Fairhill: Reborn from the Roots

Next weekend, students from several universities will begin their summer vacations by volunteering to recycle clutter in the Fairhill section of Philadelphia. Fairhill will once again see the countless helping hands from students picking, shoveling, cleaning and refurbishing lots strewn with trash that have become eyesores for the community. The volunteering efforts originally begun by local Philadelphia universities and high schools has now extended its mission beyond the city limits . Students all the way from universities in New York and the University of Indiana are expected to pitch in with the clean up effort, said Nilsa Brown, Fairhill resident and daughter of longtime Puerto Rican activist Iris Brown.

Iris Brown is known for her creation of Las Parcelas, a garden community established in Norris Square as a way of battling drugs and crime with a small tucked away spot meant to celebrate life, peace, and the occasional Puerto Rican cookout.

Iris and the group of female activists that created Las Parcelas known as Grupo Motivos also created Colobo, a garden in Fairhill on North Palethorp Street that just a few years ago had Penn State students helping with cleaning out lots with garbage and replacing trash with African style huts and burgeoning vegetation.

Decorated by hand, the well-crafted houses have the look and feel of what looks like an authentic African village right smack in the middle of Fairhill.

According to some online sites like Wallet POP.com, Dauphin Street, adjacent to Colobo, is rated one of the most dangerous streets in United States. Despite this, the community looks at Colobo as yet another way of ridding the area of its dark stigma and instead putting a new face to the neighborhood. Now, with students from all over the country coming in to support the cause, Fairhill is making it clear that their effort is grassroots in every sense of the word and that the neighborhood will have its renaissance. By


Rodrigo Torrejon and Brader Jimenez
Fairhill