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One of my favorite days in Mount Pleasant happened in 1997. Some friends and I organized an event at Don Juan’s. We called it Cabaret del Barrio. We invited poets and musicians from all over the neighborhood to perform. Many people walked in to Don Juan’s that night for the first time and, because it was so crowded, people had to share tables with strangers. Everyone turned toward the little stage we set up in the restaurant’s front window and watched a blues singer, then a punk band, then a Salvadoran poet and then a performance artist from the former Soviet Union. For me the night brought home to me just what a special place Mount Pleasant is – and how lucky I was to live in a neighborhood with so many opportunities to share experiences with all these different kinds of people and communities.
I want to see more dialogue around this issue because I think it could build bridges across some of the painful divides that have alienated so many people from each other and from the neighborhood’s community life.
| Natalie Avery, a DC Native, first moved to a Mount Pleasant group house in 1991. Now, raising two young children in a house just outside Mount Pleasant’s borders, she is deeply committed to building strong cross neighborhood alliances to address greenspace, education and youth justice issues. |
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