Dozens ​“Taste The World” At Sherman Fest

Sherman Avenue brightened to the sounds of beating drums and the flavors of falafel, barbecue, and tacos at Neighborhood Housing Services’ (NHS) ninth annual multicultural festival.

That fest, called ​“Taste The World,” took place at 333 Sherman Ave. on Saturday afternoon.

Returning after a five-year hiatus, the event featured food trucks such as Mamoun’s Falafel, T.O.P. That BBQ, and Taqueria Tlaxcala as well local nonprofits.

The festival first started in 2010, funded by a NeighborWorks America grant to support minority women homeownership. It took a pause after its last festival in 2017 due to changes among staff, according to NHS Managing Director Bridgette Russell. The hiatus was then extended because of Covid, but made a comeback this year, with Russell saying that NHS wants to return to holding it annually as it did before. 

“A lot of this is just kind of our give back to the community that has so generously worked with us and helped us to be here doing what we’re doing for the last 45 years,” Russell said.

To Russell, Saturday’s event served not just as a fun gathering but also a way to strengthen community connections and spread awareness about NHS resources. 

“A lot of times, people, when they come on our campus, they always say ​‘I walked by here. I never knew like you had all of this back here,’” Russell said.

Creating a storm on the bongos was Darlene Brumell and her grandson Amir, whom she attentively recorded and cheered during his performance. 

Brumell said she heard about the event through word of mouth and just knew she had to come out. Her favorite part of the festival was seeing ​“everybody coming together.”

Perusing through the mobile bookstore Peace Love Books Abby Storch, 29, who selected Notes on Grief and We Should All Be Feminists, by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi, and The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead.

Storch, an assistant editor at Yale University Press, decided it would be a great time to look at Adichi’s writing and work after getting Adichi to write a foreword for a book currently in the works. 

A Fair Haven resident, Storch praised NHS for its longtime efforts to repair and build new affordable homes for owner occupants in New Haven, and said that she has seen displacement in her own community due to monopolizing landlords.

“I think affordable housing should be available to everybody and is a right,” she said, ​“so I love that Neighborhood Housing Services is in the business of connecting people with the resources that they need to be able to get secure and stable housing.”

Tucking her books into her purse, Storch took time to reflect on the event and the fact that she was able to see and reconnect with old friends.

“This is just a great chance to meet neighbors and to have fun, to get great food and to celebrate New Haven in general,” she said.

Areta Huckaby, senior administrative assistant at NHS, took on a new role outside her administrative duties during the festival as a beading instructor.

Huckaby, 59, has spent seven years crafting jewelry. After finding out she was allergic to nickel she decided that it would be best to take matters into her own hands and make her own jewelry. Later she launched an entrepreneurial venture called A Twist of Wire Design, where she sells her handmade goods. 

She said the therapeutic nature of her craft keeps her committed to her work. 

“It’s just soothing,” Huckaby said. ​“I love all things beautiful, you know what I’m saying?”

She gets her design inspiration from social media and from seeing earrings on passersby. 

“I’m always scoping people’s ear lobes to see what they’re wearing,” she said.

Huckaby hopes to start doing virtual lessons in the future and advises people that start jewelry making to get essential supplies through Etsy, where sellers often include coupons in customer orders and learn from YouTube tutorials. 

“You can spend a lot of money in jewelry supplies, so what I would suggest is to just get the basic tools,” she said, holding up a round nose plier, a wire cutter, and a needle nose plier. 

Tabling near the food trucks were community health workers Simone Wilson and Lacole Floyd with the Community Action Agency of New Haven (CAANH).

CAANH offers multiple services to New Haven residents, including nutrition services with their emergency food pantry, case management services for people who are housing insecure or homeless, and energy assistance through the CT Energy Assistance Program, which gives heating assistance to households in East Haven, Hamden, New Haven, North Haven, and West Haven.

Floyd, 44, resonated more with her outreach work after seeing the impact of Covid on her surrounding community, which Wilson, 28, agreed with.

“It’s great to see that everything is lifting back up. But we also know that so many community members were affected by the pandemic, some people lost jobs,” Floyd said, ​“so that’s when our programs really kick in with them and kind of help them get back on their feet.”

Throughout Saturday’s fair Floyd and Wilson continued to hand pamphlets with goodies like red frisbees to draw people in.

“Everywhere we go, we try to bring fliers and then hand them out and let everybody know: spread the word, spread the word, spread the word!” Floyd said.