The East End has a familiar catalogue of concerns that confront its residents. 40% unemployment, crime, crack dealers dealing openly on the streets, gangs and guns, pimps and prostitution, becoming a drive through neighbourhood. There are huge issues here… race, economics, education, health care… isolation, alienation, alcohol, violence. It’s a hard context to live in.
While distant politicians and policy makers may get round to debating ‘what to do’, may dream up their own top-down responses to grinding poverty (and while bloggers blog), the stories leak out of people living in Lexington's East End getting on with it. Finding ways to resist the advanced erosion of public services and resources and nurture relationships, growing confidence, capacity, opportunity.
When Sherry mentioned she had a neighbourhood association meeting coming up on the Thursday evening of our visit, Rach’ and I immediately offered to come along too. With Geoff on childcare duties, we set off.
Neighbourhood Association meetings have a familiar feel. Despite great intentions meetings often feel designed to confuse – with formality, process, acronyms and jargon locking out the stranger, or sending you to sleep. Our loyalty to Sherry heightened my tolerance levels. I was curious to see how residents were working with the professionals and vice-versa.
The meeting kicked off with welcomes, and a briefing from the police, a young white officer, with opportunity for comments on crime and police responses. Knowing looks are exchanged as familiar streets, people, groups and behaviour are all clocked. Questions are asked about specific groups of young people – is it anti social behaviour or just hanging out?
A discussion starts hosted by a local community organisation that with government funding has purchased a plot of land in the area. Feels familiar - lots of jargon and warm words about process, empowerment, choice, listening, process, engaging – about how the land could be used. However when the furrowed audience throws up questions, it becomes clearer only that this isn’t a blank canvas after all. Actually, this organisation has ideas, criteria and a template. Is this really about listening and working up ideas – or is it really a type of consultation? The expectations shift across faces in the room and ambitions are checked.
The site of the associations meeting is a new school and community centre surrounded by lots of new housing – some huge apartments, and large stone buildings. It’s all a massive contrast to the familiar weatherboard housing dominating the neighbourhood. This is an attempt at social engineering – a mix of housing tenure. However the houses haven’t sold, the rich aren’t moving in and vast numbers remain empty. For those that do arrive, the questions is how can the association provide welcome?
I counted 23 attending – with a few paid workers. Of the 18 residents 15 were women, 5 were blokes – at the grassroots the matriarchy rule in this part of town as elsewhere. After the meeting one grandmother explains that the association had come about from residents, deciding to reboot their older resident organization (the old glory days long gone). They had decided to rename themselves after William Wells Brown – a Lexington born slave and abolitionist. Wells Brown had escaped captivity, fled on the Underground Railroad to the north and eventually reinvented himself as a writer, (travelling to the UK, living in Aylesbury and hanging out with Charles Dickens).
Despite the everyday content for discussion, the real challenge and struggle, there is a consistency from people – a clear sense of warmth and pride in the place and the stories.
As the meeting closes the Director of the centre informs us she’d noticed someone outside taking photo’s of the building. It turns out the photographer is an academic researching the life of William Wells Brown for an official biography due in 2014. The building our meeting is in the plush new community centre next to the new William Wells Brown School – and the final destination for a professor undertaking years of research. The group invites him in and listen enthralled.
A spontaneous summary of William Wells Brown provided by the Prof’ is inspiring. After all the business, you can feel the room lift. Wells Brown is increasingly regarded as the most significant 19th century African American writer. For these East End residents it's not academic, this is the man and vision the new William Wells Brown Neighbourhood Association draws inspiration from today – a key figure for the community rediscovered and a rich source of significance and pride. A great moment to be in on.
Life zings when we catch these special moments. Love it. Rod
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