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From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Mon Aug 30 2010 - 08:33:38 EDT
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/article_deea5cb4-00f6-5fa3-807b-928759226ab5.html
Concert unites area where immigrant teen shot
BY MICHELE MUNZ
mmunz@post-dispatch.com
Posted: Monday, August 30, 2010 12:25 am
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On one side of the neighborhood are the large apartment complexes
along Skinker Boulevard that are home to immigrant families. On the
other are the mostly African-American residents who have long called
the West End neighborhood home.
Hodiamont Avenue separates the two, except for the bridge-like fields
and playground of Amherst Park — a fitting location for a concert
Sunday promoting unity about two months after an immigrant teen was
gunned down.
"We are the facilitators," said Gitana Productions founder Cecilia
Nadal as she spread her hands toward the communities on either side.
Nadal started the organization in 1996 to promote cultural awareness
through art.
"The reality is that people co-exist without relationships, and
community means more than co-existing," Nadal said. "When communities
come together, it reduces violence."
The concert from 1 to 6 p.m. included gospel, jazz, rap and Latino
music as well as poetry and African and Flamenco dancing. A diverse
crowd gathered under trees in the hot sun.
"It's very comfortable. It makes you feel better," said Puerto Rican
immigrant Jilixza Rodriguez, 33, who has been staying with a relative
in the nearby complex since moving two weeks ago from Arizona for her
husband's job. "It makes it feel like family."
Sahele Wodede, 15, who loved math and soccer, was killed June 11 in a
drive-by shooting while walking with a friend to his door in the
Hodiamont Avenue apartment complex. Sahele's family lived in the
apartment complex after immigrating to St. Louis in 2007 from Eritrea,
but they moved after just a few months because they felt the area was
dangerous. No arrests have been made in the case.
Immigrants from Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi, Mexico and Iraq have moved
into the Hodiamont complexes over the last four years because of the
affordable rent and large apartments, some with four bedrooms, said
Ameen Bajwa, who owns the 91-unit complex where Sahele was gunned
down. The neighboring complex has 149 units.
Bajwa said the new residents don't feel unwelcome, but there is a lack
of interaction with the rest of the neighborhood, which he hopes the
concert will begin to change.
"This will bring people together," Bajwa said. "It helps the new
immigrants to adapt to American culture; and for people already living
in the neighborhood, it will show them the background of people who
have recently immigrated."
A group of four young men who grew up in the neighborhood said they
feel the shooting had nothing to do with cultural tension. "It
could've been any one of us," said Jerick Tiawiu, 19, as he listened
to African drumming. "He was just at the wrong place at the wrong
time."
For the last 35 years, Jamala Rogers, 59, has worked in the
neighborhood as part of the Organization for Black Struggle, whose
mission is to empower black residents politically and economically. At
the concert, Rogers helped children draw and build Legos together.
"This is an opportunity for both sides to dispel myths about each
other," she said. "It is important for immigrants to feel comfortable.
... Sometimes people don't even know they exist."
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