Solidarity Sundays Are Proof of the Power of Community. Now, What Else Can We Do?
What sprouted from a longing for communal space to create and collaborate has become a wholesome way for dozens to connect. What other spaces can we fill and improve with this good energy?
COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTION
While I was sitting in the regular music circle last week strumming the wrong chords on my ukulele and singing off-key, I got chatting with the two people sitting next to me who were both playing guitar. They had only met the week before at Solidarity Sundays and quickly realized they lived just across the road from each other. They’d never spoken or hung out before.
A few weeks before that, I was chatting to someone who hadn’t left their house in weeks because their mother had a recent diagnosis that required them to become her permanent caregiver. Solidarity Sundays was a welcome break and an opportunity to be with the community for a couple of hours.
There are stories like these every week, and it speaks to a yearning to connect with each other in truly communal spaces. But what are Solidarity Sundays all about?
Well, there are anywhere from 30 to 70 people who attend on Sunday mornings from 10:30 am to 12 pm in the basement of the Harmony Centre. People play games, craft, draw, chat, drink coffee, play music, and watch kids chase each other between table legs and human legs.
It’s pretty wholesome stuff.
How and why did it begin? A few friends were chatting at the Farmers’ Market one Saturday morning, expressing nostalgia for the social coffee and cake time that happens after church. We thought it would be great to have a space where that social time still happens, minus the religion.
So, with a little brainstorming and a few emails, we booked the Harmony Centre basement ($95 a week), got insurance ($10 a week), put some posters around town, slapped a name on it (Solidarity Sundays), and crossed our fingers.
That was January last year, and every week, we’ve covered our costs in donations. Solidarity Sundays has been nominated for Most Promising New Event, and recently, Food Not Bombs started utilizing the kitchen to serve a delicious lunch and take meals to Safe ‘N’ Sound.
We hope others are also inspired to bring their ideas and gifts to the space.
In all honesty, it wasn’t a particularly big lift to start or to run. We had an idea, gave it a try, and it worked out. So, it leads me to ponder, what else could we do?
Whenever I see 2nd Ave East pedestrianized, it looks like just a couple of light wooden barricades are placed at each end of the street. Can we try weekends with the street closed and have artists, musicians, and games fill our downtown with vitality? What other dormant spaces could we activate through relationships, art, storytelling, and vision?
I’m spitballing here, but from the conversations I’m hearing, there is a real urge to see Owen Sound’s potential realized. If that’s going to happen, we need physical spaces where we come together to be collaborative and creative. And we need people to fill them.
If you want to see what that looks like, drop in on Solidarity Sundays. It runs until the end of April and starts again in October.
Thank you to sponsors of The Owen Sound Current Writers’ Fund, who make these community contributions possible. Contributions from the community do not necessarily reflect the opinions or beliefs of The Owen Sound Current and its editor or publisher.
 | A guest post by
|