1. Home
2. News

Bickerdike's B-Ball on the Block Brings Bliss

By Joseph White / Photos by Joseph White on Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Address: 2550 W North Avenue, Chicago, IL 60647

On Friday July 31st, a Humboldt Park neighborhood organization transformed the 1900 block of North St. Louis Avenue from a conventional Chicago street into a temporary performance space where basketball players, tumblers, poets, neighborhood residents, and even a clown celebrated summer in the city.

The occasion was B-Ball on the Block, the city-wide program in which community organizations – in this case Bickerdike Redevelopment Corporation – promote neighborhood harmony and cohesiveness by diverting traffic, setting up hoops and backboards, encouraging play, and hoping neighbors use the occasion to get to know one another.

“We have held these block parties in several areas and this is our second year doing it,” event organizer Raquel Torres said. “We do this because it works, because the statistics show it does impact young people. It keeps them busy and entertained.”

Behind her, more than 100 volunteers clad in bright green, orange and blue t-shirts set up tables lining the block, as event organizer Keith Muhammed piped in classic Michael Jackson tracks from a portable DJ stand and youths aged 5 to 17 busted out their best drives and worked on their jumpers. The vibe was one of celebration.

The impetus for this particular block party is a new housing development that Bickerdike plans to erect on an empty lot at the corner of St. Louis and Armitage. There has been some dispute within the community about the new affordable apartments, and Bickerdike felt an event like B-Ball on the Block would demonstrate an opportunity for unity. Local resident Alfredo Rodriguez agreed.

“We have lived in the neighborhood for 34 years and believe the development will be good for the neighborhood,” Rodriguez said while surveying the surrounding party. “Just look at how happy the kids are right now.”

His wife Maria felt the same way. “This is a way for the children to enjoy themselves and meet their neighbors,” she said as she walked with her four grandchildren. “So many people live here for so many years and don’t even know their neighbors.”

Bickerdike worked with several agencies to create an interesting line up of events, which in addition to B-Ball on the Block included the Tumbling For Success Team and a performance by the Spoken Word Academy.
 
“We always try to choose sites for these kinds of events where it will have the most positive effect on the community,” said Chrisy Prahl, program manager of LISC/Chicago’s New Communities Program at Bickerdike.

Charmagne Prince, who lives on the block, was pleased the event came together as well as it did. “I had one of the organizational meetings at my house, and it is wonderful that it is going off like this,” she said. “It’s the first time something has happened like this since I’ve lived here.”

The organizers and volunteers differed about which aspect of the block party they liked most. According to the kids, though, the best part of the evening was the face-painting stand. The block was so filled with young Chicagoans painted up like princesses and superheroes, all that was missing were falling leaves and a few Jack-o-Lanterns.

A seven-year-old named Demarion was one of many to go back to the stand for seconds. When asked why he needed a Frankenstein and a skeleton paint job, he replied, “I don’t know, I just have to do it.”

As the basketball tournament wound down and the referees tallied up the day’s champions, those on the street parted to admit a large GMC van. From the sliding door emerged the Tumbling For Success Performance Team. Soon a mat was in the middle of the street and Perry Browley began conducting his front-flipping, cart-wheeling protégés to uproarious applause. For a little while, the face-painting stand stood empty.

The Spoken Word Academy closed out the evening with poetry readings that coincided with the appearance of a mysterious clown. While emcee Ashley Gonzalez and her fellow poets performed several of their prepared pieces, the clown wandered around, looking lost. When approached, the clown admitted he was a Bickerdike employee and had been talked into being a clown by his coworkers. “I’m the worst clown ever,” he said.

The children at Bickerdike’s B-Ball on the Block unanimously disagreed.