The Alaine Locke school’s playground is right across the street of my house. During my morning walks to the train station, I see children in uniforms and parents walking them to school. The girls wearing skirts with a white shirt and a tie. The boys wearing khaki pants with a white shirt. This place is where a lot of the Bengali community that I am gather at. When parents go to pick up their kids they gather around the playground. Sometimes the kids stay in the playground while their mothers gossip and talk to one another.
This school holds a lot of Bengali events and has a lot of Bengali students attending. The 46th street neighborhood has a good Bengali population so there are a lot of community gatherings. One such event was the celebration of the Bengali New Year. Every year the Alaine Locke School is used to hold this event where not only do the Bengalis from the neighborhood come, but also from Upper Darby and New Jersey. Getting into the event is free, and there are a lot of performances that represent the Bengali culture. There are traditional dance and singing performances done by the people and kids are always involved in these performances. There is also a fashion show representing the clothes with the children being the ones in it. A lot of time and effort goes into preparing this event as parents and local community members plan out what will be taking place.
In the cafeteria area of the school, there are food stalls and clothing/jewelry stalls for people to buy stuff from. I usually go dressed in my traditional salwar kameez outfit and so do other women, some come wearing saris and the traditional bengali look. It is a great time as people come together to celebrate their culture and their identities together. It is so nice to see how one place and one event can hold such power to bring us all together, to unite us for who we are. It is also a time for me to catch up with friends that I don’t get to see all the time, or maybe see local community members that I don’t interact with a lot.
A community is not just living in the same area but also coming together with another to do things, to celebrate, to help one another, and to be with one another as a collective group.
This school holds a lot of Bengali events and has a lot of Bengali students attending. The 46th street neighborhood has a good Bengali population so there are a lot of community gatherings. One such event was the celebration of the Bengali New Year. Every year the Alaine Locke School is used to hold this event where not only do the Bengalis from the neighborhood come, but also from Upper Darby and New Jersey. Getting into the event is free, and there are a lot of performances that represent the Bengali culture. There are traditional dance and singing performances done by the people and kids are always involved in these performances. There is also a fashion show representing the clothes with the children being the ones in it. A lot of time and effort goes into preparing this event as parents and local community members plan out what will be taking place.
In the cafeteria area of the school, there are food stalls and clothing/jewelry stalls for people to buy stuff from. I usually go dressed in my traditional salwar kameez outfit and so do other women, some come wearing saris and the traditional bengali look. It is a great time as people come together to celebrate their culture and their identities together. It is so nice to see how one place and one event can hold such power to bring us all together, to unite us for who we are. It is also a time for me to catch up with friends that I don’t get to see all the time, or maybe see local community members that I don’t interact with a lot.
A community is not just living in the same area but also coming together with another to do things, to celebrate, to help one another, and to be with one another as a collective group.