Boosting New Bedford

by Michael J. DeCicco

Over 30 local cultural events and 40 individual artists are receiving a total of over $400,0000 in New Bedford American Rescue Plan (ARPA) funds through grant programs administered by the city Economic Development Council's arts and culture arm, New Bedford Creative.

These awards range from $4,000 each to a variety of local artists through the ArtNet grant program, a new artist recovery and training network, to $15,000 each for the Reggae on West Beach summer program and the LaSoul Renaissance spoken poetry and open mic program at Verdean Veterans Memorial Hall beginning in April, awarded through Art is Everywhere, a grant program funded under a MassDevelopment's Creative Cities’ initiative to boost arts-based economic development post-pandemic.

Winner highlights

The highlights of the award winners include $15,000 to Coastal Foodshed's Local Food and Culturally Diverse Cooking Education program at weekly Farmers Markets, and $12,000 to the Community Economic Development Council (CEDC) for Patio de Comidas, a weekly event at Riverside Park in July and August celebrating Central American food and culture, both funded through the Wicked Cool Places grant program.

Coastal Foodshed has been hosting cooking demonstrations since its inception in 2018, explained Executive Director and co-founder Stephanie Parks. “But we have grown quite a bit over the years through our Learn to Love Local program. These are free and open to the public at our farmers markets and mobile farm stands.”

Parks said that while the core of its work is to make local food more accessible to New Bedford’s historically marginalized community members, the program aims also to support “cooking education, community building, placekeeping, placemaking at our farmers markets and mobile farm stands through our Learn to Love Local programming.”

She said the program does this in a number of ways, including hiring local musicians and artists to provide entertainment that reflects New Bedford’s diverse cultures and heritage and by hosting live cooking demonstrations at its markets to introduce customers to new and different local foods and diverse recipes. The Learn to Love Local program, she said, encourages customers to try new foods and celebrate diverse recipes and cooking traditions that are unique to New Bedford, including Portuguese, Cape Verdean, Italian, and Central American recipes, among others.

She noted that organizers have seen firsthand that many residents and new immigrants are reluctant to purchase local foods because of their lack of familiarity with seasonally available produce. “Many customers are unaware of common produce we sell (such as the many varieties of winter squash or mushrooms), or they might not know how to cook the vegetable even if they are familiar with it.” This programming fills that gap.

The program’s cooking demonstrations are hosted by local chef and artist Rhonda M. Fazio, who also invites community cooks when available and feasible to use items being sold at the market to demonstrate different ways to cook a variety of culturally diverse dishes and common recipes that show customers how to substitute certain ingredients for locally grown, seasonal ingredients. Overall, demonstrations focus on simple, affordable, and easy-to-make recipes.

In 2021, the CEDC started the Patio de Comidas, a Latino food event at Riverside Park, on Saturdays in July and August in New Bedford's North End. “We work with start-up food vendors who sell traditional foods from Guatemala, Mexico, and El Salvador,” agency spokesperson Corinn Williams explained. “We have also featured Latino artists such as folkloric dancers, musicians, and painting workshops during the Patio de Comidas. Last year we combined the Patio de Comidas with the Festival Tipico de Guatemala, a larger community festival celebrating the Guatemalan community in New Bedford. We plan to host the 2023 Patio de Comidas season July 15 to August 25. Our NB Creative grant will again feature a weekly artist and or creative workshop.”

Lead from the front

Art is Everywhere is also funding $10,000 to both the 51st Cape Verdean Recognition Parade on July 1, and to filmmaker Alyssa Botelho’s production, Sweet Freedom, the story of Mary 'Polly' Johnson, who was the first to house famed abolitionist orator Frederick Douglass when he moved to New Bedford as a free man in 1838.

The 51st Annual Cape Verdean Recognition Parade steps off on July 1 from Buttonwood Park at 11 a.m. It begins on Union Street, turns right onto Botelho said Sweet Freedom will be a short narrative film around 15-20 minutes long with actors depicting Johnson's life. The Fairhaven native said that last summer she was looking into making a film on local history. When she came across Johnson's story she was shocked that she had never heard of her before. Johnson, Botelho learned, was more than just the first one to house Douglass as a free man. She was well-known around the city at the time as the best confectionery baker in the city (thus the film's title) as well as someone who would lodge freedom seekers in New Bedford along the Underground Railroad.

“Polly was the greatest confectioner in the City of New Bedford by the middle of the 19th century,” Botelho said. “She catered parties, weddings, and sold sweets of all kinds from her shop, including ‘free labor candy’ – candy made from sugar that the Johnsons sourced from plantations that employed free people, not the enslaved. On top of running a successful business, she and her husband were also well known for providing safe lodging to those escaping the shackles of slavery. We're not even sure exactly how many people they took in. Because there were so many! It's a play on words, but it perfectly describes what Polly’s life was all about: providing sweet freedom.”

Right now, Botelho said, she is preparing the script and meeting with local groups to gather research and support and a cast of actors for the parts. She will use the $10,000 for all her pre-production expenses, such as paying crew members and cast and local fees, entry to local film festivals, etc.

If possible, she said she would love to film in Polly Johnson's actual home at 21 Seventh Street, across from the new Abolition Row Park now under construction.

“It'll be a film that people all over can rally around,” she said.