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The East of the River Art Scene just got another boost with the launch of a new website Eastoftheriverarts.com

Churches Against Cancer Wellness Workshop

Unless you drive around Southeast with blindfolds, you've probably noticed that Southeast DC has a lot of churches. I would guess-timate that you can walk 3 blocks in any direction and hit a religious center, bible study, prayer circle, baptism, exorcism... you name it.



Our prayed up parishioners and spirited soul brothers and sisters are probably the most passionate and active groups of people in Wards 7 & 8. So it comes as no surprise that some of the biggest churches in the area have teamed up for a Wellness Works Cancer Prevention Workshop. The seven-series workshop will discuss stress reduction, exercise and healthy eating.

The Free workshops offer lunch, childcare and transportation and will be coordinated by Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts.

Wellness Works (Free)
Date: Saturday September 11, 2010
Time: 10am-2:30pm
Location: Allen Chapel AME Church 2948 Alabama Avenue, SE
Contact: 202-889-7296

Feet in the Street in Fort Dupont Park

The Feet in the Street Celebration is back in Fort Dupont Park SE and will kick off with a 5K at 9am in Area 1. The National Park Service and the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) are teaming up again to host the second annual Feet in the Street celebration in Fort Dupont Park on Saturday, August 28, 2010 from 9am-3pm.

I went to this event last year and it was really cool to see all the health and fitness options in Southeast. There are a variety of vendors, organizations and activities showcasing healthy living options in Southeast DC. Make sure to catch the garden tour!

The goal is to promote a car-free day in Southeast. I suggest a more direct way to encourage a car free Southeast is to advocate for a Penn Ave SE metro station, nevertheless Feet in the Street is a great initiative and chance to meet other health-conscious people living East of the River.

So for everyone participating in the 5K at 9am. Look for me, I will be in all purple and struggling to break my 32 minute record.

For more information and updates about the event, please visit
www.goDCgo.com , or contact Julie Kutruff at
the National Park Service at Julie_Kutfuff@ nps.gov
or (202) 426-5961.

Take a Class on Booty-ology

Vision Space Activator and southeast native Binhakaye Joy will facilitate a LIBERATED BOOTY dance workshop for the Dance DC Festival Saturday, August 21 @ 2:30pm. All booties are welcome to dance. Remember: "A liberated booty is a liberated being!" Liberated booty is all about embracing the infinite wonders of your own, personal asset, pun intended! No experience necessary. Read more about the liberated booty workshop here.


Time: Saturday, August 21, 2010 @ 2:30-3:30pm
Location: Atlas Performing Art Center, 1333 H St, NE, Washington, DC 20002
Metro to Red line to Union Station (then walk or take X8) or go to Gallery Place (then take X2 bus)

This Festival is FREE and open to the public and runs from August 20th-22nd. A variety of dance forms and performances will be shared...fun for the whole family! The festival is sponsored by the DC Commission for the Arts & Humanities.

For more booty shaking love! Call 202.6JOYISM for more info!

Finding Good Hope:Anacostia

Famed Southeast Blogger And Now Anacostia put the word out about Good Hope: Anacostia, a fresh and youth driven documentary about Anacostia. Colorful and heartfelt, the 10 minute documentary shows the diversity and uniqueness of Anacostia. Great job to the Summer Youth Employment Program for bringing creativity into the employment of Anacostia's Youth.

I hope we see more!

Good Hope: Anacostia from chris keener on Vimeo.

Five Days of Farmer's Markets

While driving back from my vacation along the breezy beaches of the Carolinas, I indulged in the fresh and locally grown produce stands that typically populate the highways and back roads below the Mason Dixon. I tempted and tantalized my taste buds with juicy tomatoes, punchy peaches, homemade wine and boiled peanuts. The produce stands were open daily, simple, abundant and the fruit and veggies from the farmer's market made it impossible for me to eat the unripened and underdeveloped produce I lazily purchased from the supermarket.

The natural flavor of the delectable delights have prompted me to make a change and only purchase fresh veggies and produce from DC Farmer's Market. I have searched online and on foot for a list of all the farmer's markets in DC within metro, walking, or biking distance of southeast. With the help of a great organization, FreshFarm Markets, I have compiled a list of the easiest and most accessible markets near Anacostia and neighborhoods East of the River.

Monday- No Farmer's Markets

Tuesday-
Ward 8 Farmer's Market
Season: June 8 - November 20, 2010
Time: 3:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Location: United Medical Center, 1310 Southern Avenue SE,
contact: ward8fm@gmail.com

Wednesday
FOGGY BOTTOM, NW (GWU/West End)
Season: April 7 to Nov. 24, 2010
Time: 3 to 7 pm
Location: I Street between New Hampshire and 24th Street, NW
Nearest Metro: Foggy Bottom
Contact: foggybottom@freshfarmmarkets.org

Health and Human Services, SW (Independence Ave)
Season: June 2 to Oct. 27, 2010
Day and time: Wednesdays, 2:30 to 6:30 pm
Location: 200 Independence Avenue SW. Click Here For a Map
Nearest Metro: Federal Center SW.

