Thomas Breen photos
Father-son duo Dexter and Isa Singleton practice drawing ...
... as Mendy Katz and Nir Bongart cook up some kosher burgers on Sunday.
Quiet. Neighborly. Diverse.
Beaver Hills residents and visitors hailed those community qualities as they turned out for an annual block party replete with CBD body butter, kosher hot dogs, a bouncy castle, and a whole lot of neighborhood love.
That was the scene Sunday afternoon from noon to 5 p.m. on Glen Road between Ella T. Grasso Boulevard and Osborn Avenue.
The cause for gathering was the second-annual Beaver Hills Block Party, organized by a host of neighborhood stalwarts, including Ainissa Ramirez, James Dormon, and newly tapped Whalley-Edgewood-Beaver Hills (WEB) Community Management Team Chair Rebecca Cramer.
Early on at Sunday's block party on Glen Road.
In addition to bringing out dozens of neighbors from the Boulevard, Roydon Road, Bellevue Road, Ellsworth Avenue and elsewhere into the tree-lined shade of a street temporarily closed to car traffic, the event’s organizers also opened up the block party for the first time this year to local entrepreneurs.
That meant that Ekow Body’s Candice Dorman, BAMN Books’ Nyzae, Studio Allie’s Allie Bruch, Devils Gear Bike Shop’s Johnny Brehon, Make Haven’s Lior Trestman, and Westville-based bonnet craftswoman Joyce Murray among others talked shop and boosted their businesses from tables and tents set up along the block. Alongside them stood Beaver Hills residents Mendy Katz, Nir Bongart, and Alder Brian Wingate, who served up a spread of freshly grilled hamburgers and hot dogs (“All kosher,” Katz said about his table’s offerings) to hungry passersby.
Thomas Breen photos
Bernetta Witcher-Boateng and Lior Trestman talk silkscreening and leatherworking at Make Haven's table.
Unlike last year, when the block party took place on a Saturday, this year’s event was held on a Sunday. Ramirez said that change of date was made to respect Jewish neighbors’ observance of the Sabbath, and to encourage those Beaver Hills residents who weren’t able to come on a Saturday last year to check out the neighborhood fest this time around. Ramirez said the event will alternate taking place on Saturdays and Sundays in the years ahead.
Beaver Hills is among New Haven’s more diverse neighborhoods, with both a sizable Black population and a fast-growing Orthodox Jewish population affiliated with the Lubavitch Hasidic movement. While tensions have been high at times in recent years over concerns about public safety, general violence, and anti-Semitic incidents, Sunday’s event saw Beaver Hills neighbors from all walks of life come together to bridge divides and celebrate the diversity that defines their neighborhood.
Ainissa Ramirez's hat and "I Heart Beaver Hills" pin.
Time again on Sunday, organizers and attendees alike described the event as a welcome opportunity to break the spell of pandemic-induced isolation, hang out with old friends and new neighbors, bridge the invisible intra-neighborhood divide that is Ella T. Grasso Boulevard, and gather outdoors in public in a residential neighborhood so many of them adore.
“It’s been a great way to meet people in the community,” said Ramirez, who lives on Ella T. Grasso Boulevard, and who asked not to be photographed for this article.
Growing up in New Jersey, Ramirez said, “I didn’t understand this concept of” walking over to neighbors’ houses and hanging out, getting to know the people who live next to you. She said, in her nearly two decades living in the community, that’s a defining part of Beaver Hills.
“We take care each of each other,” she said.
And she described the neighborhood as place where “you can see people in all different phases of life,” people of all ages, races, religions.
That diversity, she said, is part of what makes living in Beaver Hills so special.
Roydon Road resident and theater director Dexter Singleton agreed. “It’s a diverse neighborhood in every imaginable way,” he said.
Trestman and Allie Bruch.
Bellevue Road resident and interior designer Allie Bruch said the same when asked for her thoughts the neighborhood she’s called home since 2019.
“I love my neighborhood,” she said.
What does she love about it?
“Its diversity,” she said. “It is hands down the absolute most important” part of living in the neighborhood, for her. “It makes for a way richer existence.”
She said she’s stayed in touch with her next-door neighbors during the pandemic by frequently walking over to catch up on their front porch. “It’s special to be in a neighborhood of long-term residents of New Haven,” she said. “It’s just very family oriented. I feel blessed every day” to live here.
“It’s very quiet. It’s very peaceful,” said longtime Roydon Road resident Bernetta Witcher-Boateng.
Candice Dorman.
In between offering samples of CBD body butter, Ekow Body’s Candice Dorman described Sunday’s event as a “throwback to the block party” that she remembered as a staple of her youth growing up in the Bronx.
“It’s a quiet little neighborhood,” she said about Beaver Hills. Everyone knows about Westville and downtown, she said. “We’re this little alcove.” Events like this are a perfect opportunity to introduce people to the neighborhood.
Asst. Chief David Zannelli and Letitia Charles.
Standing alongside Assistant Chief David Zannelli, Colony Road resident Letitia Charles said with pride, “This is a beautiful neighborhood. This is the most diverse neighborhood” in the city.
Roydon Road resident Duwane Means (right) browsing amongst the vendor tables ...
... Asst. Chief Zannelli shows off some mermaid earrings he purchased on Sunday for his daughter ...
... BAMN's Nyzae with a library's worth of books for sale ...
... Beaver Hills Alder Brian Wingate warms up the grill ...
... as fellow Beaver Hills Alder Tom Ficklin takes in the scene from the DJ table.
Nan Bartow (second from left) and Rebecca Cramer (second from right) with Bartow's grandkids Michael and Anna.
And she described the neighborhood as place where “you can see people in all different phases of life,” people of all ages, races, religions.
That diversity, she said, is part of what makes living in Beaver Hills so special.
Roydon Road resident and theater director Dexter Singleton agreed. “It’s a diverse neighborhood in every imaginable way,” he said.
Are you kidding.All diversity dose is blind us to the underlying racism in society. I was reading how.Diversity ideology dictates that intentions, as opposed to outcomes, are what truly matter. It does not demand that individuals take specific actions to promote inclusion or equity.In other words Diversity just allow white folks to say we have Black and Brown in our neighborhood.
Charles M. Blow, In his bookThe Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto said it well.
Neo House Negro
Charles M. Blow
“Too many of the Black elite get drafted into white-adjacent privilege, suckled by personal prosperity and personal comfort, blinded by the glamour of the high society. They become the neo house Negroes, placated, passive, a resurrection of an antebellum relic in which the best and brightest of Black society, those who would otherwise be the generals in resistance and rebellion, are lulled to sleep by luxuries.”
― Charles M. Blow, The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto