On any given day of the week, there can be dozens of people at Alice’s Garden Urban Farm, doing dozens of different things. Whether it’s yoga, classwork or caring for one of the farm’s 100 different plots, people gather at Alice’s Garden to enjoy community, nature and outdoor education.
That was especially true one recent Tuesday, when Lake Effect’s Joy Powers met up with the Garden’s executive director, Venice Williams, to attend a class and check out everything the space has to offer on any given Tuesday night.
“There's always a program or a special event,” Williams says. “Tonight, it was preparing for and planting the autumn garden. Last Tuesday, it was celebrating midwives and doulas and other birth workers. The Tuesday before, my son Josiah was in town from Florida and did a concert out here.”
On Tuesdays throughout the summer, Alice’s Garden has also hosted Artisan Markets from 4 to 8 p.m., and there’s one more on Aug. 25. Tuesday yoga classes are another long-running tradition at the Garden, Williams says.
“Every Tuesday for the past 21 years, we've been doing a free yoga class at 6 p.m,” she says. “The community comes out. We rotate different instructors through, to give instructors the opportunity to introduce themselves and their business to the community."
This summer, Williams has also collaborated with InPower Solutions’ Grow Rich program, an initiative promoting crime-prevention and youth empowerment.
“We offered the space to host it and to help lead classes, and it's been nothing but a pure gift,” she says. “Some days are very much a challenge, but we'll take it.”
Williams looks back on this busy summer with gratitude, and she’s looking forward to the autumn growing season and harvest to come.
“I am so grateful that I get to wake up on Mondays and Tuesdays and Wednesdays. And be cultivated by this space. Not cultivate the space, but be cultivated it by it.”
