Laura Glesby Photo
Shaquan Whitfield with Joshua and Justin.
Diamond Tree (center) leads a hula hoop activity.
Shaquan Whitfield brought her children, Joshua and Justin Currie, to a neighborhood-spanning, back-to-school fair on the Farmington Canal Trail because she wanted to “show my kids there’s more positive than negative” in Newhallville.
It was a good day to be looking for positivity.
The stretch of five blocks along the Farmington Canal Trail in Newhallville was the place to be in New Haven Sunday afternoon.
Over 500 people turned out to a Back to School festival organized by a new coalition called Newhallville United, wandering between Starr and Goodrich Streets where they could — among other activities — receive free school supplies, watch a drum line and dance performance, learn African hopscotch, buy native plants, register to vote, and gather with neighbors.
The event along the trail was filled with joy. Adults could be seen trying out hula hoops, perhaps for the first time in decades; elbow-bumping friends they hadn’t seen since before the pandemic; receiving a meal for the night. Along the path, kids balanced on rollerskates; informed backpack-distributers of their favorite colors; raced ahead of their parents, trying to beat their siblings.
Newhallville United, the umbrella organization that ran the massive event, is a newly-formed cooperative of Newhallville-based activists and organizations.
The group’s top priorities, according to Newhallville Community Management Team Chair Kim Harris, are to bring more resources to the neighborhood and to increase voting and census participation in Newhallville.
The Back to School giveaway was the group’s second collective effort, following a Black Lives Matter rally in late July. It came on the heels of a groundswell of food distribution events organized by Newhallville community leaders this summer, an effort to address heightened pandemic-induced food insecurity in the area. Those efforts have seen Newhallville organizers give out over 144,000 meals this summer.
“Covid has really helped us to think a different way,” said Jeanette Sykes, a community management team leader who runs The Perfect Blend, a program for middle school girls. She said that Newhallville United is evidence of a stronger spirit of collaboration among Newhallville activists, a wide array of neighborhood groups pooling resources toward larger collective events.
“The people who usually ride the trail, they’re kinda stunned to see Black and Brown people having a good time here,” said Devin Avshalom-Smith, the founder of the Newhallville Community Action Network (NCAN).
Avshalom-Smith said he hoped the event — and the Newhallville United coalition itself — would raise awareness of the neighborhood’s strong community. “It’s not ‘Newhallville: gun violence.’ It’s not ‘Newhallville: poverty.’ It’s ‘Newhallville: unity,’” he said.
Kim Harris.
Kim Harris beamed with excitement as she spoke about the fair, which took a month of planning.
“It reminds me of way back in the day,” she said.
“Every Little Bit Helps”
Chaila Gilliams and Jeanette Sykes.
One community group that Sykes has been partnering with is The Green Peacock, a health and wellness organization that has helped Sykes run exercise and health awareness programs for young people.
The Green Peacock’s founder, Newhallville resident and longtime dancer Chaila Gilliams, had its own tent at the Newhallville United event.
Gilliams distributed menstrual products and, led by instructor Diamond Tree, ran a series of fitness demonstrations for kids and adults alike, ranging from hula hooping to African hopscotch.
One driver passing by stopped Gilliams beside the exercise demonstration, momentarily stalling traffic on Hazel Street, so that she could give a cash donation.
Doreen Abubakar (pictured), a steward of the Learning Corridor where the event began and the founder of Community Placemaking Engagement Network (CPEN), sold native plants from a community garden across the street. A group of local teenagers had planted the seeds for those plants, and they would receive a portion of the proceeds.
Elder June Redmond-Smigh, Elaine Smart, and Ida Kazee represented Mount Hope Temple as they handed out notebooks, pencils, and erasers — hoping to be helpful for students of all ages.
Nina Faucett (pictured) gave out dinner meals from Haven’s Harvest, which rescues food that might otherwise be thrown out from Quinnipiac and Yale Universities. Cynthia Spears helped families sign up to receive jackets through a coat drive, via a new organization she started, Ruth’s Kids Closet, in honor of her mother. Lydia Bornick led another registration event.
Democratic Registrar of Voters Shannel Evans helped a handful of people register to vote, while a census team including Addie Kimbrough (pictured at right, beside Evans) spread awareness about the national survey that would determine the federal resources going to the city.
Halo Daniels, left, visits Nathan Joyner’s puppet station.
Nathan Joyner explained world history to passersby, including rising fifth-grader Halo Daniels (pictured with Joyner), with the help of a puppet.
Dennis Velasquez of United Way handed out drawstring backpacks containing a picture book titled All the Way to the Ocean, a story about taking care of the environment.
The popular Vegan Ahava food truck parked at Hazel Street…
… and an ice cream truck awaited families on Basset Street.
The Blue Steel Drum Line — a Connecticut-based group with members in their teens and twenties from across the state — filled the air with the sounds of percussion. Their partner dance teams, the Diamond Dolls and the Pearls, performed side-by-side.
A group of captivated onlookers filmed on their phones.
The drum line and dance teams are “basically a big family,” said 20-year-old drummer and Hamden resident Jayquan Bronell (pictured).
The event drew people from within the neighborhood and from around the city.
Ancilla Herrera came to the event from Fair Haven. She has four kids, two in grade school, and said she came because she needed school supplies; she heard about the festival from NCAN’s Facebook page.
Laura Daniels came with her daughter, Halo, who’s about to start fifth grade at Worthington Hooker Magnet School.
Halo misses seeing her friends at school. “It’s very bad,” she said of the online school.
“It’s a no-win,” Laura agreed.
But the pair was excited to be on the Canal Trail on Sunday. Laura, who’s lived on Shelton Avenue for 10 years, said she came to support a strengthening Newhallville community after hearing about the event from NCAN. They left with a backpack and a new plant.
A family of cousins based in Newhallville — Valerie Burroughs and Paula Webb, with their daughters Mecca, Samara, and Shamah — came to the fair prepared: with a red wagon to haul the school supplies they planned to gather.
“Every little bit helps,” said Webb.
Midway through the event, their wagon was filled with books, notebooks, snacks, backpacks, folders, and masks.
NCAN-founder Avshalom-Smith made two young friends at the event, Maliyah and Allyssa, whom he accompanied from table to table as they collected school supplies for the start of the year.
“Where else in the city are you gonna see something like this?” Avshalom-Smith said.
What a wonderful example for the rest of the city! A community coming together to meet the needs of the community, strengthening neighborhood pride and renewing friendships and perhaps starting new ones. When people come together to celebrate, support and enjoy and stand up, speak out and be counted, they can move mountains and make a difference!
Thank you to everyone who contributed to make this event a success.