Neighborly Seeds Planted At WEB Fest

“Soil is like gold,” Nadine Horton told a small group gathered at the Armory Community Garden — and caring for it, she said, requires rotating crops and tilling the ground.

She and Farmer D — a.k.a. Dishawn Harris — led a hands-on workshop on planting seedlings Sunday afternoon.

It was one of several half-hour programs at the first-ever WEB (Whalley, Edgewood, and Beaver Hills) Neighborhood Festival, held at the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church parking lot at 255 Goffe St.

Dozens of kids and adults braved the rain to attend. Some crowded under a tent to hear Patty Bellamy-Mathis read from her newest book, while others embraced the drizzle for Jedge Fasoranti’s Capoeira workshop in the middle of the lot.

For Dana and Cynthia Astmann, long-time residents of Beaver Hills, the festival ​“activated the neighborhood” and ​“brought different communities together.” 

“They [Whalley, Edgewood, and Beaver Hills] are almost like ignored siblings,” Cynthia said, adding that Sunday’s turnout, despite the rain, showed just how much energy community events can bring.

Their favorite part? The Capoeira workshop.

Fasoranti, who began learning Capoeira in 2000 from West Haven resident Efraim Silva, led more than a dozen kids through basic kicks and turns. He also taught them the cultural history behind Capoeira — an Afro-Brazilian martial art that enslaved Africans disguised as a dance.

He was first introduced to the practice, which he considers an ​“art of liberation,” through the ​“cheesy” 90s movie Only the Strong.

Now, he wants to share his knowledge with a new generation, as he believes that ​“kids are the future of a neighborhood.” 

Eleven-year-old Serazh Malachowski watched the Capoeira lesson from the sidelines. She said that the entire event was ​“really fun, especially the face painting.” She chose to have her favorite animal, a giraffe, painted on her face, an emblem of her dream to one day see giraffes in the wild. 

WEB Community Management Team Chair Rebecca Cramer was a central organizer of the festival. With the goal of ​“connecting the neighborhood with the city,” Cramer invited a mixture of organizations that would either appeal to children or be helpful to members of the community. She would love to make the festival annual but admits that ​“it is a question of funding and time.”

The backdrop of the event was the colorful mural on the Goffe Street Armory. 

Yale professor Elihu Rubin made use of the festival’s location to tell the story of the armory’s history, as well as discuss potential new uses for the building. 

According to Beaver Hills Alder Gary Hogan, the long-vacant Goffe Street Armory may become a spot for vocational training, athletic facilities, affordable housing, and general community gatherings. 

While the interior remains empty, next door is a thriving community garden founded by Horton nine years ago. For 8‑year-old Holland Horton, learning how to plant pumpkin and carrot seeds during Sunday’s seedling workshop was the highlight of the festival. 

Drawing from his training at Common Ground High School, Farmer D spends his time teaching people like Holland how to farm. Horton herself, a self-described ​“city kid,” learned gardening skills from Farmer D.

“You have to be willing to learn along the way,” she explained, describing the process of starting the Armory Community Garden. ​“You have to be willing to fail.” While some experiments still go wrong, Horton considers the garden a resounding success — ​“a tribute to [her] dad,” who worked on his mother’s farm growing up.

After Holland finished planting her carrot and pumpkin seeds, she decided that she wanted to keep gardening. Her grandmother, Levetta Bailey, convinced her to take a break, but Holland is already gearing up for many farm workdays to come.