- Support for this program was provided by the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, the TomKat Foundation and Connecticut Green Bank.

- Across the state of Connecticut, people are striving to create equitable communities.

- [Female Speaker] We really want to think about how New London can feed itself.

- [Male Speaker] We've got this guy, that's got more energy than the kids that he works with.

We got to set this guy free here and let him start going.

- [Female Speaker #2] There is some really pivotal people that need to be learned about.

And we wanted to make sure that we acknowledge them.

- [Female Speaker #3] There are very few words that have so much power and one set of words that has power like that, I think, is I believe in you.

- [Female Speaker #4] I needed to figure out how I could bring a large amount of people together for some project that, you know, something that we would all own together, right?

- [Announcer] These stories of passion and a commitment to inclusivity, have another thing in common, a partnership with Sustainable CT whose collaboration has provided crucial support.

- [Chloe] One question we always ask young people at the beginning of the program is think of where you live and think about where you can go in a 10 minute walk from where you live.

In that 10 minute walk, how many places can you get a fresh whole tomato versus how many places can you get hot Cheetos?

A lot of times there are more places that young people can get hot Cheetos than fresh tomatoes.

But within recent years, a lot of young people have been saying, well, actually I can get a fresh tomato around the corner from my house, from a snack bed.

And that's a direct measure of change in the city of New London.

So F.R.E.S.H New London operates in what we call our three buckets, growing food, connecting communities, and empowering youth.

All of the projects that we take on and all of the work that we do aligns with one of those three buckets.

And oftentimes all of our work overlaps into each of our buckets.

The education that young people experience in our youth programming, centers around their own lived experiences.

So we always start from a place of what are your experiences?

What is your community and who are you?

From there we help facilitate connections between young people's experiences and the condition of New London and how we're making change in this community.

The changes are things that young people want to see.

So for example, a lot of our young people are Latinx.

So we grow a lot of culturally relevant crops to Latinx cultures.

- I made this Huacatay zine and Huacatay is basically Peruvian black mint.

As seen right here.

And it is native to the Andes, which includes parts of Peru and Ecuador.

I chose Huacatay because I can make my culture's food with Huacatay.

So one of my favorite sauces is Peruvian Aji Huacatay.

So we basically use this in a green sauce and we top it with, on our salads, on chicken, meats, all that different stuff.

For me, Huacatay is personal because it's a plant native to Peru.

So we use it a lot more in our cooking now, since we have it more often.

- We are currently growing food on eight different spaces.

From tiny little snack bed gardens, all the way up to over a half acre urban farm.

The goal was to really think about reclaiming distressed and blighted spaces and greening them.

Thinking about addressing food security, but doing all of that with dignity, a focus on cultural relevance and thinking about racial and social justice.

And then really thinking about what do people want us to grow?

Not just, what can we grow?

You know, we used to grow a lot of kale, but like it would sit on tables.

So now we grow more collard greens than kale as a part of our program and collards fly off the table.

It's the same nutritional profile.

It's the same thing to grow them.

But if we just pay attention, we can grow the foods that people want.

So we're growing Caribbean peppers, Chinese long beans.

We're growing Huacatay, which is Peruvian black mint.

More collards than kale.

So that's a big part of the community feedback loop that we have.

Art is such an amazing form of creative expression, but it also is a huge part of social and racial justice and how we communicate.

And so while our focus is growing food, for the most part, we also want to think about how we communicate, how we bring people in and how we share our social justice mission.

And so art is a really sort of a key part of doing that.

And it's also fun.

It's a way of getting young people more engaged in the mission, and then sharing that mission out to the community.

- [Aly] You know, the collaboration with FRESH has been really about using art to communicate with the community and to engage the community.

And particularly to give the young people more tools to speak to the community.

Our photography student, Roodly, he was just so passionate about photography and he brought his own camera and was just shooting these gorgeous pictures of his peers.

And we ended up using a lot of his pictures to print, right.

And we blew them up into these beautiful 18 by 24 prints.

- [Roodly] I really learned a lot about like food and like your environment and all that.

And then Aly really helped me like, because you see I'm a soft spoken person.

