Last month, SAFE kept busy by tabling at an event almost every weekend. Of those, the two most notable events we attended were Echoes of Greatness: A Juneteenth Celebration and Punto Urban Art Museum’s Fiesta en La Calle block party.
By KC Coryatt and Janiela Quiñones
Connecting with Lynn Residents at the Juneteenth Celebration
On Saturday, June 21st, SAFE joined over 25 organizations and vendors in celebration at the Juneteenth event hosted by the Northshore Juneteenth Association at the Lynn Commons. The theme for the event was centered on the solidarity economy movement, with organizations such as the Coalition for Worker Ownership and Power (COWOP) and the New Lynn Coalition tabling and sharing information.
SAFE’s goal at this event was to spread the word and gauge community interest and knowledge around community owned energy. Two of SAFE’s summer interns, KC and Mia, spoke to Lynn residents to learn more about their personal experiences with energy and provide information to spread the word and begin the larger work of socializing this concept. SAFE would like to see community owned energy possibilities for our residents in the near future.
Though SAFE doesn’t directly serve Lynn residents, we were grateful to have been invited into the space and not only learn from, but connect with the community in Lynn.
Connecting with The Point Residents at Fiesta en la Calle 2025
Every year, the Northshore CDC hosts a festival in The Point—a festival that celebrates the colorful culture of the neighborhood through food, live music, performances, and vendors. This year’s event took place on Saturday, June 14th, accompanied by light rain. Though puddles started to form, tablers and incoming attendees were more than happy to start participating in festival activities.
As we enter the hottest months of the year, SAFE is bringing awareness to extreme heat and heat resilience. For Fiesta en la Calle, we conversed with the residents of Salem and the Point to learn more on how high heat affects this community. We asked questions regarding ways residents stay cool on hot days, what barriers exist to staying cool, and what solutions the community would like to see.
Our SAFE table this event featured many interactive activities for both kids and adults. On one end, a mini kids activity section was set up with a coloring book, color pencils, and a toy wind turbine model. We presented a basket full of free goodies including SAFE-branded stickers and zines. The zines were illustrated by Christine Tyler Hill, and translated to Spanish for The Point community with the support of Alexandra Fortich.
The other end of the table featured our high heat related activities. The first activity was a map of Salem. Attendees who stopped by were asked to place two sticker dots–one red and one blue–on the map on areas they think were the hottest versus the coolest. The goal was to gain data on what areas of Salem had higher heat exposure and what areas offered cooling amenities.
The second activity consisted of a large board with three questions:
- What do you do to stay cool on hot days?
- What prevents you from staying cool on hot days?
- What are some things that would help you stay cool?
Attendees wrote their answers on sticky notes and pasted them under each question they were answering. The goal here was to engage residents in a conversation around high heat and begin to develop a pilot project to address heat in The Point. This project is being developed in partnership with the North Shore Community Development Coalition, Metropolitan Area Planning Council, and City of Salem. The Salem heat resiliency pilot project is funded by the Barr Foundation.
KC Coryatt and Janiela Quiñones are SAFE’s Summer Interns.