Day Three: Sandtown

So, I'm a day behind in my writing.  Maybe I should have waited to do that piece on panhandling until later; I might be burning the midnight oil tonight to record my reactions to this morning's service at New Song.  At least I've got a few days at Kenyon during which I'll surely have time to get some writing/reading accomplished in between catching up with old friends and professors.  Anyway, here's a little carry-over from yesterday . . .

New Song: First Impressions (5-7-11)

So much to take in . . .

So much to process . . .

So much I want to emulate . . .

Ah . . .

I think that my earlier drive around Fulton Ave. had been just a little misleading because, had I driven just a few blocks over, I would have seen the section of Sandtown in which New Song is nestled.  I was early to my meeting with Rev. Thurman “Pastor Thurman” Williams, so I drove around the community for a bit and tried to get a feel for the changes that were occurring here.  I would later learn that Sandtown acquired its name because of the nearby sand quarries which had been a source of labor for so long in the community.  Up through the 1950s, Sandtown and the neighboring community of Upton had been considered good neighborhoods, with plenty of lawyers and doctors and the like calling this part of town their home.  Fulton Ave. and Pennsylvania Ave. had once housed thriving businesses and even a nationally-known theater on par with the Apollo in Harlem, but with the riots following the death of Martin Luther King, these businesses were looted, and many moved away never to return.  The neighborhood entered an economic depression, and many of the leaders in the community moved away, and those who remained seemed to lose their voice for a time.  Throw in some Bloods and Crips, and you’ve officially got a bad neighborhood.  It wasn’t until the late 1980s that a couple of families armed with hopes of reconciliation moved into the community, got to know their neighbors and their neighbors’ needs, and eventually started New Song, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Most of the homes that I drove by were the typical Baltimore row houses that I had seen all over town, but I noticed that quite a few of these had been heavily refurbished and repainted.  I wondered if this might have been some of the same creeping gentrification that I had seen around Patterson Park, so I made a note to ask Pastor Thurman about it.  Since it was such a comfortable Saturday afternoon, people were out on the streets, waving to one another and talking to one another, and I finally figured out a gesture that had been confusing me since I arrived here: the Baltimore wave.  I’m hoping this isn’t similar to the “California Howdy” of Beverly Hillbillies fame, but the Baltimore wave involves keeping the arm straight and raising it to just below the shoulder with a sort of upturned hand or even a point.  I had been seeing it all over town and had no idea what it was about, but later on, when I saw people wave at Pastor Thurman in that style and he would reciprocate, it made a little more sense.  I also drove past New Song’s worship center and school (one large building) and noticed a few smaller churches around it.  I wondered if these smaller churches worked with New Song or provided competition of some kind-- the idea of churches competing for membership and funding has always struck me as curious and just a little unethical, so I would make sure to ask Pastor Thurman about this.

Row Houses and Pastor Thurman

Meeting Pastor Thurman

I pulled up to a small office building about a block away from the church/school and drove into the gated parking lot that was walled on one side by an abandoned row house and by the New Song offices on the other.  I gave Pastor Thurman a call on my cell phone, and he came down to the door to greet me and show me around.  Even though I’ve had multiple friends intern at this church and had perused the website pretty carefully, I felt like I still didn’t know what to expect here, and a perfect example of this would be Pastor Thurman himself.  The pictures on the website showed him wearing a suit and a pair of distinguished looking glasses as he preached at New Song, so I was almost expecting a sort of Jesse Jackson figure.  Compounding my poor assessment was the fact that my friends who had interned here previously had spent more time working with New Song Urban Ministries and that organization’s directors, Patty Prasada-Rao and Antoine Bennett (with whom I had foolishly neglected to set up interviews, but I had been assured that I would see them the next day at church).  I had been so caught up in the community development aspect of things that asking my friends about Pastor Thurman himself had kind of slipped my mind.  Even though I hadn’t really had time to prepare a lot of questions, I had fully prepared myself to sit through a very formal interview and take notes as needed.  At the door, I readied myself to throw on my full professional demeanor.  Can you imagine my surprise when Pastor Thurman came to the door attired in pretty much my same wardrobe (jeans and an untucked polo shirt) and casually and cordially welcomed me inside.  Like me, he didn’t have much of an accent, and Pastor Thurman explained, “Yeah, I actually grew up in the suburbs and really had to pray a lot as I was making the transition here.”  Wait, really?  Oh, Pastor Thurman, we have so much to discuss.  You have so much to teach me.  Let’s face it: even though I grew up right across from Summer Ave., East Memphis ain’t exactly the hood, so learning that Pastor Thurman had made the transition from upper/middle class suburbs to a low-income urban area to do the Lord’s work was inspiring and comforting.  He showed me around.