Until I project my art to the world and like different things I could do with it.

I'm learning new things and you can not, you can never learn too much.

- [Aly] And then Perla, she basically design the mural herself.

Right.

And she brought us the sketch and we were like, well, she's just such a natural leader.

We wanted to give her this chance to like lead a crew of her peers.

- [Perla] When I live, I'm from Puerto Rico.

So, when I have like 14 years, I really want to paint a mural but it's illegal in Puerto Rico.

You cannot do nothing like that.

Now being part of FRESH, now I have the opportunity now for made it.

And I'm so excited.

The idea of make a mural and make a mess everywhere.

So that sounds fun.

- [Aly] Justice can be a little intimidating, right?

And so we want to invite as many people into these ideas and art is a really good way to kind of break down some of those barriers.

- People need to be able to come together in a better way.

And I think supporting cultural humility, it helps at least the way in which Kamora is doing it, I think helps to bring people in a room who may not otherwise agree, politically, may not have the same values from home, or may not even have the same sort of viewpoints in the world, but have different viewpoints, but are willing to come together, you know, and have a conversation.

- Okay, hello, this is Kamora.

I'm Kamora, Le'Ella Harrington.

This is Kamora's Cultural Corner, and this is what I do.

Hey.

I started off doing cultural competency classes and that cultural competency thing keeps us right here in these cerebral places.

And I realized that we needed to move to cultural humility.

And then I realized that there needed to be a big space where people needed to realize that they had a stake in the game.

I would love to be a wonderful spiritual being and sitting quietly and meditating doesn't happen.

Again.

you're getting it.

I talk fast.

That's what happens, right?

So this idea of sitting and meditating turns into making lists, everything but meditating, but walking a labyrinth can get me there, right?

And walking a labyrinth can provide that place where meditation gets people who can do this, walking, the labyrinth can get me to that place.

I was raised to understand that a responsibility of ours, as Black Americans, is to support Oyotunji Village.

They're a group of Yoruba people.

When we talk about Yoruba we're talking about Senegal, Ghana.

We're talking about a whole lot of east Africa who practice Ifa, the original religion, where we celebrate our ancestors.

So in the Yoruba tradition using labyrinths and labyrinths being used for divination is a thing.

It's just a thing.

So when I brought up, we're building a labyrinth, he knew exactly what I was talking about.

And we really talked about where we are in our community.

And what's happening here in the north end of Hartford, is happening all over Black America.

So the beautiful part of that conversation with the king was I didn't have to explain much to him.

I was like, this is my community.

You know, this is what we're doing.

Can you guys do it?

Yes.

They came, they threw shells.

They did their divination, they asked the ancestors exactly where it was supposed to be.

And this is exactly where it's supposed to be.

And it is a mirrored labyrinth.

And so traditional labyrinths, and most of the time labyrinth has one way in and one way out.

This one has two ways in that mirror each other and meet in the center.

Now thinking about the type of work that I do and what that looks like, I'm very often getting folks to understand that, again, we're not trying to change people's minds.

We're getting people to see things from a different point of view and then figure out how we can work together.

- Not only like the act of walking it, but I think it really is like a magical thing, especially with all the intentions that were put into it when it was built.

And like there's something magical about it that just causes you to be able to be fully in the moment when you're walking it.

- This space is a loving and caring space, first and foremost.

And I think what the major benefit of that is, is that I can come here and be multiple aspects of my identity.

And while this is essentially an Afrocentric space, that doesn't mean that others of different backgrounds aren't invited.

I think that's kind of the misconception when people step into Black spaces or step into queer spaces or spaces for women or spaces for the old, or for the young, that doesn't necessarily mean that others are disinvited to that.

Come down, see what we're about.

Learn about us, experience what we have to offer and how we can make that cultural exchange.

- I love this neighborhood and I love it as it is.

And no harm, no foul, to different folks who are trying to do things in different ways.

But we are Black.

This is a Black community, which means that this is left out often, which means as people are trying to find beautiful places to put things, the numbers of human beings, who I love, who I respect, who've said, Kamora, that's great.

