At the Vital Conversation sponsored by the Bowen Island Community Foundation in May, there were many good suggestions to enhance our island community: respectful public discourse, community gathering spaces, a car-sharing program, and, one of my favourites, “more street parties.”
This is not a frivolous idea according to Barbara Ehrenreich. She wrote a brilliant book about community life and how it is transformed through festivals, rituals and street parties. In Dancing in the Streets, she describes the roots of festivals in human evolution, and the history of their repression by elites. Collective joy is usually found outdoors, she writes, singing and dancing, eating and conversing, with strangers and friends. Carnivals and festivals have been a central part of western society, a way to address melancholy and isolation - it’s hard to be angry or sad when you’re dancing. Ehrenreich applauds their contemporary reappearance: in the rock rebellion of the 1960s, the raves, the Burning Man Festival, and football crowds.
Clearly there is a deep human need to get together and celebrate. As social animals we need to belong, and street parties and festivals provide us with an attractive way to be in community with friends and strangers alike. On Bowen, we have our Dock Dance, our Steamship Days, our Bowfest – which generated a very strong community spirit this year.
My first Bowfest was about 16 years ago. I had just moved to the island and knew but a handful of people. I thought I might get to know a few more if I rented a table and sold my Song Spinner novel. At the last minute, I decided it would be boring to just sit with my book, so I created a poster advertising “Musical Fortunes for a Loonie.” It didn’t matter that I had no idea how to do this, or that I had never even been to a fortune teller. I wore my gypsy-ish shawl, clanked my finger cymbals and the musical fortunes just happened. One woman told me it was the best reading she had ever had. And the people I met that afternoon who didn’t think I was just plain weird became friends.
Ian Thomson likes to remind me of the time they lost their son at Bowfest about 12 years ago. Devon was probably not more than four years old when I happened to see him wandering around the Bowfest grounds. He looked worried so I took his hand and said let’s go find your parents. After looking around fruitlessly for a while, I suggested we get an ice cream, let the kid have an adventure. Ian found us an hour later at the mini-golf and saw that Devon was obviously having a great time. Ian told me this incident gave him faith in the Bowen community. “You could lose your kid and know they would be all right.”
Collective joy can be found in smaller, more local events. Recently, I went to an island neighbourhood street party. It’s a popular gathering. They usually get 80 to 85 adults and plenty of kids. One year, they had a real downpour, but 50 people showed up with their potluck dishes. “It’s not a lot of effort,” one of the organizers told me. “It’s an important event because we get a lot of turnover in this neighbourhood – four to 10 people every year. It’s important to get to know each other and get together before everyone goes in for the winter.”
This was the 19th annual for this block party. Tables were laden with tantalizing homemade dishes, and even homemade drinks. The adults were engaged in passionate eating and passionate discussion. Kids were playing badminton. Dogs were licking not-quite-empty plates. A musical family added jigs and reels. It was the perfect setting for people to acknowledge they belonged to this neighbourhood.
You don’t have to wait for Bowfest. If this block party sounds good to you, why not create your own neighbourhood street party? Here are a few tips on how to do it:
1. Hold the event the same day every year. About two weeks before, deliver invitations, door-to-door.
2. Ask everyone to bring a potluck dish, their own drinks, plates and cutlery, and chairs and tables if they have them.
3. Invite people to bring games, music, whatever.
4. Find a flat area on your street.
5. Set up a few tables. Have a roll of masking tape and a pen for name tags.
6. If TransLink normally goes down your street, let them know you are closing it, and place a few orange cones at the end of the street.
That’s it. Get your neighbours together and create some collective joy.
