(From left) Zach Freidhof, Kelly McHood, Caitlin Boyle and Beth Vild are the catalysts behind Love on Akron, a four-day event with live music, community discussions, yoga and other healing modalities at the Well Community Development Corporation, a former church on East Market Street. (Photo: Chris Miller)
Four-day event takes place Sept. 16 through 19 at Well CDC
The neighbors gathered at the residential Summit Lake intersection to paint a street mural, but this sweltering August day brought with it torrential rain instead. While the painting was waylaid, the event moved ahead, as people played basketball in front of a nearby church while others decided to dance in the rain and celebrate their neighborhood.
The positive force behind this gathering and so many others in Akron is the Big Love Network (and its offshoot Akron City Repair), which hopes to foster a greater sense of community in the city’s neighborhoods by involving residents in art, storytelling and public discussions, among other activities.
The group’s latest effort is a four-day festival, Love On Akron, Sept. 16 through 19 (Friday through Monday), which will include nightly panel discussions and performances, along with yoga and other healing modalities (a full schedule is available below). The panel discussions will be packed with community leaders who will talk about topics like health, civic engagement and community problem-solving.
The Big Love collective focuses on creative placemaking, or helping residents recreate their spaces using existing resources, along with connecting people through the public commons. These ideas can take the form of public art, civic engagement, community workshops, resource management or neighbor-led design.
“We hope to foster and model a more participatory process in decisions made in each neighborhood,” says Zach Freidhof, part of the core team behind Big Love and Akron City Repair and a well traveled songwriter and musician. “A deeper sense of community that encourages communal sustainability is very important to us, as is the sharing of wisdom and story, and the bringing together of artists, organizers, city leaders, faith leaders and neighbors.”
City Councilwoman Veronica Sims performs spoken word at Envision Akron: Middlebury. (Photo: Yoly Miller)
The bulk of the Love On Akron event will take place at the Well Community Development Corporation (CDC), a new community development hub that is refurbishing the former First Presbyterian Church at 647 E. Market St. to include a number of local nonprofits and community groups, like Akron City Repair and Rooted Akron, along with Compass Coffee, a 3,000-square-foot coffee shop.
The philosophy behind City Repair, Big Love and other similar neighborhood organizers is to spur change through the creative community. “The creative community helps look at challenges from different perspectives and angles,” says Freidhof. “Art is an experience that historically allows for diverse groups to gather and celebrate, while also calling groups to participate and engage their own creativity. The transformation that we all feel as we experience these participatory experiences finds its nearest translation through art. Art builds confidence, and collaboration, and artists should be one of the first people on the list of who to consult with because of their creative view of how to tackle an issue. Artists inherently believe that what is not yet is possible.”
Beth Vild, also a facilitator and core member of Akron City Repair and the Big Love Network, says, “We hope that people will take the power of participatory design processes to heart; that they will find value in getting input from neighbors as they move forward with decisions that affect the footprint around them. We hope for people to embrace having the conversations about healing our neighborhoods and communities in a serious and authentic way. And the thinking can be switched from people doing things for a community, to doing it with that community. Long term, we’d love to see Akron’s communities feel like their opinion matters and are vital to the life blood of the neighborhood.”
Spaces for healing
Along with tactical methods of repairing communities, there’s an underlying spiritual and holistic goal, repairing the soul that exists within our neighborhoods.
With Rooted Akron, which is part of the Big Love umbrella, founders Kelly McHood and Caitlin Boyle look at healing that can occur within public spaces.
(From left): Kelly McHood, Beth Vild, Caitlin Boyle and Zach Freidhof. (Photo: Chris Miller)
“We feel that the best way for our community to heal is by coming together as a community,” says McHood. “When people come out of their houses to connect, talk or simply be with one another, then it creates a safer, closer community as the barriers once separating us drop. By gathering in safe spaces that allow for authentic connection, we are able to learn the strengths and needs of our neighbors and work together to build a community that is safer, healthier and inclusive.”
“Love On Akron propels and helps to fulfill Rooted Akron’s mission as we are actively working on bringing the Akron community together – in the same space, with the same offerings and opportunities, regardless of socioeconomic boundaries,” says Boyle. “For Love On Akron, we are striving to create a safe space to gather where important local issues can be discussed, while also providing room for community leaders and citizens to learn from one another.”