You don't need to be in the north end.

But when the understanding is, when you do good you leave your community.

I can't be a part of that.

Again.

Like what do I, I've got a labyrinth, so that we can look back and think about the failures of the past and not recreate them.

Why does this community look the way that it does?

You know, red lining did what it did, but then also for generations, we've been telling Black people, if you're successful, you can grow up and get out of the hood.

So this, this beautiful refuge that's going to smell nice and feel nice and be beautiful and be something that you could find in Westport.

Is going to be here in the north end of Hartford because the people here need to know that they are worthy and deserving of this.

And it's sad that I've got to say it like that.

Like every time that comes out of my face, that kind of hurts.

- [Joe] Our trail crew is affectionately known as the trail gnomes.

You see this work, but you never see them.

So the Youth Conservation Corps was started in the spring of 2008.

And with that, that's when we started to do our initial small projects in Rockhouse Hill.

And from there, things began to grow organically.

The crew now is out here.

This is our 14th build season to be out here during the summer.

And that's a paid internship through the town, through our grant funding that we receive.

- Joe Lanier and the Youth Conservation Corps have been indispensable in developing this site as a usable public recreation area.

We had a different member on the conservation commission, Tom Adamski, Tom ended up meeting Joe and said, we've got this guy that's got more energy than the kids that he works with.

You know, hes just a dynamo.

And he's like, we gotta set this guy free here and let him start going.

We went from a really simple trail system of, you know, just rudimentary trails that you almost couldn't even follow.

To now, we have a map trail system that is everything from beginner and juveniles on up to more advanced trails, as well as that, these trails are open up to mountain bikers.

- [Joe] You guys, you know what you got to do?

I'll come back just to double check.

So today we're doing a lot of different things.

Where we have some people, I have one student that's working on putting on the grip on the decking of our boardwalk that runs parallel to the stream that runs down to the cascading waterfalls.

So basically like anti-slip.

Another group working at the end for the egress, from the boardwalk.

They're putting some stones in place.

We're going to roll some logs.

So when you come off, instead of just coming off the dirt and stuff like that, we're going to come off onto these white oak logs.

And then they're also building the last abutment, so we can stabilize the bridge itself.

And then our next group is working on an area where it's a particular choke point where we had moved a boulder or they're in the process of moving a boulder.

- All right.

So the bolder behind me here was about at the top of the hill, when we started.

We dug a hole at the bottom.

So the rock can slide in.

We're still working on that now.

And it's moved like significantly far down the hill.

We feel like after a little bit more digging, that hopefully by the end of today, we'll be able to move the rock all the way to its spot so we can make the trail flat so you can walk or ride your bike up and down the rock.

- The first thing I really think for the lessons for the kids is just to realize that, you know, you can have a connection here with nature.

And realize that it's not this foreign thing where it's all like, oh, that's the woods over there.

Like, it's another place.

You can come out here.

They always tease me.

They're like, oh, that's your home Lanier, that's where you live.

But really they get to see things that they normally wouldn't see.

- I started my freshman year taking biology with Mr. Lanier and he's the head of it.

So he recommended it to everyone.

And I heard all my friends doing it.

And first of all, I love biology.

I love coming out and seeing the nature and whatever.

I have a fear of bugs too.

And I wanted to get over that.

There's a bunch of ants living in it.

- Oh.

- [Olivia] Oh my God, there's eggs.

Oh, that's creepy.

It's kind of cool though.

- But then the work lessons are the other key piece.

Where I'm like giving back to your community, that service, is really important.

Abby, today was her first day by herself without her friends.

And that's kind of like nerve racking.

Cause she's like the underclassmen, she's only going to be in 10th grade, but she came out she's, you know, working with Randall, there who's a senior.

- I wanted to join because I just thought it would be a fun thing to do in the summer.

Also like in the school year, get some volunteer hours.

It would just be great to work outside and do something for the community.

- [Joe] A lot of these kids wouldn't normally talk to each other in school, in the school setting, cause they're busy doing their thing.

But now being here in the woods, they have a commonality that they can touch upon and work together and really, you know, take away some of those less tangible lessons.