Thursday
WHITE HOUSE, NW
Season: May 6 - Nov. 18, 2010
Time: 3 pm to 7 pm
Location: 810 Vermont Avenue, NW (between H St, NW and I St, NW).
Nearest Metro: McPherson Square


PENN QUARTER, NW
Season: April 1 to Dec. 23, 2010
Time: 3 pm to 7 pm
Location: North end of 8th St. NW, between D and E Sts. NW
Nearest Metro stop: Gallery Place or Archives
Contact: pennquarter@freshfarmmarkets.org

Friday- NO KNOWN FARMER'S MARKETS

Saturday/Sunday
WARD 8 Farmer's Market, SE
Season: June 8 - November 20, 2010
Time: 3:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Location: United Medical Center, 1310 Southern Avenue SE,
contact: ward8fm@gmail.com

RIVERSIDE Farmer's Market
Season: Late October
Time: 11 to 3 pm
Location: 601 Division Ave. NE
Riverside/MGP has a Farmer's Market, which accepts and EBT/WIC Vouchers

EASTERN MARKET 8th Street SE

My Moment at the Podium

So I missed the Mayoral Forum at St. Elizabeth's today. Did they ever discuss health? But if I were there, I would have brought up the embarrassing medical, food, fitness and environmental conditions facing the youth of Wards 7 and 8.

I recently read a disturbing report by Center for Health and Health Care in Schools where Anacostia youth were sent on a Secret Shopper mission to learn about 7 Health Clinics in Southeast. The teens would call or visit seeking basic health services, such as STD testing, a doctor's appointment, or access by mass transportation, only to be put on hold for 60-90 minutes or told they could not be seen because they didn't have a doctor's referral.

This comes at no surprise, but what is more disturbing is that there seems to be a cloud of apathy hovering among the constituents who continue to vote in political figures who donate money to imaginary social organizations. By the way, I still haven't heard a peep from the Ward 8 Health Council??

The state of health services for youth living East of the River is deplorable. We cannot even begin to address cleaning up the Anacostia River or building new restaurants if the youth who work behind the register can't even get to a doctor's appointment.

The outcry to improve health among residents in Southeast must start with the collective community of Southeast placing pressure on councilmembers to use their money and power for health programs that actually work. (Greater Southeast Hospital, Metro Teen AIDS, Whitman Walker Clinic, HEAT Haven, Groundwork Anacostia or the new DC Is Building Green Bridges, just to name a few.)

I am convinced that if we address the overall health of southeast, we will naturally see a change in other aspects of our neighborhood.

..Stepping away from the podium and walking to the voting booth.

Calling All Femme Fatales for Food Justice!

When I was 12, I remember my grandmother ordering me to go out back and pick string beans out of our little patchy garden and my grandfather bringing home juicy cantaloupes that he sprouted in his front lawn. Way back in the 80's fresh, organic and locally grown food was not a social movement, it's what we did because we had to, we could and we didn't want to pay more at the supermarket.

Now, 20 years later, a plant-based, organic, locally-farmed food lifestyle is a statement, like Che Guevera shirts in the early 00's. The market vegetable guy is chic and the online deliverable produce boxes are just short of symbolizing the American, urban, food class division.

Food Justice is now the new (ism). Food Justice, Vegan Revolutionaries and Food for All are movements toward more environmental and social equality. As more of us country folk make our way into the cities, we are finally facing the urban food deserts that many of our counterparts have dealt with for decades. I have joined in on the food(ism) movement by advocating that residents East of the Anacostia demand cleaner, safer and healthier options for food.

But Berkely, California activist Sistah Vegan has gone one step further calling for all vegan, women of color who also happen to be revolutionaries. She wants to learn about how women use veganism to revolutionize their communities.

Sistah Vegan Needs Revolutionary Black Female Vegan Activists from Sistah Vegan on Vimeo.

So if you are a) a woman of color b) a vegan c) a revolutionary, then jump in on the discussion. I am sure you are out there!

No Food Justice..No Peace!

Also check out Sistah Vegan's other insights on her blog.
http://vimeo.com/13867476

From Green Ghettos to Holistic Hoods

Recently, I tweeted the question, "Where is the healthiest hood in America? Someone threw out the Bronx-based The Blk Projek and the Holistic Hood Initiative headed up by mom, activist and entrepreneur Tanya Fields.



Fields got her start working with Majora Carter's amazing Green the Ghetto movement and branched out on her own to focus on mothers and health.

The Holistic Hood program offers free mommy and me yoga, acupuncture, urban farms and socio-political representation to urban mothers and families. Their website touts a cleverly worded mission: WOMEN LEADING & CHANGING THE WORLD THROUGH ANY "WHOLISTIC" MEANS NECESSARY"

What I like about this movement is that it doesn't wait for gentrification, outsiders or businesses to bring holistic health to their community. These women mobilized to create a health environment that met the economic and social realities of their hood.

Regardless of who gets to be the next mayor or Ward 8 Council member, in order for Anacostia to see any real social change, we need to create programs like Holistic Hoods that tap into the most critical component of the urban family... the black mother! She cooks, she cleans, she births, she screams! We know her and we must value her by valuing her health. Anacostia already has the access to fresh organic produce, options for free yoga and a burgeoning health and wellness coalition... Let's bring the mother's into the mix so they can plant and grow real seeds for Green Ghettos and Holistic Hoods!

For more info on Bronx "Wholisitic" Movement check out:
the Blk Projek
Holistic Hood
http://theblkprojek.wordpress.com/programs/holistic-hood/
Tanya Fields
http://changents.com/tanyafields/biography
Majora Carter
http://www.majoracartergroup.com/
Blk Girl Blog
http://www.blkgrl.com/blog/?p=55