Our third trip to Mart was a great success! Rising before the break of dawn, we made our way to Mart at 6:30 in the morning, getting there just in time for our presentation to the high-schoolers during their leadership period at 8:45. Unfortunately, Amy was sick and wasn't able to join us. So, there we were - me, Adrianne and Jen (a super cool doctoral student at UT interested in the Mart Community Project). Adrianne and I showed our power point and gave our schpeal about the exciting new things to look forward to in Mart, especially the creation of a community garden commons. We gave an example of the Peralta Community Garden in Berkeley, California. We also went into "volunteering, why it's cool?" and the various ways they can get involved in this garden project in the future. I think we had a total of about 10-12 high schoolers turn up. They seemed very open and excited to the idea. When asked what kind of changes they'd like to see in their community, they insightfully identified several things. One student said she'd like to see more cleanliness in Mart. A few others talked about the number of abandoned buildings downtown and how they'd like to see them restored. It seemed like these kids really cared about their community. During the high school lunch hour, we returned to the school and informally met with the students. We were delighted to find students approach us and ask what we were up to. We really had encouraging discourses with these young, bright and respectful kids. An interesting observation we made was that it was mostly black students who were outspoken and readily came up to us with questions and curiosity. We hope to be in Mart during homecoming on October 29th, with other students from the writing for non-profits class. It should be fun!
Around 10 am, we met up with Sue Ann, the hippest grandma and member of the library board. Sitting on metal chairs outside the Co-op and taking in the beautiful fall air, we discussed our project along with the happenings at Pie Lab, an initiative of Project M in Greensboro, Alabama. She voiced the other members' concern about budget and upkeep. Their main worry was that as soon as the conceptual plan would be approved, we'd go in there with our shovels, start digging, make a mess and then leave. We had to assure her (and through her the others) that we would not move forward without adequate research and an implementation plan. We'll find out by early November, hopefully, if the plan is approved.
Another highlight was driving around Mart and visiting the two separate cemeteries - the black one and the white. The disparity was vast and astonishing. The black cemetery, located in black folks town of course, was overgrown and poorly maintained. It seemed there just weren't enough resources and money to keep the place neat and respectable. Janet, Paula's adult niece and Mart resident, showed us an area hidden around a corner that had been basically turned into a dump site. Certain folks who didn't want to spend the money or the time to take their crap to a proper dump site had just dumped it there. It was ridiculous and offensive. The white cemetery, in contrast, was well kept and quite large in area. They had a proper tool shed with tools and a lawnmower. I couldn't believe that in this day and age, two separate race based cemeteries still existed!
In terms of the CRAFT model, I would say we are still in the contact and research phase. The next steps for us would be to do further research on resources for this project, mostly around funding and volunteering.
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