- I think the community really appreciates it.

When we're down at the regular trails, we see bikers and hikers come by all the time with their dogs or with their friends.

And they always thank us.

So they clearly like what we're doing here.

- It is a good program.

The way I got started, I was at the church.

Having lunch, they give free lunches.

And there was an article.

It wasn't very nice, talking about homeless people.

You're in jail, you're drug addicts and this and that, which isn't true.

And I said I want to write a comment on this and that's how I got involved in this with writing.

You know but they tell you how to get, you know, free showers, free food, toothpaste.

Sometimes you just need toilet paper.

- Many people feel they're one paycheck away from being homeless themselves.

And so there's a tendency to move away from it and to kind of, to block the view of that kind of thing.

So it is harder to raise money for this than for any of our other programs.

And I think it's because people have a certain image of people in the homeless community.

That they should pull themselves up by their bootstraps or whatever that they're all drug addicts, whatever that stereotypes are.

And the truth is with all stereotypes, it's a much more complex picture than that.

- Okay, I had a house, I have four kids, beautiful home.

Unfortunately I came down with pancreatic cancer.

I don't want to talk it's going to make me cry.

But I wound up homeless.

- I think that one of the most beautiful things that you can say to another human being besides I love you and I'm sorry.

And there are a couple of, like, there are very few words that have so much power and one set of words has power like that, I think, is I believe in you.

We put these pots of organic vegetable plants on the streets of Hartford.

We hire and train people in the homeless community to take care of the pots.

So they get paid through the growing season and then we have artists paint the pot.

So it's food, jobs and art for Hartford.

- It's kind of a volunteer thing, where they help us through homelessness and even with college and stuff like that.

And currently I'm doing the BOTS Pots, which are free food in Hartford.

We water them and garden them and encourage them.

Nice little tomatoes.

How big you are.

- We put the pots in the area, which is very vulnerable, where we can get more and more people who's hanging around in that area.

So when we talked to them, they told us like, this is the place where they feel really like hungry.

They don't know how to get something to eat instead of buying like a chips or like anything, which is a junk.

This is the best way they can get to fresh organic vegetable and then can eat and they can enjoy anytime.

They love to be sitting next to it because they feel like there's like a green and the feel it belongs to it.

- [George] You know, in the beginning it was kinda like a joke.

People would rip them up and they'd just be jerks about them.

But I think now that they've been here for years, people have a different respect for them and they kind of appreciate them a little bit.

For somebody like me, who's on just cash assistance and food stamps.

I barely get through on like $140 a month, which is nothing.

-Every week I get paid.

I get a gift card.

$70 gift card.

Wow.

So right now as school is about to start.

I don't have to wonder too much.

About where I'm gonna get the school furniture for my kids.

So I try to manage them the best way I could.

So they last me.

So I'm able to get whatever my kid needs for school, whatever they need, that I could afford for Christmas.

Here there are the little things that I can afford on my own.

It's been a blessing for me because I'm part of beautifying my community, but it's helping me as a mother.

As a family.

You know?

So.

- I think, I think this program is great in that it's really multifaceted with the employment aspect, the healthy vegetables and artistic work on the pots.

And I think that that really adds a quality to the city.

One of the things I'm constantly struck by when I visit the pots to go see how they're doing and people come and talk to me and they always say, thank you.

Thank you for caring.

Thank you for putting these here because it shows that somebody cares about us in our community.

- When they see you coming year after year, they feel the love.

Because most of the time we are used to get things one time, but when you see somebody coming summer after summer, you know, it's something more than just charity.

It's love right there.

- [Matt] The project is called MLK 39.

Our goal is to have 39 murals throughout the state by MLK day, next year.

39 really represents one mural for every year of Dr. Martin Luther King's life.

And he is, you know, the beacon of hope in a lot of, in a lot of the civil rights conversations, but he's also not the only one.

So we wanted to make sure that this project incorporated civil rights leaders, both local and national, beyond MLK.

So people like Dr. Diane Clare-Kearney, could get recognized for her local work that she's been doing here in Manchester, almost her entire life.

- We are making progress.

