clay, creating pieces that best expressed their own feelings and creativity.In Brownsville, the theme of the Festival was to beautify the new community garden. Children used real fruits such as strawberries and tomatoes as models to paint signs for the different plants that were growing in the garden. They collectively created a colorful wind catcher with ribbon, yarn and bells to decorate the garden and scare away animals. Festivals of Arts and Learning are meant to foster community relationships and support, which was present in the collective effort that everyone made contributing to the garden. In an area where tensions can run high, the wind catcher became a symbol of love and unity. Simone, a young Brownsville resident, illustrated this idea with her message: “Stop the violence, do art.”
This year was special as many parents, grandparents, and great community and business partners got involved. One of our goals for the weekly Story Garden is to engage parents, which has been challenging. However, at the Festivals we witnessed great involvement and enthusiasm from parents. President Karrie of the Brownsville Tenants’ Association said, “I have attempted to do intergenerational programs for years, but we only had two parents for 50 kids. This time, we had as many parents as children.” Megi, a parent from the Jamaica Family Shelter knows her children have tough experiences and believes that the Festival “takes their minds off all of that, and the kids have something to look forward to.” Our partners such as Cubs for Coping, Therese the Storyteller, and Pippa an art therapist all shared their talents that parents and children appreciated and were meaningful to the communities.
