Unity

This weekend is the 15th anniversary of the No Boundaries Block Party. The brainchild of Ray Kelly and Rebecca Nagle, the party that became a movement started as a way to bring both sides of Eutaw Place together. What better way to get people to come together than a party?

After 15 years, we can look around this country and even this city and see so much work left to be done, yet in this little corner of Baltimore, we continue to be more and more united across divisions of race and class and neighborhood as we all seek one common goal. More opportunities and more joy for everyone in the 21217 zip code. What better way to celebrate this than another party? I hope you will come out and join friends and neighbors this Saturday from 12-4 and join in the fun.

Two other important things are happening at the same time: First, the No Boundaries Coalition is moving as an organization back to where it all started, to the 1500 Block of Eutaw Place inside the Unity Hall, developed by MAC, the former Memorial Apartments Corporation on which Ashiah Parker and Myself serve as President and Vice President, respectively.

Eutaw Place has been a destination kind of address for the entire life of this city. When the Phoenix Club was opened at 1505 Eutaw Place it was the first Jewish Social Club to make it to Eutaw. When Lillie Carroll Jackson purchased her home at 1320 Eutaw she became the first African-American and the first woman to own property here.

With the Opening of the Unity Hall (at 1505 Eutaw no less) We are opening, on this historic line of division, a space open to all — for arts, culture, community, entertainment, job training, and education — a building that will serve the entire community.

The first meeting to plan the Unity Hall was a listening session at Pedestal Gardens led, of course, by Ray Kelly. Next, we were in the Rec Center. We did a radical thing when trying to understand what this building should be — we talked to the people we wanted to be in it.

When Elijah needed to hear the voice of God, he went up to a cave on a high mountain and lived through a hurricane, an earthquake, a fire, and a storm before he could hear the still small voice of God. We did not have to go that far. We just had to listen to each other.

I hope you will come and see the Unity Hall this weekend, and also come back and visit in the months and years to come.