Hood Huggers and Peace Gardens & Market are proudly hosting their weekend long Spring Liberation Celebration this Saturday April 23, 2022. They will be kicking off their event with their 10th annual Spring Plant Sale and continuing on Sunday April 24th with an extra-special Art Show. The event's focus is to celebrate Asheville's unique slavery emancipation history.
June 19th (Juneteenth) is the federal holiday in the United States commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African-Americans. However, months before, the Union Army of General George Stoneman, led by Brigadier General Alvan Gillem, came to Asheville on April 23, 1865, spreading the news of the emancipation. After signing a truce with the home guard, the General led 2,700 troops and hundreds of newly freed slaves along the Main Street of Asheville (now Biltmore Avenue).
EVENT DETAILS:
Hood Hugger International's Saturday April 23rd Festivities are located at the Peace Gardens (47 Bryant St.) and kick off at 11 am with a puppet show and the opening of their plant sale. They will have live entertainment throughout the day, delicious food by the talented chefs at Cooking With Comedy, as well as local vendors and drinks.
Sunday, April 24th Festivities are located at 8 River Arts Way (in the River Arts District) and build upon our rich African American Heritage - highlighted in DeWayne Barton’s found-object art installations. The day includes Artist Talks, a sneak peak into DeWayne’s upcoming book The CAP Playbook, open mic, live DJ, and refreshments throughout the day. Don’t miss this unique event!
PERSONAL INSIGHTS:
I am privlaged to work alongside some of the most innovative entrepreneurs in Western North Carolina and beyond. One of the ways I get to see entrepeneurs grow is through the AVL Pathways to Grow program in partnership with the City of Asheville's Business Inclusion Office and Interise.
Interise has successfully implemented their highly data-driven training program in 80 cities across the U.S. with impressive results. On average, business owners who complete the program grow their revenues by 36%, create new jobs at four times the regular rate of the private sector, and obtain $2.4 million in new contracts.
One of the entrepreneurs in the class, Safi Martin, is the COO of Hood Huggers International. Safi also happens to be one of my previous supervisors back in my days working as a Qualified Mental Health Professional. For anyone who has any experience in the Mental Health industry, it's definitely not an easy world to navigate, yet I always found Safi did so with grace, understanding and power. A few things that are definitely helpful as an entrepreneur.
Hood Huggers International Background:
In 2003, as the nation clamored to its 2nd war in Iraq, the Burton Street Neighborhood (where (founder of Hood Huggers) Dwayne Barton's family had lived for 4 generations) continued working to recover from the recurring trauma of the war on drugs. Though Dwayne couldn’t stop the war in Iraq, he and his wife, Safi could do their small part to increase the peace within this historic neighborhood – and thus the Burton Street Community Peace Gardens (now Peace Gardens & Market) were born. The Peace Gardens are situated on the side of a hill in the heart of West Asheville’s Burton Street Community, a historically African American neighborhood established in the early 1900’s by community leader, Edward Walton Pearson, Sr.
In 2008, utilizing the Peace Gardens as a launchpad, Dewayne co-founded Green Opportunities.
Green Opportunities is a green jobs training program focused on lifting those from under-resourced and under-estimated communities. In 2015, DeWayne left Green Opportunities to create Hood Huggers International (HHI), Hood Tours, and the Community Accountability Plan (CAP) Framework – a systemic approach to community development using the arts, environment, and social enterprise.
Using HHI as a vehicle for his community-engaged social enterprise work, founder DeWayne Barton pursues the vision of “Rebuilding Affrilachia”. Affrilachia, a term coined by Frank X Walker, refers to African Americans living in Appalachia and it is an ever-evolving cultural landscape poised to render the invisible visible, containing a population that needs and deserves economic investment to ensure its visibility and thriving future. HHI uses the CAP framework which helps identify cooperative ambitions, celebrate and maintain connections. CAP builds accountability through a variety of community-centered projects at the intersections of economic development, environmental and social justice, and creativity. With various stakeholders, Hood Huggers International is dedicated to moving society toward a redesign of our lives to include 6 months of work and 6 months of play.
CONCLUSION:
Supporting entrepreneurs who are fighting for what they believe the world should look like is truly my purpose. In fact, all of the clients I work with are doing so in one way or another through art, social justice, or creative inventions. I'm truly thankful to be working alongside Hood Huggers International and all the students apart of AVL Pathways to Grow. As well as all of our Art Hero, LLC program participants and partners.
And as always, Stay creative
-- johanna patrice hagarty
