Last week, The LOVE Building celebrated its grand opening with events from Tuesday through Friday. As a tenant partner in the LOVE Building, we were thrilled to participate in the festivities. Our brilliant Community Legal Advocate, Lauren Thomas, coordinated events for our office.
On Tuesday, The LOVE Building welcomed guests for breakfast and then a tour of the building. We had visitors come through our newly decorated offices on the second floor. Over the last month, we have set up a legal library with a selection of legal books; we’ve also adorned our walls with photos from our team, our artists in residence, and the artist Miiko (whose work you can find here) who used to have an artist studio right where our offices are.
On Wednesday evening, The LOVE Building team hosted a town hall that was open to the public. Attendees were able to learn about ongoing projects like the Core City Community Directory that will be maintained on the LOVE Building’s Website. The directory will include local businesses, organizations and community groups based in the neighborhood. There was also a discussion of the pocket full of LOVE park, which will open in a lot adjacent to the LOVE building and serve as a location for site activations. Other projects included a Culture Creators series in partnership with WDET, a Commonwealth Fellowship, LOVE SEA, a social enterprise accelerator. The hosts explained that programming at the LOVE Building is guided by three pillars: health, wealth, and LOVE. Currently, the building has partnerships with Backalley Bikes, Paradise Wellness Academy, and House of JIT among others to host community programming that encourages, wellness, mobility and movement. Another noteworthy partnership mentioned at the town hall is with Care Based Safety, a police alternative that has been providing security for events at the building.
On Thursday evening, there was a mural unveiling and an artists’ celebration. Gathering in the Community Events Space, visitors were able to hear about the ancestors who are commemorated on the building’s mural, “Ancestral Love, Moving Us Forward.” Grace Lee Boggs, Mayor Coleman Young, Howard King, and Mary E. Teasley Hunter are among those honored with portraits. Of particular significance to our DJC family is the portrait of Umayma Rogers, sister of our Just Cities Lab Project Manager, Sheba Rogers. Sheba spoke to her late sister’s love for her community. After the introduction of each portrait, attendees were invited to gather outside and see the mural where they were also treated to a poetry reading by DJC’s current artist in residence, Cherise Morris. Beyond the mural celebration, visitors were also invited to view Taylor Childs’ solo exhibition in the Community Events Space, as well as art by Miiko in DJC’s offices. Our offices also hosted a film screening of a film by Cherise Morris, as well as an activity led by Cherise that engaged with her current work for the residency.
Friday night closed our the Grand Opening celebration with a party like no other. There was food, drink, and many a hustle was danced. One of DJC’s own, Triniti Watson, was on the ones and twos, DJ’ing for part of the event. We’d like to thank everyone who came to the LOVE Building throughout the week and engaged with our team and our tenant partners. Last week felt like a fantastic wave of connection between the building and the neighborhood, and we look forward to many more events and celebrations in the future.