Resolutions and revolutions

The start of a new year always feels filled with so much promise. Our futures feel expansive and possible. And while so much of our focus shifts to ourselves in the new year, making goals and changes that address our needs or our neglected focuses in the previous year, I want us to advocate for resolutions and revolutions. I want to focus on collective goals that address the needs of the people and create change on a community level.
I’m hoping that LCC’s plans this year will work to make things better for our community. Last year was a learning year. We learned so much from each other and from the residents and business owners in Greater Longfellow. Our neighbors’ input have become our resolutions, shaping what we want to focus on in 2023.
Expanded events programming and opportunities to get to know neighbors was a high priority for many residents. We already have several events planned for this year that we hope will be fun, but also will give our neighborhood a chance to heal, create, and imagine together. Thanks to a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, we are planning a free, family-friendly arts event with workshops, artist vendors, and live music this spring. Our community has experienced trauma over the last several years from a global pandemic to the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent uprisings, the marks of which our community still bears. We hope to provide a space for connection and healing that is long overdue.
LCC wants to address this healing from a multi-angled approach. Trauma won’t be healed by one event, we know this, but we hope that by providing space and resources to address it and supplying mutual aid support and care to all our neighbors is integral to aiding our collective and individual journeys. We can’t heal until our needs are met. Our health equity event planned for summer will provide health resources to our community, including resources for our unhoused neighbors. We hope to provide free hair cuts, health screenings, movement-based activities and more. Community care needs to have a holistic focus.
Holistic care isn’t only how we tend to each other, but how we care for our surroundings. Greater Longfellow has the benefit of proximity to an abundance of natural beauty like the Mississippi River Gorge and Minnehaha Falls. Longfellow Community Council was awarded a Green Partners Grant from Hennepin County. We’ve been working with Better Futures, Black Table Arts and Urban Bird Collective to make and design benches for our parks to facilitate more accessible park space and focus on environmental opportunities for BIPOC community members, which will get underway this spring.
It is going to be a busy year for LCC. This is only a snapshot of what we will be working on throughout 2023, but I wanted to share a couple of things I am excited about. If you have any feedback or want to get involved in any of these projects, send me an email.