{news} Green Party's Jean deSmet "Third Thrusday Builds Pride"

[Green Party-CT]

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http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-thirdthur1023.artoct23,0,5747821.story?&track=rss 

Third Thursday Builds Pride 

Willimantic Ends Festival Season 

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-->By STEPHANIE SUMMERS
Courant Staff Writer

October 23 2005

WILLIMANTIC -- Willimantic would like you to know that, although it's had its problems, it's a community that knows itself and likes itself.

You could smell it on Main Street last week at the final Third Thursday festival of the season. It emanated from the Ukrainian church ladies' pierogies and the $5-a-plate Puerto Rican-style burritos, rice and beans. 

You could hear it from the five performance stages, where Himalayan Voices played gong, bowl and bells; a turntable artist drew a crowd five deep to watch young, undulating locals dance; and a New Orleans swamp pop group colored the crisp October air with its blues.

And it was apparent from the families carrying life-size scarecrows that their children made at the Lions Club table and from students from the Arts at the Capitol Theater magnet school performing at the uptown end of the block. 

This is a hometown, downtown block party. 

"It's organic. It's what we needed. It's obvious," said Jean de Smet, who calls herself the instigator. What's obvious is that drug problems have shined a negative light on this city of 15,000. 

"Certain times you feel this crisis, that this whole town is going to fall apart," de Smet said.

That's why people came out in force four-plus years ago to work on the street festival, said de Smet, who is a Green Party candidate this year for first selectwoman. The festival draws up to 10,000 people a night May through October, and generates close to $1 million for the economy.

The idea of a monthly fest came up during de Smet's unsuccessful campaign for selectwoman several years ago. Afterward, she and a band of others started the event as its own thing. 

Thursday night was the end of the festival's fourth season. The crowd was more like 5,000, but what a crowd.

Maiga Doocy, who looked like any other nicely dressed young woman at the event except that she was on stilts, described how local puppeteer Oswaldo Tirano got her involved three years ago. Tirano is credited for attracting a wealth of stilt performers, mimes and puppeteers to the festival.

Doocy's father, Fred, who made her stilts, stood with her."I knew she was going to grow up," he said. 

This affair is grass-roots, right down to its local microbrew and soda sales. And it's done on a shoestring. "There's no `them,'" said de Smet, who also helps empty the garbage.

The festival is now run by the nonprofit Willimantic Renaissance Inc., whose president, Suzanne Brogie, proud owner of a newly constructed scarecrow, has served as the vendor coordinator.

The fair has become a landing place for musicians; clothing, food and jewelry vendors; and even military recruiters.

In May, a contretemps flared when some anti-recruiters objected to the grenade launcher the National Guard displayed on its table. Police stepped in and asked a few of the peaceful to leave.

That shouldn't have happened, de Smet says; all voices should be heard at the festival. "Politics deserve a part of our everyday life. Everyone is welcome." No Hummers were in evidence Thursday night.

Language students from E.O. Smith High School in Mansfield staged a Language Ambush, part of the Year of Languages events. Their mission was to pose a question in one of several languages and capture as many strangers in the crowd who could respond.

Well, not all were strangers. 

Did anyone answer in Hindi? sophomore Nishang Gupta was asked. "My mom and my uncle," he said. 

The ambush question, posed by German exchange student Steffen Egly, 18, and Emily Schwab, 15, was "What day is it today?" 

"Heute ist Donnerstag," responded a woman who happened to be a graduate of the University of Freiburg.

Fittingly, the street was framed by eateries serving international fare as well as by the town's signature giant frogs on spools. 

Decorated by local groups and artists and to be auctioned Oct. 29, these colorful statues are Willimantic's answer to the West Hartford cows but more apropos. Shouldn't West Hartford have displayed poodles or giant latte cups? 

Again, Willimantic knows itself.

At the end of the night, as the crowd thinned, a nun in a voluminous black habit sat alone at a card table neart the Foot Bridge. "I have only five candy bars left to sell," said Sister M. Peter Bernard, who was raising money for the Holy Family Home and Shelter. She began packing up her goods. A young Latino man hurried over to help her. 
Copyright 2005, Hartford Courant 

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      THE GREEN PARTY OF CONNECTICUT is the third largest political party in CT. The Greens are also the third largest political party in the US, with 220 Greens officeholders in 27 states. Over 80 countries in world have Green Parties. Wangari Maathai, the 2004 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, is Kenya's assistant minister for environment and an elected Green Party member.
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National Committee member from Connecticut: Tim McKee (860) 324-1684

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