The building seemed quite new, but it had already been used quite a bit.  Pastor Thurman pointed to a large room with children’s toys scattered here and there and explained, “It’s our preschool now, but it used to be where we had church.”  On the second floor, he led me past a small conference room and explained, “We just recently got a full-time youth director, and this is where we keep the kids’ X-Box.”  Across the hall was a recording studio, and Pastor Thurman explained to me that the youth in the church often record music, and they even had a CD that they had made a few years back.  He would later point out a large poster on the wall that had served as the album cover.  He went through the rows of children and teenagers standing in the picture, “In college.  In college.  Has a baby.  Still in highschool.  On the corner.  In nursing school.  In college.  On the corner.  In nursing school with a baby.  On the corner.  On the corner.  Just graduated college. . . .”  Wow, even though about 1/3 of the kids in the photo had received the designation of “on the corner,” it was an impressive amount of education on that poster.  The New Song school and youth program really seems to do a lot in teaching kids the value of education.  I filed this away to be munched on later.  My friend Jeff Williamson (who was also my youth director growing up and remains a close spiritual guide) would have loved this place.

We sat in Pastor Thurman’s office and talked for a bit.  I admitted that I hadn’t really done my research since I had been in finals just three days before and had spent my time in Baltimore thus far retracing my parents’ history.  Pastor Thurman asked where I was staying in town, and I admitted with a hint of embarrassment that I was staying in the Inner Harbor.  I had expected to receive a little bit of judgment for the extravagance of my accommodations, so you can imagine my surprise when he exclaimed, “That’s great!  Oh man, Inner Harbor is wonderful.  Enjoy it!”  Really?  Shocked by his comfort with my lavish venue choice, I suddenly remembered, “Oh, right.  Suburbs.”  Throughout the conversation, Pastor Thurman had a way of anticipating my next questions, and I was amazed at his ability to make me feel at ease even when discussing difficult or complicated issues, but then I remembered, “Oh, right.  Pastor.”  He filled me in on New Song’s history and explained some of the various organizations under the larger umbrella of the church.  I’ll write more on this later (probably while holed up in the Kenyon library), but the gist of it is that New Song consists of eight different ministries all operating under the larger umbrella of New Song Urban Ministries.  Each organization (church, health service, job center, etc.) has its own trustees, directors, staff, and budgets.  They are all self-governing but meet together and work together as part of New Song’s overall mission in the community.  My Baptist heart fluttered at the description of this cooperation.

When I asked where the funding comes from for these organizations, Pastor Thurman used the example of Sandtown Habitat for Humanity.  When the church was just starting up, the founding members made a point of getting to know the people in the community, and rather than trying to prescribe what needed to be done to help improve living conditions, they simply asked their neighbors.  The universal answer was better housing, so the church members asked Habitat for Humanity how they could start their own affiliate that would focus exclusively on Sandtown, and through a lot of fundraising and hard work, Sandtown Habitat for Humanity has thrived.  Pastor Thurman explained, “A lot of businesses like to sponsor us and send their employees out to help-- companies like Black and Decker.  Also, the city of Baltimore has an initiative where we can buy vacant row houses for a dollar if we agree to fix them up, so that has been incredibly helpful.  Also, college students come here to help build houses quite a bit, and of course you know that the future occupants of a Habitat house help pay for it themselves in ‘sweat equity’ throughout the construction.  With companies, volunteers, and the city all contributing, it’s very much a collaborative process.”  Sandtown Habitat has completed 276 homes since their founding in 1989.  Given how much work goes into a single Habitat house, that statistic should make even the most tightly clinched jaw drop.

Pastor Thurman gave me a book by the church’s founding pastor (Mark R. Gornik’s To Live in Peace: Biblical Faith and the Changing Inner City) so that I could get a more in-depth look at New Song’s mission even after I headed off to my next destination.  As I cradled the book in my hands and scanned over the table of contents, our conversation turned to the three Rs of Christian community development: relocation, reconciliation, and redistribution.  I had already encountered the three Rs on New Song’s website, and Pastor Thurman explained to me that these were developed with the thinking of John Perkins, who started a Christian community in Mendenhall, Mississippi, with a similar outlook.  Perkins’s writing (especially the book Let Justice Roll Down) had been one of the driving forces behind the founding of New Song, so I was eager to learn more about him.  I had encountered Perkins’s name before when I heard Shane Claiborne speak at Duke not too long ago, and I had heard him mentioned a few other times around Duke in passing.  Pastor Thurman gave me the impression that, if moving to the inner city to start a church is on my to-do list, then Perkins is essential reading if I want to have the right mindset.

