Southsi de The Blossom Block Festival took place Saturday, April 16, 2022, it was a great marker for the Southside of Washington D.C. The festival was a unifying gesture created as Pyrate quotes on his Instagram page, “We run @fleadc as a part of Blossom Block Fest. A new OFFICIAL addition to @cherryblossfest”, curated for the Southside by the designer and painter himself, Chris Pyrate. Pyrate sided with powerful partnerships of the community like Congress Heights Art and Cultural Center, Kayemjay6, Destination Congress Heights, The Museum, LeGred Harrison, Ronald Moten and Don’t Mute DC. The cherishable cherry blossom is not only known to represent the relationship between The United States and Japan. The blossom in its own right represents pleasantness, goodness, sweetness of life, and a powerful fortune that can be worth living. With those properties, it makes perfect sense to bring that energy to the Southside of D.C. The new destination event was held at Parcel 15 on the East campus of St. Elizabeth. While walking in the Blossom Block festival I immediately saw a beautiful cherry blossom mural painted by Chris Pyrate along the brick walls. Classic hits by DJ 5 '9 filled the atmosphere while the Kid Zone, curated by Keyonna Jones entertained most children getting their faces plastered with superheroes and butterflies while other children painted hand craaed portraits by artists on the Blossom Festival staff. Nevertheless, an open market emerged amongst the community effort which supports the D.C Native demographic. D.C’s millennials are now changing the structures of commerce and opening up to new ways of true financial freedom by becoming entrepreneurs, learning and teaching financial literacy as well as hosting events that serve the community and anyone in the Washington, DC area. The event was hosted by Ronald Moten who says, “The Block Blossom Festival was good and it needs to happen more ooen so people will know it is there and create more commerce for our people. Not only that it was something where people can come out and socialize in intergenerational networking.”
written by : Bettya Burgess Bey | @iamxi
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