Dixwell Bids Farewell To The Plaza

“Hope is the seed of love, of Black folk, and of all people. And that’s what this building is,” ConnCAT CEO Erik Clemons said as he addressed a 100-person crowd gathered to celebrate Dixwell Plaza one more time before it’s knocked down and redeveloped.

Saturday’s sweltering low-90s temperatures did not deter patrons of the long-standing and soon-to-be-former midcentury shopping plaza on Dixwell Avenue between Webster Street and Charles Street from gathering for ​“Celebrating Dixwell: Honoring ​‘The Plaza.’” 

The event was hosted by ConnCORP, the for-profit affiliate of the local job-training nonprofit Connecticut Center for Arts and Technology (ConnCAT), in conjunction with 94.3 WYBC. It took place as the local redevelopment team plans to soon begin the demolition of the complex’s existing commercial condos and then build up new apartments, a grocery store, a performing arts center, a food hall, ConnCAT’s new headquarters, and more.

For decades, Dixwell Plaza has served as the cornerstone New Haven’s Black community, coined ​“New Haven’s Black Wall Street” by many of the patrons who showed up to Saturday’s event.

Dixwell resident Jackie Bracey was first to take the microphone to thundering applause on Saturday. She opened the event by paraphrasing a quote from American poet Langston Hughes’ book Black Misery: ​“Misery is when you heard on the radio that the neighborhood you live in is a slum but you always thought it was home.”

“We are not a slum nor a ghetto,” Bracey said, ​“we are a home. And home comes from your heart.”

Branch Manager of the Stetson Library Diane Brown followed with a rousing speech, emphasizing the plaza’s legacy of Black empowerment: ​“One day, I hope that those babies,” she said, gesturing towards a cluster of children hard at work on a series of scratch art crowns, ​“will drive by the building and see Black men walk out of those doors dressed in suits, see Black professionalism at its finest.”

In an interview later that afternoon, Brown reflected on her own connection to the plaza. Pointing to a poster featuring prominent Black doctors in the twentieth century, she said, ​“See those doctors? I grew up with them. This place taught me Black pride and Black power. It taught me that I am Black on the outside, Black on the inside, and Black when I dream. And I hope it teaches these kids that, too, so they can be the ones on that poster in a few years.”

For Exalted Leader of the Elks’ East Rock Lodge #141 Gary Hogan, the transformation symbolizes opportunity: ​“The plaza has always offered financial opportunities to entrepreneurs, civil liberty opportunities to families, and programs for youth, so I hope the new building will continue to generate opportunities for neighbors to shop, educate their kids, and grow old,” he said to the crowd.

Hogan then invited his fellow Elks to join him in front of the audience, before handing off the microphone to the event’s emcee, DJ Latif.

“I love my plaza, and I love my people,” said Latif, ​“now let’s party!”

A current of children running back and forth between a snow cone vendor and the bounce house carried laughter through the air as the community’s older members on the banks of the shade reminisced about the plaza.

Surrounded by her community, Brown found the words to embody the values of Dixwell Plaza: ​“When you think of Dixwell, think of home. Think of peace. Think of love. Think of the future — that’s where you’ll find us.”