Leader
Maya Thomas
Location
2200 Jefferson Street Philadelphia, CA 19121
About the project
The North Philly Peace Park was founded in 2012 on several vacant parcels of land directly across the street from the Blumberg Housing Projects. The founding members were a socially engaged group of Blumberg and Sharswood neighborhood residents, activists, designers, organizers, and educators, who formed an ecological campus that sought to collectively solve many of the neighborhood’s critical issues. The group utilized their collective resources, knowledge, and skills and designed a campus that included a fence-free organic farm, an Earthship, and created after school and community programs like the Urban County Fair. In 2015, the North Philly Peace Park was displaced by PHA development plans and fought these actions aggressively from 2015- 2017, resulting in a move to its current location along Jefferson Ave gaining land security. From 2016- 2019 the Park has been engaged in the redevelopment process with partners from the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, BCJ Arictects, Habitat for Humanity, Youth Build Philadelphia, Perryman Construction. In 2020 the park will finalize this process by completing an off-grid facility to further complement its programs and model an equitable design practice within a gentrifying neighborhood.
The park has adopted an Afro-futurist approach for the design of the pavilion that will merge and highlight continuities between ancient African architecture from countries of the western coast of the continent and modern African American architecture typologies. Past technological or design innovations from ancient and modern west African culture should be embedded within an overwhelming futuristic context. The construction of the pavilion and landscape will solidify the long history of black activists and culture by creating a beautiful green space where black life is affirmed. These funds will allow us to complete the entire structure as designed by fall 2020.
The Steps
Summer 2020
- complete building permit
- Achieve complete funding
Fall 2020
- Groundbreaking
- Start Construction
Why we‘re doing it
The North Philly Peace Park provides FREE programs to the greater Philadelphia community. It is a grassroots organization with a dedicated volunteer staff and a membership base strongly rooted in surrounding neighborhoods. Its programs are supported by volunteers and strategic partnerships. The park is located within North Philadelphia.
The Pavilion's facilities will strengthen all five program areas established to address the needs of the local community facing displacement, food inaccessibility, and poverty. A permanent park and garden in North Philadelphia for local residents to practice health + wellness, enjoy fresh produce, learn emergency preparedness, and participate in yoga classes, green education, vegan cooking, and fitness at no cost. The park is also a safe open space for residents of the community to gain valuable green economy skills for a prosperous future. The 5 program areas are as follows:
Organic urban farming:
The free produce program is supported by the garden and local donations. Since 2018 the park has given away more than 3,000lbs of fresh healthy produce. During Covid-19 the park stepped up its efforts to provide masks.
Sustainable Education
The park has several school partnerships that provide curriculum units for K-12 students and hosts school group visits to provide ecologically-based educational programs that include planting, landscape design and construction, composting, pollinators, plant identification, solar power, and art. The park has provided lectures and tours about our work to local universities and college students.
Build Community
The park provides free health and wellness community programs including therapy, yoga, fitness, and cooking classes as an apart of the monthly Self- Care Saturdays program. The North Philly Peace Park advocates locally for the community and will engage in a voting registration campaign this fall.
Green Wall Street
The program is a popular weekly local entrepreneur market of natural products. Most products are manufactured from the harvest of the garden and include items like soap, candles, and natural healing herbs, etc.