Revitalizing Rondo

Event 1: Vision of Oral history/story-telling event at Pilgrim Baptist Church, Saint Paul
The oral history/story telling event was held on July 29 from 4 - 8 pm at the Pilgrim Baptist church in Saint Paul. The event was organized with the intension of creating a space where community members and elders in Rondo would be introduced to the green justice team, and where youth present would get the opportunity to learn about oral histories and the power of storytelling. We intended to also have oral history backpacks that would be handed to folks interested in collecting oral histories in their families.
The space of the event being the church was also attractive for our efforts in Rondo since this space has a history of being one of the oldest Black Baptist churches in the Twin Cities. Rondo elder and longtime urban farmer, Nate Galloway was a key collaborator and mentor in the planning of the event. Nate suggested that we combine our efforts to organize an event at the gardens by combining our first event with the church cookout.

In order to convey the power of story-telling to the community members present at the event, we decided to bring Beverely Cottman who is a well-known story teller who centers experiences and lives of the Black diaspora in her reading practice. We also decided to invite Dawn Selle, for her years of work at the Hallie Q Brown center - a space of gathering, activities and support for generations of Rondo community members. We worked with Nate Galloway to arrange for a table near the Pilgrim Baptist Garden where we would meet and greet Rondo elders and families that would attend.

Day of the event
Due to some miscommunication and also due to unforeseen circumstances, both Dawn Selle and Beverly Cottman were only available from 3 pm - 4 pm of the event and community members were not expected to arrive at the church until 6 pm since it was a cook out event. Due to this change of plans, we decided to first interview both speakers and video record the space of the event, the Pilgrim Baptist church.

The interviews with Beverly Cottman and Dawn Selle were very insightful and eye opening. They both explained their connections and work with the Rondo neighborhood and how in their work they centralized the experiences and memories of Black elders in the community. Dawn Selle then suggested that we interview Debbie Montgomery who is a well-known elder in the neighborhood and who was present at the cook out. Members of the green justice team interviewed her and captured her narration of growing up in the neighborhood and being the first Black woman in the Twin Cities to join the police department.
While Kieran and Parvathy interviewed Ms. Montgomery, Vanessa and Con organized a reading session for Beverly Cottman to read her stories to children and youth that were present at the Pilgrim Baptist Garden for story-time (a weekly event organized by Vanessa as part of her work at Renewing the Countryside and UFGA). Vanessa and Con were also able to interact and meet with elders in the neighborhood who had arrived at the church for the cook out. Later in the evening, as the crowd at the church solidified for the cook out, Nate Galloway introduced the green justice team to the elders and community members present. We were warmly received by the elders present and folks were especially thrilled that Con Rice was a direct descendant of the church's founder Robert Hickman.

Reflecting on the event later, we felt that we could have adopted strategies to better communicate and coordinate the timing of the cookout at Pilgrim Baptist and the availability of the speakers. We also felt that perhaps there needed to be more concentrated efforts to recruit youth from the neighborhood to take on the task of collecting oral histories of their elders. However, we all felt that the event was a success given the warm reception we received from Rondo elders and the stories and oral histories we were able to record, and capture during the event. Elders in the crowd were excited to meet us and shared that it was great to see young folks trying to organize things in the neighborhood . As a scholar who collected oral histories from the neighborhood, Parvathy invited elders she interviewed to this first event. Many of them attended the event and were excited to meet and get to know the green justice team.

Event 2: Black movement/dance at the Lovejoy Garden, Rondo
On Saturday, August 20th, UFGA's Green Justice Team held our second community event in the Rondo-Frogtown neighborhood. Centered on the Lovejoy Garden, pet project of longstanding community member Margaret Lovejoy, this event celebrated Black history and culture through the lenses of movement and physical expression. Aside from enjoying catering from Golden Thyme on Selby, and picking up some early harvest garlic and tiger lilies from UFGA's plots, guests were met with an array of performances and activities.

The Revitalizing Rondo was able to garner more visible publicity and generative ideas for the community gardens created and maintained by the Urban Farmer Garden Alliance. It also gave a space for BIPOC artists and organizers who were part of the Green Justice Team to learns the ins and outs of collaborating with UFGA and the learning of the possibilities and challenges of bringing community members together in the Rondo neighborhood while supporting Black artists, movement folks, and organizers in the broader Twin Cities. We did achieve this goal because interest and awareness of UFGA as a collective in Rondo has increased and key members of UFGA who are Rondo elders have been getting more support toward their work in Saint Paul. It also accomplished the work of empowering the BIPIC artists and organizers who were part of the project and in creating a broader network of folks who are aware of UFGA's work.