SNA Admin

Annual Music Festival rocks Lippitt Park as Providence shows community spirit

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, from New Orleans, had the crowd rocking as the headliner of the music festival.

By Mathiew J. Medeiros

On a hot, sunny Saturday during Rhode Island summer your options for adventure are limitless, but close to 2,000 people chose to hit up the Summit Music Festival in Lippitt Memorial Park. Headlined by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band playing for the first time in recent memory in Rhode Island, the free event was not to be missed.

Hosted by the Summit Neighborhood Association along with Miriam Hospital and the City of Providence, this year’s festival on Aug. 15 benefited the Fresh For All Fund, which supports local farmers and increases access to fresh foods for all. During the day, members of the hospital staff circulated, seeking contributions.

Monica Anderson, of Miriam Hospital, puts a Fresh For All sticker on SNA President Dean Weinberg to symbolize the cooperation of the two organizations in support of healthful eating.

There are probably only a handful of cities that support free live music outdoors along with a beer and wine garden, glorious food and local arts vendors while bringing the entire community together. Clearly Providence is one of them.

The fun all started earlier in the day with the Hope Street Farmer’s Market in the same park. Folks stocked up on fresh food and then picked out a spot to watch and enjoy the music. As the market ended, Extraordinary Rendition Band started playing and marched from the fountain to the front of the stage bringing everyone to their feet to dance.

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By SNA Admin, ago

Golden opportunity at annual yard sale

Buyers and sellers meet at the 2014 yard sale

The Summit Neighborhood Association’s annual yard sale is coming soon! If you’re looking to offload no-longer-needed stuff or acquire some great used items at bargain prices, please join us at the Summit Neighborhood Association’s annual yard sale on September 19th.

Details: Saturday, 9/19 from 9 to 1 in the yard at the Church of the Redeemer, 655 Hope Street. The rain date is set for September 26th, but we know it won’t rain. If you’d like to participate as a seller, please register here by September 12th: https://www.sna.providence.ri.us/upcoming-events/ or use the mail-in registration form that was included in the latest SNA newsletter. The fee is $15 if you bring your own table, or $20 if a table is to be furnished by SNA. Last year there were 26 registered sellers and enough buyers to leave with almost everything.

By SNA Admin, ago

Music Festival to rock your socks off

The Dirty Dozen

This year’s Summit Music Festival is on track to rock your socks off.

Five acts new to the annual free event – The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Garrin Benfield, And The Kids, Torn Shorts and Brother Henry – will join the returning Extraordinary Rendition Band from 1 p.m. until 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15, in Lippitt Park at the intersection of Hope Street and Blackstone Boulevard.

The music starts just after the weekly farmers market closes. There will also be a beer and wine garden for adults, numerous activities for children, craft vendors and information booths plus food trucks galore. This year will also feature a raw bar presented by Matunuck Oyster Bar.

Also new this year is the focus of the event, which is to raise awareness – and money – for the Fresh for All Fund, a program to support local farmers and increase access to healthy, fresh foods for under-served communities. Miriam Hospital is partnering with the Summit Neighborhood Association in promoting this effort, which is part of a nationwide initiative to foster cost-saving, socially beneficial innovations in public health and fresh food access. The fund helps low-income Rhode Islanders afford to choose high-quality fresh foods through a variety of incentives and helps empower residents both to eat well and to grow food for those in need by nurturing a culture of fresh food.

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By SNA Admin, ago

The Miriam Hospital Parking Study Meeting

WHEN: Tuesday July 28 at 6:00pm
WHERE: Hurvitz Board Room, located on the first floor of the main hospital near the Gift Shop.

The Miriam Hospital has hired VHB to assist us with a parking study.  We engage VHB every five years as part of our Institutional Master Planning process.

You are invited to attend a meeting in order to meet the project manager of the project and to hear the preliminary findings of the study.

Light refreshments will be served.

If you have any questions please feel free to call Monica Anderson at The Neighborhood Hotline at (401)-793-4040.

By SNA Admin, ago

Rochambeau Library summer programs

The symbol of the story project.

Our superhero-themed Summer Reading program kicks off Tuesday June 30 at 2PM with face painting and a visit from a mad scientist! Kids can sign up to win prizes and be heroes by reading to raise money for our sister library, the Kitengesa Community Library in Uganda.

Some special appearances:
Wednesdays, July 8 and July 22,11:15AM: We’ll be at Billy Taylor Park for Storytelling under the Trees.
Tuesday, July 7, 3:30PM: Farm Fresh RI, Fruit and Veggie Avengers!
Tuesday, July 21, 3:30PM: Draw comics with Eric Fulford. 
Wednesday, July 29, 3:30PM: Animal World Experiences, meet animals with special abilities. 
Thursday, July 30, 6PM: RI Computer Museum, make music with Rasberry Pi.

