Healing Streets

The Black community in the Twin Cities is facing unprecedented trauma. Generational economic and educational exclusion, the murder of George Floyd, the ensuing Minneapolis Uprising, and now most recently, the death of Daunte Wright during an encounter with Brooklyn Park Police. Added to this, The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate affect on communities of color. This collective trauma will not subside on its own, and it’s essential that Black people find a way to safely process both the racism of the past, and the injustices of the present to begin healing.

Pimento Relief Services (PRS) are partnering on a new initiative to promote much needed healing in the Black community. Healing Streets will be a series of public events across Minneapolis and Brooklyn Center in April, May and June of this year. Hosted by PRS and their partner organizations, Research in Action, Healing Justice Foundation, Project DIVA International, Whittier Alliance & Cultural Wellness Center, Community Aid Network, Million Artist Movement, RARE Productions, NAACP, Don’t Complain Activate, Hands on Twin Cities, Confluence, Green Card Voices, and Tru Ruts, Healing Streets will feature music, poetry and art, fresh food prepared by local chefs, prayer circles, therapy, massage, yoga, and will create a safe space to share trauma, and to listen to others share theirs.

“The eyes of the world are upon us. Our Black communities need a safe space to release our grief, and empower our optimism for the future,” said Tomme Beevas, Executive Director of Pimento Relief Services.

While much of our attention is focused on the immediate pain on our streets, we know that the Black Community will need years of support and healing to recover from generational trauma. To jumpstart this process, PRS is creating a formal convening on Wellness and Healing in the Black Community, which will be launched at the third Pimento Summit on June 12. This convening bring together many of the Twin Cities frontline, Black healing organizations to produce a roadmap for how the community can be released from generational trauma. The convening will estimate the resources necessary, produce a blueprint to achieve economies of scale, reduce the duplication of efforts, cross pollinate ideas, incubate initiatives, and advocate together for equality. We hope that partners from the business community and local government will also join us at the table and reimagine blackness without trauma.

“The Convening on Wellness and Healing will be a catalyst for expanding on the work already being done by Black professionals. The convening will provide the insight, ideas and structure for those who want to rebuild for a better tomorrow, creating the mechanism to cooperate and grow the tremendous opportunities inherent in working towards a thriving Black community,” said Neda Kellogg, Executive Director of Project DIVA International. “Our convenings are a safe space where we envision, plan, implement, recover and get ahead of future crisis together. Nobody at our table is responsible for the past, but we all take collective responsibility for the future,” said Beavis.