Over 300 Bronxites turned out for a day of learning, planning, and healing, as dozens of local organizations converged on The Mary Mitchell Center, located at 2007 Mapes Avenue in the Crotona section of the Bronx, for “The Bronx People’s Festival” on Saturday, Oct. 23, 2021.

Participating groups included Mothers on The Move, Banana Kelly Community Improvement Association, Laborers International Union of North America, The Point, The Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition (NWBCCC), the Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative and others. The various groups were on hand to provide guests with assistance, as well as free gifts, as they shared ideas about how to help resolve various problems facing Bronxites today, and in the years ahead.

The event was also a farewell to longtime advocate and former board president of NWBCCC, Karen Washington, who has relocated with family to Georgia. According to her website, Washington had a day job and retired as a physical therapist in 2014, which many may not have known, judging from the number of hours she spent on community activism. Her website goes on to say that after her retirement, she became the co-owner of the organic Rise & Root Farm in Chester, New York.

Washington told the crowd at the People’s Festival, “So I bid you farewell. I’m not going to say goodbye, because I’ll still be farming upstate, Rising Root Farm is my farm, so if you get a chance, come see. We’re four women, three are LGBQ women, two of us are women of color, and we work, and we stand for justice.” Washington continued, “So thank you so much for allowing me to be in your community, allowing me to be a part of you, allowing me to spread my wisdom to the next generation.”

After 37 years in the Bronx, with many hours spent on the front lines at protests, fighting against budget cuts or local injustices, Washington later told Norwood News, “I’m going to be with my family in Georgia. I will continue my food justice work while I’m in Georgia, but COVID just put a different perspective on what’s important in life, and family is important, and I miss my family, and I think I need to put more time and effort into family.”

Washington concluded, “The community has all my life, all the time so it’s bittersweet. I’ll keep in touch.” She added that she would return to the Bronx for special events in the future.

On the day of the festival, State Sen. Gustavo Rivera (S.D. 33) was visiting the various tables set up and speaking with constituents, when he told Norwood News, “This is a great meeting – about 30 different Bronx organizations that bring together a bunch of community ideas about how to solve real problems for real Bronxites.”

The senator noted that groups like MEKONG, the NWBCCC and The Mary Mitchell Center, which hosted the day’s event, were all in his district and added that he works with them constantly, while other groups were from other parts of the Bronx and City, and he was meeting many of them for the first time.

Rivera concluded, “The goal here is to discuss what is actually happening in the Bronx and take ideas from community members who are impacted by these things, and how to find solutions for them. And my job here is to listen, to engage with community organizations and figure out how we can actually solve these problems together.”

On Washington’s retirement, Rivera said, “I’ve known her for as long as I’ve been in the Legislature. I’ve known her for 11 years and she is a jewel of a human being and an incredible community asset who has been living in the Bronx for a long time, and has made her commitment to changing The Bronx and empowering Bronxites.”

Rivera added, “It has been her entire life’s work and I’m going to miss her greatly, because on top of being as awesome as she is as a community advocate, she’s also just a sweet human being, the likes of which you don’t find much. I’m going to miss her; she’s great!”

Meanwhile, educator, Sara Moore, and students of the local Fanny Lou Hamer Freedom High School were busy manning their table, promoting events at their school and encouraging visitors to design and paint their own “Bronx Rocks,” simple rocks that guests were encouraged to paint with magic markers.

At the same time, members of The Healing Drumming Circle and The Healing Drum Collective of Brooklyn were busy engaging guests. Member, Patrice Ejuwa, said of the festival, “I think it’s a great event, and it’s good they have different opportunities for people to participate in the process.”

Regarding her own program, Ejuwa explained that members don’t perform drums for the crowd but, instead, encourage visitors to drum and offer a “sound massage” for others as a way of relaxing. Ejuwa added, “People participated with the drumming while using massage tables and they said it was very liberating; they loved it! Two people fell asleep, so that was cool.”

The Bronx People’s Festival is part of a larger, 30-year goal set by the organizers, The Bronx People’s Platform, who seek to find solutions to such issues facing Bronxites as healthcare, food insecurity, energy, the workforce, education and housing. Those wishing to find out additional information can log onto the website: https://linktr.ee/bxpower.

Karen Washington’s website can be found here: About Me — Karen Washington (karenthefarmer.com)

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.