Encuentro 5: Physical space in Boston for cultural, political, and community organizing/programming

http://www.encuentro5.org/home/

E5 is 2,000+ square foot multi-media event room that serves as a venue for cultural and political organizing/programming.

Located on the 5th floor at the UNITE-HERE building in Chinatown, at 33 Harrisson ave. Boston, MA 02111, E5 is conveniently reached by subway, bus, or car.

E5 hosts a range of social, cultural, radical, and political groups from the Boston area who use the resources provided by the space to promote fundamental change, revolution, and education.

Lynn has a multitude of community, social, political, and cultural groups. One of them has already presented a forum on a Lynn Coalition at E5.  How great would it be to federate the many progress-minded groups of Lynn and have monthly or quarterly meetings at a space like E5.  A compañero of mine, from Lynn, has told me of a space that a Chilean friend of his owns in Lynn where it may be possible to organize small events.  As soon as I can contact him, as he is quite busy with Occupy Boston, I shall discuss/share this idea with him.

In the meanwhile, there are many groups in Lynn, such as the Highlands Coalition, who already have spaces where they organize and do the good work from.  What I envision is something on a somewhat larger scale, and one that serves multifunctional purposes, that can host larger meetings to bring together a broader cross-section of Lynn's progress-minded folk.  Perhaps an abandoned union hall, school, or church may serve us, as sadly there are many of these buildings in Lynn which stand empty.

The organizers at E5 have been consistently friendly and helpful. I first heard about their venue at a memorial march for Sacco and Vanzetti, earlier this summer, from two Puerto Rican men who were impressed that I had used a Spanish slogan on a sign I held during the march.  E5 is very involved in seeking justice for the immigrant communities of Boston and the world.  As a Lynner, and a descendant of Irish and Italian immigrants, I identify with, stand in solidarity with, and consider myself an ally of the immigrants, both in my community and around the world.  Lynn has the unique demographic of being heavily represented by immigrant and refugee communities from all corners of the world, PR, DR, Chile, Mexico, Guatemala, Haiti, North Africa, Sudan, Nigeria, Iraq, Cambodia, Vietnam, Ukraine, as well as many other lands, not to mention the older communities of immigrant descendants: Irish, Italians, Jews, Russians, Poles, Greeks.  The list is too large to write here.  By some estimates, Lynn's public schools serve the immigrant children of over 60 national origins, which puts a challenge to the educators, and I salute our teachers and school-workers for attempting, with little assistance from the state, to meet this great challenge of educating and serving our diverse community.

I know I go off topic sometimes, I write like I think.

Lynners unite!  Together we can build a better world out of the ruins of the old.


On a final note:  One of my favorite things to do on a summer night in Lynn is to go to Red Rock park and try to identify as many languages as possible, even to my untrained ear I've identified about 13 different tongues one night.  Truly fascinating to live in such a global city!

New Name.

