Baldwin Street Block Party Honors Unsung Heroes

by Lisa Reisman

Enjoying a cup of Ken’s Ice on a sweltering August Saturday.

The block party organizers, including Ward 3 Democratic co-chair Lisa Velasquez-Torres, Alder Angel Hubbard, Neil Richardson, and Jewu Richardson.

They were the OGs of Baldwin Street and Davenport Avenue, the elders. For 35 years, Frances Jackson and Bridget Smith had an open door policy for anyone to drop in if they needed a bite to eat, a place to rest, a listening ear.  

At the first Baldwin Street Reunion and Block Party on a recent Saturday, the two were packing book bags with school supplies alongside Jewu Richardson, whose organization, Building IT Together CT, hosted the event.

“Miss Frances, she never had a door locked,” he said, as a squeal erupted from a nearby bouncy house. “Anybody going through hard times, you knew you were welcome at her house and Bridget’s.”

That was until 2002, when a total of 91 families were displaced after the city identified a three-block area in the Hill neighborhood — including Baldwin Street, Davenport Avenue, and Congress Avenue — as the best location for a new school to replace the deteriorating Prince and Welch-Annex elementary schools. Jackson and her family relocated to West Haven, as did Smith’s.

“I grew up on this street, did a lot of stuff on this block, a lot of negative things, because there was a lot of that,” said Richardson, the August sun beaming down on the 75 attendees. “But there were always a lot of real positive older people helping us.”

The block party, he said, “is for the ones that didn’t make it and for the elders like Miss Frances and Miss Bridget that helped us along the way to make it.”

There was also Pastor David Via, known for “feeding people, giving out clothes, and organizing trash cleanups in the neighborhood,” Richardson said; Ann Boyd, a former Black Panther who, he said, “helped revitalize this community” with her advocacy of public education, housing, and social justice, and Emma Jones, who has fought for police accountability and systemic reform since the 1997 fatal shooting of her son Malik Jones.

Inspired by their example, Richardson said everything at the event was free, from hair cuts, school supplies, a game truck, to a bouncy house and Super Slide, to an assortment of food trucks, to cups of Italian ice.  

“We are showing this ward, especially our young people, that we see them, that we care for them,” said co-host Angel Hubbard, alder of Hill North’s Ward 3, as the Stepping N Tyme Linedancers of New Haven shuffled and pivoted to “Come Get to This.”

Under a tent near Davenport Avenue, Halisi Moyo and Terry “T.D.” Davis were engaged in a heated chess match, with Brandon Smith looking on. Smith is involved with S.P.O.R.T. Academy, founded by his father Ed Trimble, which uses chess, he said, “as a tool to build future leaders and independent thinkers.”

Not far away, Sharon Jones, Ward 26 co-chair, settled on a bench with her husband. “You didn’t have to leave the neighborhood,” said Jones, who grew up on Elliott Street. “The movie theater was the next block over, two blocks down was the roller rink, Tikotsky’s Bakery was over on Legion Avenue, and then you could walk a few blocks to downtown.”

Just beyond a queue of neighbors waiting to indulge in the sweet offerings of Ken’s Cool Ice, Asst. Police Chief Manmeet Bhagtana was introducing herself to residents. The event, she said, was “a great opportunity to connect with people and tell them what the police are doing and to hear what they want from the police, what their ideal police force should look like,” she said.

Richardson greeted Bhagtana, then stopped to chat with a volunteer at a table with leaflets for the Malik Jones Center, a community space that will be built at 425 Grand Ave., the exact site where Emma Jones’ son was murdered.

He said his organization, Building IT Together, was helping Emma Jones secure the space. “She was one of the first pioneers of community organizing in our era, and I am inspired by her,” he said.

He turned and look at Jackson and Smith loading notebooks and pens in book bag after book bag. “A lot of what we’re working on was started by those that came before us, and it’s up to us to continue their work,” he said.

Kai Smith and Adonis Smith, engaged in chess game organized by S.P.O.R.T. Academy. Credit: Lisa Reisman photo

Carrying on the work… Credit: Lisa Reisman photo