Tag / Anacostia

by LG

7.26.20

I don’t care to belong to a church or religion anymore, although at times I miss the sense of community associated with it. But seeing the sign at this church close to our home made me realize that churches do good stuff, too. They can act as agents of change or healing. Never in a million years can I imagine the Mormon church praise making good trouble or John Lewis, and that’s such a missed opportunity to cultivate engaged, active congregants and communities who can also act as agents of change or healing.  

by LG

6.19.20 – Juneteenth

Today is Juneteenth. I almost decided to rant about why more people don’t know about this day, but I think I’d rather focus on the incredible experience I had instead.

I’ve mentioned a few times that B and I have really focused our efforts this summer on getting more involved with our local community. We want to find ways to support and get involved with our neighborhood, not just DC in general. Along those lines, we jumped at the chance to try to participate in the Juneteenth/Black Lives Matter march for our community. I didn’t have the day off work but B did, so she went over to the start of the march a few blocks away, and I worked outside from our porch since I knew the march route would go through our park.

The group marched to the Frederick Douglass House (have I mentioned how much I love living a block away from that?) and then came to our park. I thought they would just march through, but they stopped for some reflection, so I ran across the street to join and listen. The gentleman who had the megaphone talked about the incredible leaders and freedom fighters who strolled up and down this lane on their way to and from Frederick Douglass’ house. He talked about the fact that this park – Old Market House Square – was in fact a working market, which means enslaved people were bought and sold here.

He then told us he would say the names of people lost to police brutality and gun violence, asking us to respond “Say their names!” after each one. Eric Garner. George Floyd. Sandra Bland. Tamir Rice. Breonna Taylor. Trayvon Martin. Ahmaud Arbery. Philando Castile. Freddie Gray. He kept reading, and we kept responding. At one point he got so emotional (and he wasn’t the only one … many of us were opening crying) that he had to pause, at which point someone in the crowd yelled a name, and we all responded. People kept shouting names, and we kept responding “Say their names!” Some of the names I knew, some I didn’t and wondered if they were neighbors, family members, friends. So many people gone, taken too soon from this community and others.

We then knelt or sat in silence for 8 minutes and 46 seconds to honor George Floyd. That was the longest almost 9 minutes of my life. It was the same as the march, thinking about the discomfort and the time passing. But as I got close to the 8-minute mark, I thought about how he had less than one minute to live at that point, and it just crushed me. I wept and wept, for George but for everyone in the Black community who has been touched by countless injustices throughout their lives. It was heavy, and rightfully so. It was celebratory, and also rightfully so.

The moment passed, and the crowd moved on, marching another block to one of the busiest streets in the area. I know that because I could hear all the honks of approval and solidarity from my house for the group as they marched down the street. This Juneteenth affected me so profoundly, and I feel immeasurably blessed to live and grow in this community.

by LG

6.13.20

Sometimes activism means marching and making signs, and sometimes it means bagging up a bunch of trash. Someone posted a message on our neighborhood listserv a few days ago, asking for volunteers to help with a neighborhood clean-up day. We jumped at the chance to do it because we’ve really wanted to get more involved in our local community and meet more of our neighbors. It’s been a challenging summer so far for a lot of reasons, and similar to the march – we felt like it would be good to just get out and do something to try to make a difference.

So of course I didn’t take any pictures while picking up trash – I was very focused on distancing and keeping my mask on – but the picture above is the glorious bounty we harvested from our streets and sidewalks. We used some of those trash grabber things (the official name, obviously) to pick up ALL MANNER of items from the few blocks we got assigned to clean. We met people, enjoyed the perfect weather, and got more familiar with a few streets in our community that we don’t spend as much time on because, to be honest, there is a lot of “entrepreneurial” activity.

It felt so satisfying to add to the pile of garbage that got picked up from the streets, and one of the women we met – who is running for the Board of Education – invited us to her birthday party tomorrow so we can have cake together/far apart from each other on the sidewalk in front of her house. I know my neighborhood faces a lot of challenges, but this is why I love living here more than anywhere else I’ve ever lived.