NEWARK, N.J., August 3, 2010 – The 5th Annual Lincoln Park Music Festival, presented by SEIU, Razac, Verizon Wireless and Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District (LPCCD), attracted over 50,000 people to Newark from national and international locations as far away as Japan, London, and Spain.  The free three-day festival offered a one-of-a-kind experience for revelers to enjoy four genres of world-class African American music and dance in Lincoln Park’s green space; learn about the affordable health, wellness and green lifestyle options available to them; and participate in activities designed for seniors and children. Anthony Smith, Executive Producer of the Lincoln Park Music Festival says that, “The festival has evolved to become a cultural ambassador for the city.  People come from around the world for this unique Newark, New Jersey experience.” Baye Adofo-Wilson, Executive Director of LPCCD adds that, “The 5th Annual Lincoln Park Music Festival was truly an experience with outstanding performances throughout.  We started off a special anniversary weekend with the All-Star Newark Jazz Arkestra produced by Amiri Baraka and ended with hip-hop legend Kurtis Blow. This is one of the best festivals I’ve been to in New Jersey”

View 2010 Festival Photo Gallery – http://bit.ly/9EEqfq

“I congratulate all of the organizers and sponsors of this year’s Lincoln Park Music Festival, which has grown into the largest three-day outdoor concert series celebrating Newark’s great musical past, present, and future.  Each year the music festival attracts tens of thousands of visitors who enjoy world-class performances of jazz, gospel, house, and hip-hop music. This year’s festival featured so many talented artists and musicians. I am proud that this annual tradition continues to manifest the cultural diversity of our great city,” Mayor Cory A. Booker said.
The festival has a companion photography exhibit titled “Reflections” Music Speaks on view now at the Russell Aldo Murray Gallery through October 2, 2010. Curated by Tony Graves and Akintola Hanif, Reflections is a retrospective exhibit about the last four years of the festival and features works by Tamara Fleming, Tony Graves, Akintola Hanif, Jaecyne Howell, and Stafford Woods and a priceless collection of photos by Vincent Bryant taken from 1972-1978 at Newark’s legendary Zanzibar nightclub.
The spirit of “Ticker’s Town” returned to Newark on Friday, July 30, when the All-Star Newark Jazz Arkestra hosted by Amiri Baraka opened the annual festival by paying tribute to Newark’s great jazz composers James Moody, Wayne Shorter, Woody Shaw and Larry Young.  Friday’s highlights included activities for seniors and children sponsored by WellCare and Newark Community Health Centers, the 6th Annual Newark Idol competition and a gospel showcase with “How Sweet the Sound” A Verizon Experience. On Saturday, July 31 thousands gathered in the park to dance to performances by icons Loleatta Holloway, DJ Joaquin “Joe” Claussell and Newark’s own Kenny Bobien.  For the grand finale on Sunday, August 1, hip-hop pioneers Kurtis Blow, Big Daddy Kane and Eric Sermon of EPMD and many more gave tremendous performances before a record-breaking audience to celebrate the 33rd Anniversary of The Rock Steady Crew.
Other free attractions in the park from July 30, 31, to August 1, included the following:

·       Essex County Division of Aging distributed free organic produce to the senior attendees;
·       WellCare Health Plans engaged seniors in “Silver Sneakers” activities including line
dancing, Zumba, foot massages and free raffle drawings;
·       Newark Community Health Centers and Health First co-sponsored the Health Pavilion
and provided free health screenings, blood pressure, diabetes, glucose, and body fat
index, and mental health information;
·       Newark Community Health Centers, Inc. and Health First co-sponsored “Reach Out and
Read” fostering childhood literacy, health and wellness;
·       Doctor Khalil Carmichael led mini exercise boot camp sessions;
·       Caryl Lucas led Mind, Body & Spirit “Positive Thinking” sessions;
·       Lotus Yoga Newark held Yoga classes at 460 Washington street, #1, Newark;
·       LPCCD hosted a youth skateboard and golf clinic; and
·       Americhoice sponsored “Work Those Hips” Hula-Hoop contests

The 5th Annual Lincoln Park Music Festival was made possible by the generous support of our sponsors:  SEIU, Razac, Verizon Wireless, The City of Newark, The County of Essex, PSEG, New Jersey State Council on the Arts, YOPAT, WellCare Health Plans, The Benefit Providers, The Ingerman Group, Health First, Newark Now and Super Summer, PNC Bank, Newark Community Health Centers, Fedway, State Farm, AmeriChoice, Wyndham Hotel, Continental Airlines, Newark International Airport Marriott, Bacardi Gold, 1800 Tequila, Red Bull, The Star Ledger, FEMWORKS, Cablevision, and GlocallyNewark.com.

About Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District

Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District is a non-profit 501c(3) organization with a mission to plan, design and build a comprehensive arts and cultural district in the Lincoln Park/Coast area of the City of Newark, New Jersey.   LincolnPark Coast Cultural District (LPCCD) is transforming a low-income neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey from blighted lots into an urban eco-village. Leading the revitalization of an emerging arts and cultural district, LPCCD is one of the nation’s best practices in sustainable urban development. The project includes 125 LEED United States Green Building Council certified units, music festivals, historic restoration projects and the Museum of African American Music, a Smithsonian Affiliate.

Russell Aldo Murray Gallery       

460 Washington Street, Newark, NJ

Music Speaks – Moody’s Musical Notes – A Celebration of the Life of James Moody through photography by Stephanie Myers with musical performances by trumpeter James Gibbs and Gene Ghee and special Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District presentation “Shadows” A day in Newark with “James Moody” by photographer Tony Graves
Presented by
Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District in conjunction with Smithsonian Institute Affiliate Program, National Portrait Gallery, Newark Arts Council and Remy Martin

This summer we’ve expanded the list of herbs and vegetables that we’ll be providing. Expect more root vegetables such as potatoes, yams, and horse radishes. Our CSA members will be able to choose from among a variety of herbs like lemon balm, mint, and basil just to name a few to include in their share bundle package. We also have kale, chard, tomatoes, mustard greens, and much more. Click here for a complete list of what we produce.

Other new initiatives we are starting this season is a drop off delivery option which will be available to Lincoln Park residents only. Plus we will have cooking demonstrations among other exciting communal activities. It is our hope that you will enjoy the array of produce we’ve been working hard to grow for you.

It’s no secret that there is a direct correlation between food and health wellness so how our foods are grown and where it derives matter. So where does our food come from? Produce grown by farmers are sent to a factory to be packaged and processed. The processed food is then sent to a warehouse where it will later be  shipped out via plane, train, or truck to the supermarket and placed on shelves for days or weeks before anyone purchases it. The preservatives and packaging of the food helps to maintain its shelf life as it awaits to be bought by, you, the customer.

Once purchased, the food is on its way to its final destination: your plate. Your food travels quite a distance before it ever enters your mouth. No wonder “food just doesn’t taste as good as it used to.” Before we had mega food chain stores, people would buy food fresh from their local farmer or pluck ripe vegetables straight from their own backyards. While there have been attempts to include non processed produce at supermarkets, on the whole, the best quality food anyone can purchase is from a local farmer’s market, a community farm, or a supermarket that primarily sells organic foods although the latter option can become pricey.

Why local? When you purchase your foods locally from a farmer, you are typically receiving seasonal produce that has not been covered with preservatives. Not to mention that locally grown foods are bursting with rich flavors and are the most nutritional in value for your body. Your food doesn’t travel thousands of miles before you get to enjoy it. You can build a close relationship with your farmer and learn exactly how the food is grown, how it is cultivated, and can see first hand where it comes from. You can also learn a lot about what foods are in season and increase your knowledge in agriculture in general.

Furthermore, an often underestimated and underappreciated reality of buying local is the economic benefit it has for the entire community.  When a community member purchases a product from a local distribution channel, they are in essence circulating their hard-earned dollars back into the hands of folks that are more likely going to redistribute it into their community.  This is a very different dynamic than going to a big box store where our money goes to corporate executives that may live thousands of miles away, completely indifferent to the uniqueness of each town, hamlet, or city.  It can be argued that where we spend our money is one of the most significant and powerful tools of social change.  There are so many great reasons to support locally grown foods.

The other wonderful thing to recognize is that healthy food does not have to be expensive. Search for a farmer’s market or community farm that sells its produce at a reasonable rate. The Lincoln Park Community Farm not only provides a generous bundle of fresh vegetables and herbs at just $20 per share, but we also have cooking demonstrations to teach you how to spice up your food and keep it creative.

Buy local!

michelle raysor – community sustainability intern

The Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District (LPCCD) is a 501c3 organization redeveloping the Lincoln Park community in Newark, New Jersey.  It was founded as a response to the creation of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC).   Local residents were angry with the City of Newark and the State of New Jersey for spending almost $200 million dollars to build a new facility in 1997, rather than renovate and reprogram Newark Symphony Hall–a legendary performance venue built in 1925.  Many local residents believed NJPAC was built with the desire to attract white middle income suburbanites into a new Newark facility instead of integrating them into the historic Newark Symphony Hall, which by the early 1980s had the sunken reputation of being on the “chitlin circuit.”

