La Casa Chica: Seafood Social

You have found your way to the virtual front stoop of "La Casa Chica," a fitting name for the kind of home I am wanting to create. I hope it will contribute to the growing sense of connection and belonging here in my Central-Cocoanut neighborhood, in the Newtown community of Sarasota, Florida.

La Casa Chica is "the little house," modest in size relative to the other houses on the block and in the neighborhoood.

La Casa Chica is "the enchanted house," with its 1920's Spanish eclectic architecture, its emerging tradition of front-stoop and kitchen conversation, and its resident puppy, Gus.

La Casa Chica is "the home of the beloved child," brought to life through the everyday presence of neighborkids, whose natural inclinations to be social and exuberant generate the special, neighborly spirit of the place.

La Casa Chica is a reclaiming of the legitimate role and relationship of neighbor, which is often less recognized than that of family or professional, but can be powerful and transformative nonetheless.

If Jane Addams were to drop by, I hope that she might recognize La Casa Chica as Hull House reinvented, a century later...

If Jane Jacobs were to drop by, I hope that she might recognize La Casa Chica as an effort to get beyond "the mask of pretended order" that is affecting our community, and to nurture the "real order that is struggling to exist."

If Donald Winnicott were to drop by, I hope that he might recognize La Casa Chica as a place where neighbors choose to get together "to do the things which you can do better than you can be taught to do them."

And if Timothy Leary were to drop by, I hope that he might recognize La Casa Chica as an everyday, real-world, neighborhood-scale embracing of his notion that "the universe is an intelligence test."

But mostly, I hope that my neighbors will drop by.

I am ready to be a neighbor.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Seafood Social

For the past few months, I’ve been going to one of the two churches in our Central-Cocoanut neighborhood: Payne Chapel A.M.E. Church on 19^th and Central, which is four blocks away. The folks of this church host lots of fundraisers to keep the church going strong, and today it was a seafood dinner, hosted by Ms. Adele up on Walker Circle. Neighborkids Da’Sean and Dareeona drove over with Tim and me to pick up a couple of dinners.

Amorie then joined us for an impromptu feast. Crabs are a favorite food and special treat here on the block. Though I’ve eaten crabs at earlier points in my life – back in college, and when my grandparents had a house on the bay at the Jersey shore – it’s been a while. Amorie was especially entertained by the difficulties I was having getting the meat out of the claws. Suddenly tables were turned, and I found myself being video’d by Amorie! With a bit of consultation from the neighborkids, I soon was able to get to the good stuff. Yummy.

La Casa Chica

Blog Archive

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Seafood Social

No comments:

Post a Comment