The Week Ahead…. Public Safety, Jazz, and Back to School Bike Ride

The Week Ahead…. Public Safety, Jazz, and Back to School Bike Ride

by Larry Janezich

Posted August 27, 2023

Saturday was Serve Your City/Ward 6 Mutual Aid’s Back to School Bash and Youth Festival on Eastern Market’s Metro Plaza.  Serve Your City is a Washington, DC-based non-profit that serves as the Ward 6 hub for #DCMutualAid.  The event brings organization members, community partners, and community members together to celebrate the start of the new school year.  Students and their families have the opportunity to pick up a brand-new backpack filled with comprehensive school supplies and a digital device, learn about and sign-up for SYC/W6MA Tutoring and Youth Enrichment Programs, get assistance in filling out required paperwork for school and get required immunizations, including the COVID-19 vaccine.

SYC/W6MA and its partners gave out 2000 Adidas back packs with school supplies for those who had registered – and 500 of them contained laptops. 

SYC/W6MA volunteers Jahaira Mejia and Jewel Conrad were part of the distribution team.

Maurice Cook is the founder and Executive Director of Serve Your City and Lead Organizer with Ward 6 Mutual Aid.  Cook created SYC in 2009 and stepped up as leader with Ward 6 Mutual Aid when the pandemic struck in March 2020.  Since March 2020, SYC has served as the infrastructure hub for Ward 6 Mutual Aid, a partnership of more than three dozen organizations—many of them hyper-local, Black- or Brown-led groups—that came together to share resources and save lives after the COVID-19 pandemic struck the District.  Cook lives on Capitol Hill with his wife, Jackie.  For more info, go here:  https://serveyourcitydc.org/

ANC6B Task Force on Southeast Library.  (Stock photo from July 30 meeting.)   

Southeast Library Update:  ANC6B’s Southeast Library Task Force met on Monday, August 21.  According to Chair David Sobelsohn, the meeting featured the insights of Robin Diener, director of the DC Library Renaissance Project and president of the Friends of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library.  The group discussed the news that the library plans to close in November or December this year, has promised a community meeting six weeks before the closure, and has committed to provide library-book pick-up and drop-off services at Arthur Capper when the Southeast branch is closed for renovations.  

Nearby neighbors of the library were in attendance and reported on a recent meeting between library staff and the project construction company regarding issues which will arise during renovation.  Protecting the interests of the close-in neighbors was an important reason for the formation of our taskforce.  The library has scheduled another meeting with nearby neighbors for early September.

The Taskforce has scheduled the next meeting for 3:00pm on Sunday, September 10, at the library, 403 7th Street, SE.

Triple Candie’s latest “curatorial riddle” (Riddle # 18) is on display in the space in the front of the former Li’l Pub at 655 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE. 

From the website:  “Founded in 2001, Triple Candie is a research-oriented, independent curatorial agency — run by two art historians — that produces exhibitions about art but largely devoid of it.  Its primary purpose since late 2005 has been to explore the possibilities of exhibition-making as a truly alternative, critical practice.”  For more see here:  http://www.triplecandie.org/

The Week Ahead…. Public Safety, Jazz, and Back to School Bike Ride

by Larry Janezich

Posted August 27, 2023

The Week Ahead…

Monday, August 28

ANC6B’s Special Committee on Public Safety holds a virtual meeting at 7:00pm.

For info on how to join the meeting, go here:  https://anc6b.org/

Among items on the draft agenda:

Presentations:  Guest speakers on violence intervention and public policy address gun violence and improving community safety. 

• Rev. Judie Shepherd, Inner City Collaborative Community Development Corporation
• Michelle Chappell, Moms Demand Action D.C.

Also on the agenda:

• Committee Updates
• Select date, identify agenda items, and determine location for September meeting

Tuesday, August 29, 2023

ANC6B’s Executive Committee holds a virtual meeting at 7:00pm.

For info on how to join the meeting, go here:  https://anc6b.org/

Agenda:

Setting the agenda for the September meeting of ANC6B.

Friday, September 1

Live Jazz at Eastern Market will resume performances after taking a break for August, 5:00pm – 6:30pm.

• First up to open the fall season:  The Capitol Hill Jazz.

Saturday, September 2

Hill Family Biking – Back to School Ride – 10:30am – 12:30pm

Location:  Maury Elementary Parking Lot on 12th Place, NE. 

For map, more info and Mobile eTickets go here:  https://bit.ly/47Srw9J

Agenda: 

• 10:15 AM – 10:30 AM – Bike Maintenance Help
• 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM – Community Ride
• 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM – Watkins Splash Pad and Athletic Fields

Hill Family Biking rides to many of the DCPS schools on the Hill.  Either join at Maury Elementary at the start of the ride or hop on the ride at the school of your choice. Younger riders and their families are encouraged to join at Peabody Elementary (the halfway mark).  The ride will end at the Watkins splash pad and athletic fields to cool off after the ride and play some games.

If bikes need some TLC, please come 30 minutes early to get some assistance – bike maintenance tools will be available, with some experienced amateur bike mechanics on hand to assist.