Immediately thereafter, LPCCD became the vocal opposition to the market devaluation of black culture in a place that was and continues to be predominately black.   LPCCD facilitated the conversations of the town’s disgruntled cultural bulwarks who wanted to prove Newark’s black cultural legitimacy locally and nationally.  Those conversations crystallized the idea that community economic development starts and ends with local pride if it is going to change more than just the built environment.  This is one of the core building blocks of LPCCD.

LPCCD grew into a community development corporation, becoming designated developer of a redevelopment area across the street from Newark Symphony Hall.  In the redevelopment area, LPCCD purchased lots from the City of Newark and is in the process of completing 125 units of United States Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (USGBC LEED) Certified housing.  Over the last several years, this neighborhood that was known mostly for its blight is a burgeoning, sustainable arts and cultural district that now includes two art galleries, a yoga studio, two new mixed-use projects, two new charter schools, a new restaurant/lounge, a farm, a USGBC LEED-Neighborhood Development Gold Certification, a planned Smithsonian-Affiliated, Museum of African American Music, approximately 250 completed housing units, an annual music festival that attracts over 50,000 people from around the world and a community of artist and creative professionals integrated throughout.

Even with all of our successes and blessings mentioned above, the challenge is, and continues to be, the economy and where do poor people, poor communities and communities of color fit in the overall local, regional and national economic development priorities.  Our partnership with this well-known, successful low income housing developer was short lived because his successful business model is based on the idea that you build low income restricted rental housing in low income neighborhoods, regardless of the trends or the local aspirations, because those are the most financially secure, economically viable deals.   And, more importantly, he is not alone!  This economic depression makes the proposal of any non low-income housing development project in a low income neighborhood financially irresponsible.

Nonetheless, LPCCD is continuing to redevelop Lincoln Park in this market.    We believe poor people, poor communities and communities of color deserve all the economic, civic, educational, cultural, political and spiritual opportunities that wealthier communities have.  We believe the projects that take place in these communities have the capacity and responsibility to build the foundations of a local living economy which can be directive, catalyzing, strengthening and meaningful.   However, we are not naive; our experiences tell us it will be extremely difficult if not impossible to continue with our current goals.  We were completely overextended when the real estate market collapsed in 2008 and we have needed deep-pocket partners for banks to take our development projects seriously.   Our belief in Lincoln Park’s importance to local residents and the City of Newark also works to motives us.  Not to mention, it has taken several generations of dedication to get Lincoln Park to this juncture; stalling now will probably disable any neighborhood scale redevelopment activities from occurring in the foreseeable future and leave our community with another unfinished project.

As we step into this phase of organizational development, working on projects, probably alone, we openly wonder if we are going to succeed.   Our unabashed celebration of urban, black culture as central to our redevelopment strategy has lenders and financial institutions looking at us sideways.   More disturbingly, as I’m writing this first blog, one of my staff members sends out a mass email stating there was an attempted, armed carjacking around the corner from our office today and that we should be careful.   I have to pause and wonder if our former low-income housing development partner and the banks are not absolutely correct about Lincoln Park, Newark and other places like ours.

The Rebuilding Lincoln Park bi-weekly blog will be geared toward providing readers with the updates, challenges, victories and mistakes that we make on this journey.   A lot of what you read will be not pretty; some of it downright ugly, but historically the victories have been sweet when we take the time to enjoy them.   We want to share everything with you with the hopes that in your attempts to work in and transform your communities that our lessons will be helpful.

In addition to practical “how to’s” and a little ‘what not to do’, we’ll highlight the unique nature of urban agriculture and its foundational implications on local and global human health, community development, and environmental sustainability.  We are not farming experts, yet.  Just a rag tag team of designers, builders, a neighborhood sustainability intern, world travelers, former coffee farmers, antarctica research contractor and vertical hydroponic wall enthusiasts, experimenting with a myriad of technical and social ways to creating a farming place that is a welcoming community space.

Our hypothesis is that a community growing food is sustaining its obvious human physical needs while simultaneously providing  emotional wealth and individual happiness. When you have a moment, please review the blog for additional information on the history of the farm, its parent organization LPCCD and how to get involved.

Finally, as this is a working farm in the center of Newark, we are looking for members to get involved and purchase fresh produce.  Our season will open on June 29th, so please click on the CSA title, read all about our process, purchase options, and complete an application.  Where else can you get this fresh of food grown right here in the City of Newark?  We hope to see you out there soon.

Sincerely,

Rob W Sustainability Director