Volunteers build community meditation space
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For the JHV: Lisa BROOKS
Volunteers work on The Historic Freedmen’s Town Labyrinth, which was dedicated and officially opened June 7. f |
A true grass-roots effort to create a meaningful and beautiful space for our city was realized on Saturday, June 7. What started as a dream, and became a reality with a lot of hard work, The Historic Freedman’s Town Labyrinth was dedicated and officially open to all of Houston’s diverse community to enjoy.
Never underestimate the power of a few determined volunteers.
The Boniuk Institute for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance at Rice University was part of this effort, through a program for high school students, Sacred Sites Quest. Among the students from a dozen area high schools, Julian Serebrin, a student at Challenge Early College High School and member of Congregation Emanu El, and Francesca Farris, a student at St. John’s School and member of Houston Congregation for Reform Judaism, were involved in every phase of the project.
SSQ takes students of different faith backgrounds to various houses of worship around Houston to learn about its diverse community. Then, with the knowledge they gather, they collaborate on a capstone art and community service project, overseen by Reginald C. Adams, who does public art involving many people in his projects.
This year, the capstone project was to build mosaic benches, placed at the corners of the prayer garden and meditation labyrinth at the site of the historic Mt. Carmel Missionary Baptist Church, in Freedman’s Town, also known as Houston’s Fourth Ward.
The SSQ students were not able to complete construction of the labyrinth they designed before their quest concluded. So, that task was taken up by a new group of multi-faith grass-roots volunteers, including many adults from throughout greater Houston. The students dubbed their capstone artwork, “The Heart of Serenity.” This name could not be more fitting, as the site of this beautiful space literally is in the shadow of downtown’s majestic skyline.
Freedmen’s Town is one of the most endangered National Register Historic Districts of its kind in the U.S. It is a historic residential neighborhood that was founded and built by previously enslaved families and their descendants, immediately after Emancipation in 1865. About 100 years ago, neighborhood residents founded the Mt. Carmel Missionary Baptist Church, located at 1407 Valentine St. Over the long years and decades since then, however, the church building became structurally unsound and eventually was demolished. So, all that has endured of the Mt. Carmel Church is its Prayer Garden, some flowering plants and vegetation that congregants had planted to memorialize its members and preserve the site’s sacred character.
The original vision of SSQ was to build a labyrinth for walking meditation and reflection on the site. Funding for this grass-roots project came from a diverse array of greater Houston community members. Although three crosses prominently displayed on the property indicate that this clearly is a Christian prayer garden, it truly is a space open and welcoming to the entire community. In fact, the largest financial donors were Jews and Muslims.
The construction work consisted of painstakingly chipping mortar off many of the original bricks from the church strewn about in piles of debris; hauling sand and, eventually, many tons of crushed granite. The original bricks from the church form the outline of the path of the new labyrinth.
Over several weeks, volunteers came and went, but even children living across the street from the site came and helped one evening.
Jake Pardee, member of Houston Congregation for Reform Judaism, and just home from college for the summer, said, “It is very refreshing to get out and work with my hands, after all that thinking and typing in school. We have gotten into a nice rhythm. We have found a pattern to the work, just like the snaking path of the labyrinth.”
When asked about his involvement, Serebrin noted, “SSQ has made me more aware of other cultures and different religions. Coming together to work on this project is a good way to demonstrate how people of all faiths can work together to achieve a common goal.”
On the student input to the labyrinth design, he smiled: “I’m not an artist, but this has specific elements that are of interest to me. It is the kind of art that I like. It’s geometric,” he said.
Mike Pardee, associate director for Community Engagement at Rice’s Boniuk Institute, and a member of HCRJ, was spearhead for the project, and kept efforts organized and moving forward, engaging the community in the process.
Jay Stailey, who is a certified labyrinth coach, helped with the execution of the vision. He met Pardee at the Rothko Chapel Guild. Mike Pardee was preparing for this year’s SSQ and said he had an interest in labyrinths.
“Even though it didn’t work out to have SSQ officially complete the work, we made it happen,” Stailey noted.
Adam Kermally, another SSQ student, involved his entire family. He sees it as his role as the oldest sibling to teach his younger brother and sister about diversity and religious tolerance. That is why he joined SSQ, he said.
Although crowdfunding on social media was used to fund the labyrinth, Naushad Kermally, Adam’s father, and his family were the largest single donors, and they also put in some serious sweat equity. The elder Kermally noted, “I didn’t even know what a labyrinth was, but the first program for parents, a parent orientation, we walked a labyrinth. I felt so at peace. I was just walking with people I didn’t even know, of all different backgrounds. It just made me feel so good on the inside.”
Kermally observed during one of the work days, “Look at the power of people coming together from all walks of life, African Americans, Jews, Muslims, Asians, and that is what we believe in as a family, as well.
“At the end of the day, as an Ismaili Muslim, I believe that we are all from one, and we all go back to one. Being out here has been a blessing for us,” he said.
Mt. Carmel congregants and Fourth Ward neighbors have raved about the “amazing generosity and dedication” of the labyrinth donors and volunteer workers.
Adams, creative director of the project, beamed: “The labyrinth is special for me. About seven years ago, some members of the Mt. Carmel Missionary Baptist Church asked if we could do something here. At that time, the resources weren’t available. In a lot of ways, it has come full circle. This project has gone from a conversation to an idea to a plan, to reality.
