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Otis students Jasmin Druffner and Junie Lee, along with EACG board member Tracie West, spell out WAM while hanging out in the community garden with the event committee.
Inaugural WAM Block Party looks to merge music, art and community Since its inception in 2011, the Emerson Avenue Community Garden (EACG) has hosted a variety of events from pancake breakfasts, movie nights, dinners and community volunteer days, but the nonprofit group with the motto of “Build a Garden, Grow a Community,” is hoping to expand that network with its largest undertaking yet, the Westchester Arts and Music (WAM) Block Party. EACG’s mission is to develop and maintain its 1-acre
plot on the campus of Wright STEAM Magnet into a “sustainable, organic food garden and green space” that is used for education and community building. “The genesis was to use music and art to bring awareness to the garden and our community at the same time,” said EACG president John Sharpe, a self-proclaimed music lover. With few, if any, community events focusing on art and music in
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the Westchester/Playa area, Sharpe felt the climate was right to create a new event that merged the two with a family-friendly community block party vibe. “Our feeling is that there’s a huge demand for something like this. There’s nothing like this in Westchester,” echoed Westchester resident and EACG publicity co-chair Travis Pham. “We feel that we can be the stimulus to bring art and music to
the community. We think this event has a lot of potential.” The committee has created an ambitious line-up of activities for the daylong arts celebration that will run from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Both the garden and Emerson Avenue, which will be partially blocked off, will be utilized. The event will feature 8 bands that will entertain the crowd with a variety of music genres from Big Band, Irish (continued on page 4)
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