Vild says healing also requires serious reflection: “We find that some of the best people in our city to assist in that expression are artists, healing practitioners and gardeners/permaculturists. Healing takes a commitment to looking at ourselves, and our city, honestly and authentically.”
In tandem with the Love On Akron festival, Akron City Repair will host four neighborhood installations: a Party with Paintbrushes at North and Howard streets in Cascade Valley; a “barn-raising” in the Middlebury neighborhood (to create a playground and soil beds for the W.O.M.B.’s community garden at East Market Street and Arlington Road); completing the aforementioned street mural at Long and Edison streets in the Summit Lake neighborhood; and a West Hill event (at Crosby Street and Oakdale Avenue).
The Big Love Network has a positive track record of community events, like Rooted Akron’s Envision Akron in Middlebury in June, which centered around the W.O.M.B.’s community garden, and the Big Love Festival, an arts and culture festival that has grown in size each year. You can also find this core group rolling up their sleeves at any number of community events, like Highland Square’s PorchRokr or Square Fest, sorting trash for recyclables and compost to divert these items from landfills, bringing the events close to “zero waste,” with only a handful of trash bags generated among thousands of attendees.
To get involved with the Big Love Network visit, www.bigloveakron.wordpress.com or find them on Facebook or email [email protected].
For more about Love On Akron, visit the event’s Facebook page.
LOVE ON AKRON SCHEDULE• Friday, Sept. 16 (6 to 10 p.m.): The Re-Identification of the Rubber City
6 – 7: Networking & Dinner (Ms. Julie’s Kitchen & Compass Coffee)
7 – 8: Panel Discussion with Jason Segedy, Michael Marras, David Giffels, Tony Troppe, Ameer Williamson, Jennifer Toles, Ian Patrick Schwarber, Brad Savage, Kara Ulmer, Kristoffer KC Carter
8 – 8:15: Yoga/Meditation with Kristoffer KC Carter
8:30 – 9:30: Building Our Own Myths and Legends Workshop with Blue Green
8:30 – 10: Zach & The Bright Lights – Soul & Inspiring Indie Folk Rock
8:30 – 10: Donation-based Healing Modalities with Shay Somerville-Shropshire & Ashley Suzelis
• Saturday, September 17 (6 p.m. to midnight): The Caring Economy
6 – 7: Networking & Dinner (Ms. Julie’s Kitchen & Compass Coffee)
7 – 8: Panel Discussion with Nancy Lynn Holland, Greta A. Lax, Julie Costell, Beth Knorr, AaRron Epps, Kyle Julien, Zac Kohl
8 – 8:15: Yoga/Meditation with Nancy Lynn Holland
8:30 – 9:45: DJ Chaka – Spinning Reggae, Hip-hop, Afro-beat
8:30 – 9:30: The Way of Permaculture with Steve Larson & Brandon Myers
8:30 – 10: Donation-based Healing Modalities with Jeffrey Zayda
10 – 11:30: DJ Kevin Richards – Hip Hop, Indie, & Soul
• Sunday, September 18 (6 – 10 pm): Ecosystems of Problem Solving: A Peacebuilding Discussion
6 – 7: Networking & Dinner (The Square Scullery & Compass Coffee)
7 – 8: Panel Discussion with Zach Freidhof, Darrita Davis, Larry Terkel, Kyle Jozsa, Bronlynn Thurman, Swami Sankarananda, Dr. Bill Lyons, Duane Crabbs
8 – 8:15: Yoga/Meditation with Larry Terkel
8:30 – 9:30: Effective Methods for Change: Peacebuilding in our Time with Swami Sankarananda
8:30 – 10: Donation-based Healing Modalities
8:30 – 10: Acid Cats
• Monday, September 19 (6 – 10 pm): Akron City Repair Process & Next Steps: A Conversation with the Facilitators
6 – 7: Networking & Dinner (The Square Scullery & Compass Coffee)
7 – 8: Panel Discussion with John Valle and Akron City Repair Project
8 – 8:15: Yoga/Meditation
8:30 – 9:30: Tactical Urbanism with Marissa Blewitt
8:30 – 10: Donation-based Healing Modalities with Shay Somerville-Shropshire
8:30 – 10: Gretchen Pleuss