Getting to Know Sandtown

Pastor Thurman asked how much time I had, and when I told him that I had all the time in the world (since all my sightseeing had been knocked out on Friday), he offered to drive me around the neighborhood for a bit and point some things out to me.  Right off the bat, we passed by a large gathering of Sandtown residents dancing to loud music (what looked to be a DJ, but I never made it in close enough to tell for sure), and many in the crowd were wearing rather strange costumes that had a 1950s flair.  What was going on?  We parked the car to check it out.  Pastor Thurman recognized some of the folks in the crowd, and they greeted him enthusiastically and explained that they were shooting a music video.  The music continued playing as people danced for the video, and Pastor Thurman introduced me to a few church members who were sitting on a nearby stoop (since remaining in their apartment building with all this going on just didn’t seem that practical).  In particular, Sister Tanya greeted me warmly and welcomed me to Sandtown, and Pastor Thurman also introduced me to an elder named Alan who was out there being supportive even if the noise level wasn’t quite to his liking-- it was actually his apartment they were filming in front of.  I was given a few excited “see you tomorrow”s as we got back in the car to head around the neighborhood a little more.

As we drove around, Pastor Thurman pointed out some of the refurbished row houses I had noticed early.  He explained that these were part of New Song’s Habitat project and also pointed to some other newly-constructed houses that were designed more for middle-income families through the Nehemiah housing initiative.  Pastor Thurman also drove me past two storefronts on Fulton (the address that my GPS had led me to the day before), and he explained, “That’s our Habitat headquarters, and the building next door is the health center.  You know it started with just one doctor who used to take people’s blood pressure for two hours on Thursday nights, and then as he brought in colleagues to assist him and they started seeing more and more people, it evolved into New Song Family Health Services.  Our Habitat Re-Store is also right here, along with the warehouse where the Habitat teams pick up their supplies.  We’ll probably pass by at least one house being worked on today.”

Martha's Place

Pastor Thurman showed me his own house (which was where the church had originally met when Mark Gornik was pastor) and explained a little about the projects located directly across the street.  “A lot of the people in the Habitat houses are coming out of these projects, and there’s talk of trying to tear these down and turn them into slightly nicer housing, but it’s all theoretical at this point.”  He drove me around a little more and pulled up next to a building on the corner of Pennsylvania.  “This is Martha’s Place (a program for women recovering from addiction), and Newborn Holistic Ministries meets right over there.  Actually we own that set of row houses on the other side too and use it for Martha’s Place as more of a transitional living program.  Women can stay in the actual Martha’s Place house right over there and then apply for these row houses afterward.”  Wow, with three buildings right there, New Song was active on every corner of that intersection except for the one occupied by a large public fountain.  Pastor Thurman explained, “Yeah, we managed to get the city to turn that fountain on again last year, but it looks like it’s not running today for some reason.”  Okay, I take it back: all four corners of the intersection.  Wow.

Gerry's Goods (interior)

At this point, we headed back a little closer to the church to a location that I had read about and was eager to visit: Gerry’s Goods.  I don’t know why, but for some reason, seeing a church help with local business just gives me unspeakable joy.  Gerry’s Goods is a little coffee bar and store owned by Gerry Palmer, a lifelong resident of Sandtown who was looking to give something back to the community and revealed at a New Song meeting that he had always wanted to own his own store.  Most of the businesses around Sandtown are protected by layer after layer of plexiglas, locks, and turnstiles; they’re the sort of places that you have to be buzzed into in order to do your most basic shopping.  Gerry didn’t want that.  He wanted a freestanding establishment where you could simply walk in and feel right at home, and New Song helped him turn that into a reality.

Gerry Palmer, owner and operator

Pastor Thurman and I walked in to find Gerry himself working behind the counter, and I was treated to a smoothie as Gerry and a few other community members welcomed me to Sandtown and talked a little about happenings in the neighborhood.  For more information on the store, visit http://www.gerrysgoods.com/
I would see Gerry again on Sunday morning, when he and a coworker arrived at the church proudly wearing their Gerry’s Goods t-shirts as a reminder of the store’s partnership with New Song.  When we got back to his office, Pastor Thurman reiterated what I already suspected: Gerry’s success story had done a tremendous amount to lift the community’s spirit, and the benefits of that convenience store registered far off the financial statements.

To be honest, my head was spinning a little as I tried to process all this.  Sitting in Pastor Thurman’s office after this tour of the community, I was out of questions and comments.  I was just blown away by the role that this church plays in Sandtown.  New Song is plugged into every street corner in that neighborhood.  New Song is helping start businesses.  It’s refurbishing homes.  It’s educating kids.  It’s caring for the sick.  It’s giving people hope.  As Pastor Thurman and I continued to talk a little about my summer project and the churches I would be visiting, all I could think was that I hoped to see more of this.  I was awestruck by New Song’s desire to work with the community-- not to overcome the community or condemn the community or escape the community.  New Song is a part of Sandtown, and with all the initiatives that group is taking, I’m starting to wonder if, a few years from now, Sandtown and New Song might just become synonymous.  It was beautiful seeing the direction that this community is moving, and as I left Pastor Thurman’s office with so much new information percolating in my mind, I found myself feeling eager for the next morning’s service.

Peace and Blessings,

Tom