The Howard University Halo Garden hosted a carnival on Apr. 11 featuring music, food and festivities. The event featured Caribbean food and music, along with vendors, most of whom were Howard students.
“They wanted to provide Caribbean food for the culture of carnival. They wanted it to be accessible [the food was vegan], to make sure that everybody could enjoy the food,” said Lamar Wilson, the current resource manager on the Halo Garden e-board.
Wilson is a senior community development major from Silver Spring, Maryland. He spoke about the importance of the Halo garden.
“The point of the garden is to provide a space for Howard students to enjoy the sun, have a green space that’s available to students on campus, and teach students about sustainable farming practices,” Wilson said.
The garden is worked on every Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., a space that welcomes students to participate in gardening and sees a good turnout every week, according to Wilson.
Wilson was introduced to Halo Garden during his freshman year of college at Howard’s annual Organization Fair. As he enjoyed being outside, the garden stood out to him and he later decided to take a visit.
“I came through for a birthday and it was just really relaxing. I really enjoyed myself. I met some cool people so I just kept coming back,” Wilson said.
Wilson decided to join the e-board following after seeing the garden get demolished while walking through the halls of Howard Plaza Towers West during his sophomore year at Howard.
“Coming back from class and then I just saw bulldozers destroying the trees…I actually came down and I tried to stop them when they were demolishing it,” Wilson said. “They came in and flattened everything under the pretenses of rat infestations.”
This event prompted Wilson to call some friends who were more involved with the garden, but no one seemed to know why it was happening. The experience motivated Wilson to take a more active role in helping restore the garden.
“It’s really beautiful getting to see how the space has developed over time because the students really have built this space from the ground up,” Kierra Hale said.
Hale is a junior honors environmental science major from Cleveland, Ohio. As an environmental science major, she is familiar with Halo Garden and considers it one of the biggest environmental organizations on campus.
“It’s just a really fun space. Every event I’ve been to of theirs has just been really fun and grounding in community building. That’s why I wanted to come out today,” Hale said.
Hale felt joyous at the event. She said that events like the HU Halo Garden carnival bring life to the community and noted that such a moment was much needed, given that it is the part of the semester when school is getting harder.
“It was just nice to be able to come out and recreate and meet new people and just play outside,” Hale said. “I feel like it’s something we don’t get all the time in college, especially as black people. So I just love this for us.”
Nathaniel Tripp Folsom was one of the student vendors at the carnival. Folsom is a sophomore criminology major from Portland, Oregon. After discovering the event through social media they decided to take on vending.
“I thought it was pretty cool that it reminded me of working with the artist collective, Kujima, and raising funds for Cuba,” Folsom said. “That was really fun, so I thought I should give it another shot at vending.”
Folsom was selling stickers and clothing from his artist collective, DST. He wanted to bring in positivity through his custom commissions and unique, humorous stickers.
”I really struggled with addiction throughout high school, and so art has always been like a really positive outlet for me.” Folsom said, “In my sobriety, I’ve learned to express myself and to cope with trauma with humor in a positive outlet instead of being self-destructive.”
Folsom was introduced to the garden through visiting his friends at Towers last year. He recalled seeing the garden, but he was unaware that there was a club attached to it.
“I think [the carnival] does a lot for the community. It provides a safe space and a way to be self-expressive and support small businesses and communities,” Folsom said.
Hale appreciates what Halo Garden has done for the community, admiring the relationship between community and making change, along with the joy that both are able to bring.
“I feel like events like this really keep a community together,” Hale said. “It’s so cool to see students be able to make that change in the community and get to enjoy it as a community as well.”
Copy edited by D’Nyah Jefferson – Philmore