whoo I’m at the Fox Theater I can’t
believe this
usually I’m dropping off my friends down
here off on the side of the road also
I’m really feeling like the Clampetts
right now from Beverly Hillbillies with
this thing right here this is the second
time I’ve actually operated this and
yesterday was rehearsal so bear with me
but I want to say greetings my name is
shawni Harris aka mama shoe I am a
mother I’m a minister I’m a community
organizer activator
I’m a creatorís in my town some of the
other things that I’ve done I’ve served
27 years with the school system here in
Detroit I’m a Highland Park housing
commissioner I used to do that before I
did that for two years I’m also a
reserve police officer for the Highland
Park Police Department yeah and I’m also
the first woman chaplain for the
Highland Park Police Department ever in
its history yeah that’s a real cool
that’s real cool I’m also the Charter
Commissioner in charge of writing the
Charter for Highland Park so we’re doing
that right now
so I do a bunch of things but one of the
things that I’m mainly doing is that I’m
building a village I am building Avalon
village so most of my inspiration most
of my inspiration from this project came
from this little cute brown boy right
here this is my baby Jacoby Rai he
became an ancestor September to 23rd
2007 he was 2 years one month in six
days old and he was hit by a hit-and-run
driver basically that was the worst
thing imaginable for a parent I don’t
know if anybody who has lost a child or
thought about lost a child
and the the grief that it could cause
but actually you can get through it
because look at me now you can live with
a broken heart but it doesn’t have to
break your spirit you can go on you have
to find somewhere to channel that energy
so what I did was I chose pain to change
pain into power my grief into glory and
my loss into love what I’m doing is I’m
using all of the energy that I could
muster up from that experience and it
actually gave me wings it gave me wings
to fly and basically I’m using it to
serve my community in and to go further
to heal myself because this is a healing
process as well and also to make my
neighborhood strong so I’m gonna tell
you a little bit about Highland Park
Michigan Highland Park was the city of
trees beautiful trees it’s the home of
the Model T we have beautiful homes on
our blog we have it’s just a beautiful
city and we were known for our school
system excellent school system people
used to move to Highland Park for the
school system right now Highland Park
still has some wonderful places in it
beautiful spots in it but a lot of it
looks like this unfortunately some of
our schools have closed our high school
just got tore down a couple of months
ago they repossessed our streetlights
back in 2011 there’s a lot of blight
right now this like I said the library
has been closed for 15 years a lot of
people left Highland Park but I decided
to stay I wanted to stay and basically
to give back and help to restore and
resurrect my neighborhood in Highland
Park we deserve to have a quality living
experience like other neighborhoods
right here this is one of my most
proudest things thank you this is one of
my most proudest things we put our first
solar streetlight residential street
light I should say is inside of Avalon
Village and it was erected in 2014 on my
son Jacobi Ryan’s birthday which is
August the 17th it’s community owned and
operated and we have no bills at all to
pay for this light so it shines every
single night
jacobee rob park we basically recycled
blighted lots and abandoned lots and we
created a safe space for children and
for families to play we do a lot of
different activities like reggae in the
hood hood camp we give out school
supplies I marry folks and in the park
we do a lot of activities and different
things for the community and a lot of
people just come and come chill so this
is a photograph right here of me kind of
Boston folks around like I do in the
village anyway point and do this do that
but that house right there is our
homework house our homework house was on
the demolition list but we just took
charge of it and wanted to build
something for the children
it’s a space to for the children to do
their homework for the children to eat
we’re going to have a computer lab we
have a recording studio in there there’s
a laundry room things like that it’s
just a bunch of stuff there that we’re
building for the children activity
courts all kinds of things there to help
the children have a wonderful life help
let them have a wonderful quality living
experience in their own neighborhoods
one of the great things that we’ve done
to is that we’ve raised over two hundred
and forty thousand dollars on our
Kickstarter to start this project and
we’re still going yeah
that was kind of cool god we have other
plans the goddess Marketplace we have
the activity Kors basketball tennis and
volleyball courts we have the healing
house we also have the blue moon cafe
and building a greenhouse as well all of
this in alkaline village and we have
plenty more to bring to the world to
help to show that you can also restore
your neighborhood so then this happened
Ellen found out the work that we were
doing is she was very excited and she
had us come on the show and then she
gifted me with this right here $100,000
house yeah yeah and the house will be
used as a headquarters for Avalon
Village and a Welcome Center at
administrative offices this day was very
very special this was a ribbon-cutting
our mayor was there on September 2 23rd
we actually had a soft grand opening of
the Avalon Village and specifically the
homework house I want to leave you with
a few things that I’ve actually
collected throughout this journey
basically I want for my neighborhood
what I want for myself I don’t want to
look at mattresses I don’t want to look
at blight and toilets and things like
that I want the beautiful life that’s
what I deserve I’m gonna be living like
that also some people look for a
beautiful place I chose to make a place
beautiful there was blight there was
they say it takes a village to raise a
child well I think that we need to build
the day that my son died we used to have
conversations about children dying me
and my friends like oh my god we would
think it was so terrible and then
basically when I woke up the next
morning that was something that I fear
my fears were over because I lasted the
night that I slept when he when he died
and I knew that I was basically
invincible I just knew that I was the
stuff then and basically I had no fear
of anything else and I encouraged you to
have no fear in any and everything that
you choose to do you can do it you can
work through it
thank you peace and love and remember
have no fear [Applause]