We are being heard.

Because I think a lot of times, people of color, are the things that you keep in the closet.

I can remember colleagues coming up to me and saying, Diane, I support you a hundred percent.

You know, I'm with you.

But would never say it publicly because you don't want to be considered someone who's going to associate with Diane, or the likes of Diane.

So when they put that up, that's public and that's finally saying, you are somebody, you are heard, you are valued.

You are important.

You are worthy.

- As a community.

We're diverse.

We're well-educated, but we don't know our full history in West Hartford.

So when you have something here, that's a conversation piece.

People will start to engage and learn more about their community, their neighbor, and just the overall history of our town.

What we wanted was a journey to freedom.

So West Hartford's history.

So that's why we started with Bristow.

We don't have a likeness.

We don't have a description of Bristow.

He was an enslaved individual here and bought his freedom from the Hookers.

So we tried to use something that was symbolic of him.

So as you move along the wall, you'll see a silhouette.

It's a very powerful piece because the hair holds names of individuals who were lost to senseless violence.

Whether that be police brutality.

Whether that be being a trans person of color.

And we also have names of individuals who were enslaved, right here in West Hartford.

What everyone wants to hear about is the MLK piece.

Well, each side of him, he's flanked with people who were pivotal to our civil rights movement.

Dr. Bernard Lafayette, still running the non-violence movement out of Alabama, where he was one of the first people to go into Selma, and they told him not to.

As well as Ella Baker, they call her maybe one of the most important people in our movement.

When you swing around the corner, that's when you get to West Hartford's history and it's excellence.

Gertrude Blanks.

The first African-American woman to graduate from Hall High School.

Judy Casperson, the first Black woman to hold local office for our town council and now representative Tammy Exum.

- So I was the first African-American board of education member, but that was in 2013 to 2017.

A town like West Hartford, we wouldn't imagine that it would take that long to have a more diverse board of education.

I'm the first Black woman to ever represent the 19th district.

You wouldn't imagine that would be the case, that took till 2019.

I'm working on redistricting for the state of Connecticut.

I'm the first Black woman who's been a part of that committee.

Too many firsts, because I am amazed at that, that in 2021, I would be the first anything.

So it is time to have names like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

But so many others from our communities.

So many other people have made an impact it's time to put their names and faces out there.

- [Harry] I love this project because it not only focuses on the great benefit that arts bring to the community, but we're able to actually tap into our local artists community with Tiyah Thompson and with Joshua Morgan, who are East Hartford High School graduates.

So I found that this to be something that we can not only enrich our community, but enrich the lives of some of our local artists as well.

- I think it's gonna open up a conversation that, you know, many people have been neglecting over the years.

We talk about it and then it goes away for awhile and then something happens.

And then we started talking about it again.

So hopefully this problem-- I'm hoping this project is like the launch pad for, you know, a conversation that's not going to go away.

That's only going to evolve and translate into, you know, more action as opposed to just verbiage.

You know what I mean?

- So I'm the only female working on the team, which is really exciting for me.

And it was actually my idea to incorporate, not only Martin Luther King, but Coretta Scott King as well.

So I feel like women's voices should be heard and they should be recognized just as much, especially when it comes to history.

So having someone on our team like Michael Rice, who's really experienced doing murals, then that's really exciting.

And it really helps us feel more comfortable with what we're doing and more confident in how to do it.

So he's essentially just showing us how to execute our ideas, right.

We're throwing them out there and he's like, okay, well, this is how we have to do it step by step.

And just making them a step-by-step process.

It makes us really see how tangible the ideas are.

- [Harry] And “Dream Like a King ” it's really just letting everybody know as they drive through and see this mural that, you know, Martin Luther King's famous, I have a dream speech, but there's so many other speeches that that speech gave encouragement and gave light to that, as you drive by, hey, you could be the next one you can be in the next mural.

(light jovial music) - [Announcer] Find out how to make a difference in your community at sustainablect.org.

Administered by the Institute for Sustainable Energy at Eastern Connecticut State University.

Support for this program was provided by the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, the TomKat Foundation and Connecticut Green Bank.