Intro to the Evening and Moderator’s First Question
Tonight, I’d like us to keep in mind a few things, things that some of us know and things that some of us don’t know.
Such as, what it’s like to be struggling without a clear path in hard times, what the pull of addiction does, living with the impacts of generational poverty, living with the impacts of generational racism, being targeted because you’re a woman, having lived through famines, being the target of violence, being homeless, being hated simply because you’re a member of a group, being young and trying to find a job or affordable housing, growing old and more fragile, being a parent trying to keep your family fed and safe, having the job of keeping people safe but knowing you won’t always be able to.
Tonight, I’d like us to try to remember that and to remember that along with the harsh realities here in this park, that we also witness the best of humanity every day in this park, from every walk of life.
Children discovering flowers, worms, turtles, chickens, gardeners who insist there will be beauty here, PEP officers who answer the call, outreach workers whose paid or unpaid work is to offer resources or a way forward, no matter how they feel or who they’re trying to help feel, 5th precinct officers who work with youth to build gardens and trust here, artists and historians who bring us plays, art, music, history and literal light, the elder living in a shelter offering a “bless you” to a gardener, park workers who do the vital daily and unglamorous work, the thrill of coming upon the Hua Mei birds, the homeless men who directed police officers to find the person who had assaulted an elderly woman, Wellington Chen’s unwillingness to give up on this park, a teenage girl putting aside her panic to tell her dying cousin, stabbed in a fight here, that she loved him, the dawning pride of some hardened denizens of the park on learning that this park’s land once belonged to black farmers, overworked, underfunded organizations still ensuring critical health, a ROAR Festival pushing back against hate, all of us who keep working despite scarce resources to make this park better.
We are all imperfect people and all of us want a park that’s safe to be in and enjoy.
Tonight we get to listen to the people on this panel to hear what they know, and they know plenty, to honor their very different smarts and then to listen and think together.
Writer Alice Walker reminded us that we change things, make hope concrete, not by waiting for somebody else’s boulder of heroism but by our own actions, by deciding person by person to bring our small imperfect stones to the pile.
- K Webster (President Sara Roosevelt Park Community Coalition)
Moderator Debra Jeffreys-Glass (VP President Sara Roosevelt Park Community Coalition):
I have the honor of introducing this panel…(there are fuller bios on the tables) please say your name, the organization that you’re with, and a short intro.
(the transcriptions lightly edited from each panelist-ed)
My name is Bob Humber and I’m from Sara Roosevelt Park.
It’s a beautiful garden that you have seen many times and I’ve witnessed. I don’t have too much to say right now, but there will be a lot I’ll say later.
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My name is Brian Crozier. I am the program coordinator for Housing Works Harm Reduction Program.
We have a Syringe Exchange on East 9th and D and we also do a walkabout harm reduction outreach in Sara Roosevelt Park, Tompkins Square Park and other areas throughout the Lower East Side.
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My name is Carol Prudhomme Davis. I kind of wear two hats here.
I raised my son right on Bowery and Spring. We had our birthday parties in the park across from your garden. I served as a parent representative of the Lower East Side for Head Start and now I am the executive director of Inside Change from Within and what we do is we support unhoused artists, emerging and activist artists and as a result we are creating food equity programming and we do arts education. Hi, everyone.
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My name is Jeff Cohen. I work with Health and Hospitals.
We work with the van, which is usually parked right in front [of the BRC on Delancey]. We’ve been here for approximately three years and we love this neighborhood. So basically, we’re out here every day, Monday through Friday.
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My name is Marcellus Valentin and I work for City Relief.
I’m a guest care coordinator. We meet people where they’re at on the streets, those who are suffering from homelessness, addiction. We go out to different parts of the city where we bring food also as case managers. In my department, we try to provide resources and get people connected to shelters or whatever they may need.
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My name is Mason Crawford. I’m with Safe Horizon Street Work Project.
We are a youth drop-in program down on Essex Street. We work with young people ages 16 to 24 [years old] but select ages going up to 29 [years old] for services. We are in the area.
We do street outreach. One thing that’s important about our model is that it’s a youth-led peer outreach so we’re employing youth with cash stipends to go out into the parks and do services to young people who may be experiencing homelessness.
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Hi, I’m Wei Tchou. I’m a journalist and I recently wrote a long piece about Sara Roosevelt Park and the garden. I’m also working on a book about the park.
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Jacob Leibovitz: work with the Downtown Goddard Street Homeless Outreach Team, which is the street homeless outreach team that has the contract from New York City Department of Homeless Services to serve this area. So my co-worker Noel Sierra and I were some of the people that show up when you call 311 to request assistance for someone experiencing homelessness.
My name is Noel Sierra. I work with Jacob Leibovitz. We work at Downtown Goddard. I’m from Brooklyn. I went to high school in Manhattan and I’ve been working with downtown Goddard for a little bit over a year.
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5th Pct Youth Officer Shaneek Smith Hi, good evening everyone. Sorry for my lateness. You know, sometimes the job takes over!
I’ve been at the Fifth Precinct for about eight and a half years. At the Fifth Precinct, I work at the Youth Offices. So I deal with everything having to do with kids: whether it’s running the Explorer programs or anything that’s going on in the schools, and so forth.
On a daily basis, I’m in the park…I’ve worked with Ms. K over the years where we’ve done gardening with the Youth Explorers. I bring the Explorers to the Park and we gardening along the stretch from Hester all the way up to this end. We’ve worked in the [M’Finda Garden] behind us.