Secondly, we were selected as one of 10 libraries nationwide to collect oral histories for StoryCorps, to be archived at the Library of Congress and possibly featured on NPR.
Is there a loved one you would like to interview? Do you have a story to tell? We will be booking 40 minute recording sessions for people at Rochambeau in September. Please join us to learn more about the project at a special listening session on Thursday, August 6 at 7PM, otherwise contact me with your questions and referrals.

thank you,
Ed Graves, chief librarian

By SNA Admin, ago

Community gardens take major step

This is the plan designed by the city to renovate the tot lot and include community garden plots along the north edge.

Community gardens in the “tot lot” on Summit Avenue took a giant leap forward Monday night when a governance committee of residents was formed.

Gathering in the Rochambeau Library under the leadership of Greg Gerritt, a prominent local naturalist and gardener, the group of about a dozen met with Wendy Nilsson, the new superintendent of the Department of Public Parks. The formation of a panel of local people to run the community gardens section of the renovated tot lot was a parks department requirement identified by her predecessor, Bob McMahon.

The committee identified several aspects that needed to be addressed, including how plots are to be set up, allocated and run as well as how to raise the funds needed above the amount the city will be able to provide.  Two subcommittees were set up to move forward on these issues.

Another meeting of the overall panel is to be convened in the near future, with the goal of being ready to plant in the spring of 2016. The committee may choose to operate outside of the structure of the Summit Neighborhood Association, which has been instrumental in developing the garden plan.

Beside Gerritt, the group members were Dean Weinberg, SNA president, Kerry Kohring, SNA vice president, Doug Best, Annalisse Daly, Linda Gifford DeGeus, Anneliese Greenier, Douglas Itkin, Brian Lalli, Hien Le, Lucy Ann LePreau, Jessica Porter, Read Porter and Eugene Sorkin.

By SNA Admin, ago

Parking meters are not seen on the horizon for Hope Street’s business district

Parking on Hope Street has not reached the point when management by parking meters is needed.

Parking meters will not, repeat not, be coming soon, if ever, to the Hope Street commercial district.

That was the message relayed by Pernilla Frazier, co-president of the Hope Street Merchants Association, to the regular meeting of the Summit Neighborhood Association’s board of directors.

She was reporting on a presentation by Providence Parking Administrator Leo Perrotta to the merchants group on the city’s plans to expand the use of parking meters.

Frazier said Perrotta told the business owners that there were no plans in the immediate future of six months to two years for parking meters on Hope Street and perhaps not at all.  He said the Summit area is unique in the concentration of residential streets abutting the commercial area and the resulting problem of parking overflow is extremely complex. Perotta also said a solution might have to involve some sort of residential permits, and the city is not prepared to undertake that at this time, Frazier reported.

Although the city says there is some evidence of stagnation of parking along the Hope Street business district, it is currently not worthy of being solved by the imposition of meters, Perotta said. If a survey shows that 85 percent of available parking spaces in an area are taken, the city tries to intervene with management by metered parking, but that concentration has not been demonstrated on Hope Street.

In addition, there is still the question of how to define a parking spot as a right or a privilege, Frazier said, adding that the HSMA is planning to consult with an urban planner on the issue.

The SNA board, which has not formulated a position regarding parking meters, promised Frazier to work closely with the merchants as the situation develops.

By SNA Admin, ago

City arts festival seeks volunteers

The City of Providence and FirstWorks invite you to be part of the first annual Providence International Arts Festival, a vibrant and multicultural arts festival. Volunteer support is critical to the Festival’s success and is needed on June 13, 2015. We are in particular need of volunteers for the afternoon (12:00pm-7:00pm) and evening (7:00pm-12:00am) shifts. Sign up today! http://www.pvdfestparticipate.com/piafvolunteer.

Volunteer shifts will last five hours on June 13 and will include:

·Backstage (ex. ID check, manage artist requests; manage artist hospitality with festival caterer)

· Info booth (ex. assist with questions/directions; hand out maps & schedules)

· Merchandise booth (selling artist cd’s/dvd’s/tshirts; track and report transactions)

· General Production (set-up; tear-down; errands)

The Providence International Arts Festival is an exciting gathering of art, music and spectacle. More than 500 local, national and international artists will come together downtown for the celebration.  On June 13, the Providence International Arts Festival will feature headlining events throughout the day including a parade, art exhibits, live dance and music performances, and more. Grammy-award winning West African singer-songwriter Angelique Kidjo, the “guerilla opera” opera group Squonk Opera, the contemporary string ensemble Earth Harp, and the local gospel group RPM Voices are all part of the planned programs.

Contact Amber Ilcisko with questions, ailcisko@providenceri.com, 401-680-8541.

Twitter:

Be a part of the celebration: volunteer at #PVDFest! #PIAF needs YOU!  #PVDFestival #PIAF2015

Facebook:

Be a part of the celebration as we create a new signature event for the Creative Capital: Volunteer at the @2015 Providence International Arts Festival! We’re recruiting people for all sorts of fun stuff!http://www.pvdfestparticipate.com/piafvolunteer

By SNA Admin, ago