The bandshell at Seaside Park in Bridgeport saw the first Seaside Sounds for Environmental Justice event on July 15, with environmentally oriented businesses and organizations joining forces with local musicians and vendors to fight for a better future.
Among the participants at the event that set up booths to discuss environmental issues were Groundworks Bridgeport, Save the Sound, the Bridgeport Farmers Market Collaborative and the Connecticut Sierra Club. They were joined by local vendors invested in those same topics, including Park City Harvest, an urban farm growing produce on Bridgeport’s north side, and Luna’s Cauldron Wellness Center, which offers a wide range of holistic services and locally produced CBD products.
Food Trucks offering Jamaican fare and vegetarian options were also on site, drawing long lines of people in between musical acts.
The entire event was organized by Katharine Morris, a recent graduate of the University of Connecticut’s Master of Public Policy Fast-Track program and the founder of UConn Collaborative Organizing, a group which helps coordinate collaboration between campus organizations.
Photo by Justin McGown.
“The genesis of the event,” Morris said, “is that I lived in Bridgeport for about five years until I graduated from Bassick High School. During my time here, I witnessed and experienced the issues of environmental racism by understanding and recognizing how different the facilities available to the community and the general issues they faced were compared to prior places I had lived.”
The contrast between Trumbull, where Morris previously resided, and Bridgeport was particularly stark.
“I was like, wait a minute, what are all these gas plants? What is with all the flooding issues and poor storm management?” she continued.
Morris said it was an immediate red flag for her that between the two communities, so close geographically but distant economically, the poorer one with more people of color faced worse pollution and was less able to respond to a changing climate. She felt motivated to use some of the organizational skills she gained through volunteering and working for nonprofits to take action and was inspired to hold the event at Seaside Park, both because she loves the natural beauty on display and its sharp contrast to the adjacent industrial zone.
With the idea formed, Morris found the process of making an event happen straight forward.
“All of the musical acts are local artists and are predominantly Black,” she stated. “Some of them I knew, or I found them online or saw them perform live somewhere. And I was just like, ‘Wow, you can sing, you can play, you’re talented. Do you want to do this?’ I guess it may be surprising to some that you can just DM people on Instagram or you walk up to them and ask if they’re down to be involved.”
Morris added it was a similar process for getting the groups and businesses that participated in the event involved as well, albeit with fewer Instagram direct messages and more emails.
Mariana Pelaez, a volunteer Morris recruited for the event, works for an environmental justice group called Renew New England and was excited to be part of the event.
“I helped out with the social media and created some graphics,” Pelaez said. “And today I’m on music duty, making sure artists are ready to go on stage at the right time.”
Pelaez considered the event to be a success and predicted she “definitely, definitely” expects future events.
Richard Myers, who goes by “Farmer Rich” and is one of the co-owners of Park City Harvest, also praised the event. While their produce sales at the event were modest, he said the opportunity provided by Seaside Sounds was excellent.
“We’re farmers out here, so we’re trying to meet up with other ‘green’ people and see if there’s any way to help out,” he said. “I didn’t expect to make a lot of money, but I did a lot of networking.”
