Metro Hope Street Festival: Shalom & Ubuntu

This past weekend we had the privilege of “showing the love” in our community through our church’s street festival. The turn-out was beyond our imagination. And the community enthusiasm was amazing.

I’m wise enough to know that with events like this anything can happen.  Weather and attendance are beyond our control.  And, as we learned soon enough, you can predict local reaction to this kind of event even less. 

Overall it was a marvelous day – very much reflecting our church’s approach to city and community. Namely, that the Kingdom of Christ is about shalom, the webbing together of God, people and community. Seeking the shalom of the city can be about seeing a community with prayerful intention. Being eyewitness to things that cause dis-ease and fragmentation, which are natural enemies of shalom.  In East Harlem, we see things like high obesity and Diabetes rates, struggling small businesses, and people in general who are victims of the hurried life (myself included).

Last Saturday here are some of the ways we saw shalom intervene – if even for a few hours.

1.   Time Froze –  In a city where everyone is constantly coming and going. Where neighbors who live in close proximity barely get to talk – we saw a countercultural event.  People were stopping to get to know their neighbors.

2.  Conversation & Action  - The festival was not simply about entertaining but about engagement through conversation.  We conversed with our neighbors about their hopes and dreams for our community through our Mosaic corner (see above).  We conversed about healthy eating and living – how to further address food disparities in East Harlem (high ratio of unhealthy food options to more healthy).

Harlem Seeds a local nonprofit, also put on a healthy food cooking demo.  It’s not enough to promote health and wellness, but learning new approaches to cooking healthy is vital too.

3.  Small Businesses Highlighted  - We had – as our team had put it – A Taste Of East Harlem. Small local eateries were supported in modest ways. We invited the local helado man, Mariano, whose ‘ice-ees’ became a big hit with the children.  Ariselis, a local street vendor brought her delicious, tamales.  Bijan Bistro’s, Mac n Cheese, was out-of-this world.  This is to name a few…

Also represented was, Selah Body Works, Inc.  Jose Rosario provided free massages.  His wife, Valerie, a nutritionist set up a table to teach about food content.

Various artisans sold their beautiful creations. These creations ranged from beautiful scarves, handcrafted jewelry, to canvas art.  These local artists were not easily found so a lot of time and effort went into canvasing them.

4.  God Working On Streets & Sidewalks –  City streets and sidewalks can be great unifiers.  Chalked rainbow streets produced train tracks for cardboard boxed creations of the numbers 2, 3 and 4 train. It was nice to see children playing “old school” games like, skelzies.  Children hopped up on sugar jumped relentlessly inside the bouncy castle. And as a parent I could feel a collective feeling of solidarity as we delighted in our children’s joy.  Joy that truly rose up!

We also had a contemplative space for people to receive prayer or to meditate.

Our lead organizer chose the word, ubuntu, as the theme for our festival. Ubuntu is an African word that means, “I am because we are”. It symbolizes in many ways both our individual and collective imprint as people created in the image of God Almighty. Before Saturday, ubuntu was more of an idea.  After this weekend I experienced some glimpses of ubuntu’s reality and possibilities.

I’m so thankful for all the hands and hearts involved in this special day!

-Jose