Quick update, homework calls!  The new name  reflects a more refined focus I would like to take with this blog, it may also signal a new beginning...maybe I'll be able to keep updating on a regular basis this time.  I love Lynn, I am Lynn-centric, She has shaped who I am and I will do as much as I can to give back to her.  Renaissance reflects what I believe is happening and has been happening in Lynn for a while now, can't quite figure out the date but maybe some older Lynners who have their ear's to the ground might be able to pin-point the time when Lynners increasingly became concerned with the apathy and drudgery that the city was sinking into, like the recently built high school sinking into the marshy earth. Like the sinking school, there are those amongst our city, the ranks swelling every day, who are building stronger foundations. 
It feels like I discover a new community organization or Community-minded Lynner every month.  The Highlands Coalition, Lynn Happens, East Lynn Association, Friends of Lynn Woods, Friends of Lynn Beach, the growing arts community, Vida Urbana/City Life, and most recently the New Lynn Project.  I hope to aid and abet these groups in their efforts to better our beautiful city.  More people are reflecting upon the causes of crime and poverty and looking for positive efforts to prevent people from becoming victims of either social illness.  Lynners are looking to their spaces, streets, properties and cleaning/improving them, taking renewed pride in them.  I love to drive around the city and see the most humble abode and be able to see the love and care the dwellers have taken in its upkeep.  Even a potted flower on a window sill brings a smile to my heart.
Revolution.  This word has acquired a negative connotation over the years, but I find it to be a very positive idea.  A revolution of the heart, the soul, the mind, an awakening to a new way of viewing the world and our place in it.  This Revolution is sweeping the world, from North Africa, Chile, and to the streets of America.  Nonviolent revolution is always desired and I hope that our open hearts will dull the blades and cool the fiery passions of both the revolutionary and the reactionary.
The Revolution of the mind, the heart, and the soul has created the foundations upon which the Renaissance of Lynn is occurring, and it is the same in many of the other working class communities of Massachusetts: Lawrence, Lowell, Jamaica Plain, Methuen, Haverhill, Worcester, Fall River and many more.

For the city, for the stone-built towers, for the woods, for the ocean, for every stream that flows, every water the cools, for all of the people and all of the creatures.

Building a map for the future of Lynn

I would like for anyone with patience to click on the attached link and skim through it to see what the town of Keene, NH has labored to put together.

Keene, NH Comprehensive Master Plan

In essence the town has planned out a well balanced approach towards improving the character of the city for all of its residents (the fuzzy, feathered, slimy, and scaled ones too!)

I would like to quote from the plan

"A sustainable community is one that is economically, environmentally, and
socially healthy and resilient. It meets challenges through integrated solutions
rather than through fragmented approaches that meet one of those
goals at the expense of the others. And it takes a long-term perspective—
one that's focused on both the present and future, well beyond the next
budget or election cycle"

This connects with me and my visions for the city of Lynn, and the world in general, on a deep level. As we may have lost in our culture, but a facet which has remained in the cultures of indigenous peoples, is the concept of an integrated approach, rather than a fragmentary one. We often hear of many different interests in the city saying they have the solution. Some claim that we need to ease restrictions on small businesses and rezone so as to allow greater economic development. Others want to protect their neighborhoods from multi-unit and lower income housing. Still others want to want to protect the few remaining green spaces in the city (your author included) even if it comes at the complaints of developers claiming to want to create jobs or new tax revenue in the form of new housing.

Why not take a balanced and holistic approach, one that works for all of the citizens and all of the neighborhoods and all of the green spaces? Why not build a plan that will last beyond the next budget or election cycle?

As a very old, urban, slightly decayed city, Lynn has some major hurdles she needs to overcome. There must be plans in place for creating stability and prosperity for all of her citizens of all origins. We must create safe, clean, accessible, affordable neighborhoods with recreation spaces and opportunities for locally owned small businesses while at the same time protecting those who struggle from being priced out of their homes. We must help the hungry, help the homeless, end the cyclical unemployment and underemployment, improve opportunities and equality of opportunity, create unity and solidarity in the city and amongst our neighboring towns. We shall usher in a Lynn renaissance.!
We must, however, avoid previous attempts at dictating from crystal towers and instead work hand in hand with the people of each neighborhood, creating a coalition of community leaders of all interests and desires. The plan must not be a foreign design grafted unwillingly but an organic framework created by the minds and hands of the people who it will effect.

So my fellow Lynners, what are your desires, dreams, wishes, hopes? We should create a committee and begin to survey the citizens of Lynn, the children especially, and discover what the main concerns are, what are the problems, and what are the solutions. We will create a list of desires, a vision of a future Lynn.

And like the mural in the Lynn Library depicts, we shall be guided by our inner angels towards the Eden that was always there, hidden in our dreams, a dream of possible Lynns.

so as not to wax too poetic, Lynners you have only to lose your apathy and your doubts, the future is ours!