By Madyline Swearing
Boston University Statehouse Program
Amid a sea of giant puppets, performers on sky-high stilts and oversized butterfly wings replacing backpacks, hundreds of families, non-profits and residents of all ages congregated to welcome spring and advocate for issues impacting their communities.
The Wake Up The Earth Festival, organized by Jamaica Plain community arts center Spontaneous Celebrations, celebrated its 48th year Saturday, May 2, with a day of unity and local activism.
“Wake Up The Earth started around 50 years ago, because they wanted to put an extension of I-95 through JP and Roxbury, and the people protested and won,” said Paula Cantor, a member of the board for Spontaneous Celebrations. “The Orange Line was built and the Greenway Southwest Corridor, so it’s basically a celebration of saving JP and Roxbury from the highway. I mean, can you imagine if there was a highway right here?”
Dozens of food and arts vendors, and non-profits advocating for everything from environmental protections and labor rights to immigration and housing reforms, filled the Southwest Corridor Park, just across from the Stonybrook MBTA station.
Visitors snacked on Salvadoran pupusas, Jamaican jerk chicken, Indian samosas and carnival food while visiting with local organizations like 826 Boston, Mass Audubon, the Haymarket People’s Fund and the Boston chapter of the Communist Party of the United States.
This year’s festival theme focused on “Migration,” said Cantor, a JP educator of more than a decade.
“It changes all the time depending on the climate and what’s happening in the world. Our theme for this year is migration. Immigration should be for everyone.”
While local vendors set up shop, festival-goers kicked off celebrations from the Curtis Hall Community Center, with a two-mile parade through Jamaica Plain. At Southwest Corridor, attendees joined performers and local musicians in song: “We got to build a better future and we need to start now.”
Echoing that sentiment was Nancy Lessin, co-founder of Military Families Speak Out. Originally founded in 2002 during the Iraq War, MFSO is a national organization of service members and military families dedicated to advocating against unjust military action. This was MFSO’s first year at the Wake Up The Earth Festival, and the organization decided to recreate an exhibit it began during the Iraq War.
Dozens of stuffed animals, children’s shoes and combat boots were paired with red tulips — symbols of sacrifice and martyrdom, Lessin said — to represent the United States service members and Iranians killed since the beginning of the US and Israel’s attacks on Iran and its regional allies in February.
“Our ‘Eyes Wide Open: The Cost of War’ exhibit is to have people reflect on what their tax dollars are doing right now,” Lessin said. “It’s tremendously painful to have to be doing this again, and I think the question that we all have is ‘When will we learn?’”
Bahar Sharafi, a member of the National Iranian American Council, said the visual aspect of the exhibit is particularly impactful and opens a conversation on how people can get involved in local activism starting in small ways.
“When you see a little stuffy or a pair of shoes, it brings it home that these are real people and kids, just like your kids,” Sharafi said.
Lessin said funding instead should go toward supporting public education, health care, childcare, housing and ending food insecurity. Just last year, millions of people nationwide lost benefits available through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program due to changes implemented through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Kate Canney, owner of The Neighborhood Farm, based in Westport, is working to address statewide food insecurity by making her farm’s all-natural veggies, herbs and seedlings SNAP and HIP-eligible. The farm has been at the Wake Up The Earth festival for over a decade, and Canney travels from the South Coast to JP each weekend to sell produce at the local farmers’ market.
“We are so committed to all the different things that can make both food and food plants accessible to everyone,” said Canney. “A big part of what we do is we really want to encourage people to try growing their own food or flowers or herbs.”
The festival has historic ties to environmental sustainability, but over the years, it’s evolved to make space for a plethora of causes, said Gretchen Grozier, board member of the Jamaica Plain Historical Society.
The society is nearly as old as the festival itself, and its volunteer-run organization specializes in walking tours of the neighborhood and chronicles and shares JP’s vibrant past.
“It’s always been environmental … it went from ‘Let’s claim the space for a park’ to ‘Let’s maintain this park,’” Grozier said. “To us, it’s really important to honor that history and be one with the community.”
Virginia Pratt, member of the Massachusetts branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, said being in community is a great reminder of what’s possible through the power of grassroots organizations.
The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom began in 1915, when women from more than 30 countries converged in the Netherlands to advocate for voting rights and to protest World War I. Its founding members include Laura Jane Addams and JP resident Emily Greene Balch, whose work in immigration and social services earned them Nobel Peace Prizes. The organization is currently campaigning with the Mayor’s Office of Women’s Advancement to erect a plaque in Balch’s honor along Commonwealth Avenue.
“This [festival] is an example of what’s possible with coalition building and community organizing,” Pratt said. “Unfortunately, I feel like we’re in a retro time. I remember the Vietnam War. I’m old enough to remember that. A lot of the time, if I listen to the news, I hear the problem, and this is an example of the solution.”
Among the advocacy groups was the Massachusetts Union of Public Housing Tenants, an organization of tenants dedicated to advocating for better housing conditions and denouncing mismanagement.
“Right now, the Trump administration, through the housing department, is trying to impose new regulations for tenants that will affect immigrant communities,” said Deputy Director Rodolfo Saldarriaga, referring to a public housing eligibility rule change from February.
Currently, those ineligible for housing assistance due to their immigration status can still live in public housing or obtain Section 8 vouchers. But a rule change would require each public housing member to be a U.S. citizen or legal resident, with status verification required.
Mixed-status households and those with Temporary Protected Status could be especially at risk.
Saldarriaga said the union will hold its first fundraising day on June 9 in collaboration with the LUCE Immigration Justice Network of Massachusetts, in an effort to support residents facing eviction or seeking legal representation.
“It’s a nice reminder that you’re not alone in the fight and the movement that you want to create,” Saldarriaga said. “It’s a matter of building those bridges and trying to coordinate with each other.”
While residents were able to engage with activism groups within the community, the festival provided several stages to celebrate local music and dance troupes.
This year was South End resident Anthony Poole’s first time at the festival, who came ready to join the improvisation song circle at the festival’s Sun Stage.
“I love seeing the diversity and happy faces,” Poole said. “The drizzle hasn’t dampened anyone’s mood.”
Jeff Goodman, a resident of JP for more than 45 years, was taking a break from the festivities on a bench with his daughter, Julia Goodman, whose childhood was spent going to the Wake Up The Earth Festival.
“Every year we continue to see people that we know,” Julia said. “It’s great to see the same faces and meet new people.”
Marie-Frances Rivera and Bosede Opetubo, friends from Roslindale and Roxbury, came to the festival to meet new neighbors and give their children time to be outside.
Rivera spent last year’s festival performing, but this year, she said, was dedicated to spending time relaxing and hanging out with fellow residents.
“It’s like a community cookout,” Opetubo said. “I’ve lived in JP, Roxbury and Roslindale, and this is one of the first times I’ve really felt this sense of community.”
