From a Sense of Community to Collective Pride

Kirsten, a member from NYC, shows photos of Story Garden in Brooklyn to a family in Navajo Nation.

In August, the New Mexico team was visited by Kirsten, an ATD Fourth World Volunteer Corps member in New York City. She was a facilitator for the Brownsville Story Garden in Brooklyn, where families live in high-rise buildings. She brought many pictures that she shared at Story Garden (SG) in Black Mesa, AZ, Gamerco and the Gallup flea market.

Kirsten explained how a local tenant association in Brownsville gave ATD Fourth World access to a room for storage. Back across the country, in Gamerco, two families have also provided that kind of help. At the Gallup flea market, a vendor donated the SG trailer; our pergola and wooden fences were built and more recently maintained by locals as well.

Kirsten told us that our experimenting with watercolor painting in New Mexico SG inspired the New York team to try it out. In both areas, it led to an art exhibit, which brought about great community pride. In Brooklyn, the library’s bookmobile started coming to SG and, here, Gallup youth services librarian Anne provided the exhibit display walls and attended our Art Show.

As different as the settings may be, SG projects always want to support the sense of community that a lot of people have, especially those who live in poverty. These projects often reveal the best in people, both in Story Garden and in the community beyond.   

Special thanks to Anne, who became a monthly storyteller at flea market SG and who has just left Gallup!