“That is what I love about art: You can start with nothing and end up with something really amazing, especially when you can bring people together to make it happen,” he said.
Never underestimate the power of a few determined volunteers.
The Boniuk Institute for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance at Rice University was part of this effort, through a program for high school students, Sacred Sites Quest. Among the students from a dozen area high schools, Julian Serebrin, a student at Challenge Early College High School and member of Congregation Emanu El, and Francesca Farris, a student at St. John’s School and member of Houston Congregation for Reform Judaism, were involved in every phase of the project.
SSQ takes students of different faith backgrounds to various houses of worship around Houston to learn about its diverse community. Then, with the knowledge they gather, they collaborate on a capstone art and community service project, overseen by Reginald C. Adams, who does public art involving many people in his projects.
This year, the capstone project was to build mosaic benches, placed at the corners of the prayer garden and meditation labyrinth at the site of the historic Mt. Carmel Missionary Baptist Church, in Freedman’s Town, also known as Houston’s Fourth Ward.
The SSQ students were not able to complete construction of the labyrinth they designed before their quest concluded. So, that task was taken up by a new group of multi-faith grass-roots volunteers, including many adults from throughout greater Houston. The students dubbed their capstone artwork, “The Heart of Serenity.” This name could not be more fitting, as the site of this beautiful space literally is in the shadow of downtown’s majestic skyline.
Freedmen’s Town is one of the most endangered National Register Historic Districts of its kind in the U.S. It is a historic residential neighborhood that was founded and built by previously enslaved families and their descendants, immediately after Emancipation in 1865. About 100 years ago, neighborhood residents founded the Mt. Carmel Missionary Baptist Church, located at 1407 Valentine St. Over the long years and decades since then, however, the church building became structurally unsound and eventually was demolished. So, all that has endured of the Mt. Carmel Church is its Prayer Garden, some flowering plants and vegetation that congregants had planted to memorialize its members and preserve the site’s sacred character.
The original vision of SSQ was to build a labyrinth for walking meditation and reflection on the site. Funding for this grass-roots project came from a diverse array of greater Houston community members. Although three crosses prominently displayed on the property indicate that this clearly is a Christian prayer garden, it truly is a space open and welcoming to the entire community. In fact, the largest financial donors were Jews and Muslims.
The construction work consisted of painstakingly chipping mortar off many of the original bricks from the church strewn about in piles of debris; hauling sand and, eventually, many tons of crushed granite. The original bricks from the church form the outline of the path of the new labyrinth.
Over several weeks, volunteers came and went, but even children living across the street from the site came and helped one evening.
Jake Pardee, member of Houston Congregation for Reform Judaism, and just home from college for the summer, said, “It is very refreshing to get out and work with my hands, after all that thinking and typing in school. We have gotten into a nice rhythm. We have found a pattern to the work, just like the snaking path of the labyrinth.”
When asked about his involvement, Serebrin noted, “SSQ has made me more aware of other cultures and different religions. Coming together to work on this project is a good way to demonstrate how people of all faiths can work together to achieve a common goal.”
On the student input to the labyrinth design, he smiled: “I’m not an artist, but this has specific elements that are of interest to me. It is the kind of art that I like. It’s geometric,” he said.
Mike Pardee, associate director for Community Engagement at Rice’s Boniuk Institute, and a member of HCRJ, was spearhead for the project, and kept efforts organized and moving forward, engaging the community in the process.
Jay Stailey, who is a certified labyrinth coach, helped with the execution of the vision. He met Pardee at the Rothko Chapel Guild. Mike Pardee was preparing for this year’s SSQ and said he had an interest in labyrinths.
“Even though it didn’t work out to have SSQ officially complete the work, we made it happen,” Stailey noted.
Adam Kermally, another SSQ student, involved his entire family. He sees it as his role as the oldest sibling to teach his younger brother and sister about diversity and religious tolerance. That is why he joined SSQ, he said.
Although crowdfunding on social media was used to fund the labyrinth, Naushad Kermally, Adam’s father, and his family were the largest single donors, and they also put in some serious sweat equity. The elder Kermally noted, “I didn’t even know what a labyrinth was, but the first program for parents, a parent orientation, we walked a labyrinth. I felt so at peace. I was just walking with people I didn’t even know, of all different backgrounds. It just made me feel so good on the inside.”
Kermally observed during one of the work days, “Look at the power of people coming together from all walks of life, African Americans, Jews, Muslims, Asians, and that is what we believe in as a family, as well.
“At the end of the day, as an Ismaili Muslim, I believe that we are all from one, and we all go back to one. Being out here has been a blessing for us,” he said.
Mt. Carmel congregants and Fourth Ward neighbors have raved about the “amazing generosity and dedication” of the labyrinth donors and volunteer workers.
Adams, creative director of the project, beamed: “The labyrinth is special for me. About seven years ago, some members of the Mt. Carmel Missionary Baptist Church asked if we could do something here. At that time, the resources weren’t available. In a lot of ways, it has come full circle. This project has gone from a conversation to an idea to a plan, to reality.
“That is what I love about art: You can start with nothing and end up with something really amazing, especially when you can bring people together to make it happen,” he said.