Supporters of the Dixwell Community “Q” House may be more focused on “branding” activities and programs throughout Greater New Haven with the Q House “concept” than reopening the physical building itself.
That seemed to be the message as half a dozen members of the 11-member board of directors of the Concerned Citizens of the Greater New Haven Dixwell Community “Q” House gathered Thursday evening for their regular monthly meeting at St. Paul UAME Church at Dwight and Chapel streets. They were joined by a dozen community members, though that number shrank to four by the end of the hour-long meeting.
The Q House was the heart and soul of New Haven’s African-American community for 75 years until it closed in 2003 due to lack of funding and questions about fiscal mismanagement. (Click here for a previous story.)
The city has purchased the building and given the Concerned Citizens a chance to raise money to reopen it.
Concerned Citizens President Jacqueline Bracey (pictured) Thursday night described the three areas her group is studying: the concept of the Q House, the fate of the building itself at 197 Dixwell Ave., and the issue of sustainability.
She said the concept of the Q House — of people coming together and building community — “could happen anywhere.” That’s one of the reasons her group has “Greater New Haven” in its name, she said. She noted that, while many Q House alumni still live in the city, others have moved to the suburbs. “What it [the Q House] means to the African-American community could be duplicated” in other towns, she said.
As for the building itself, a press release handed out at the meeting includes the following paragraph: “Once the City of New Haven purchases the current structure and relieves the obligation due the bankruptcy court, the Concerned Citizens have approximately six months to present a plan for the development of a new community center for New Haven.”
The group said it has received numerous proposals for programming in a new Q House. It is looking into programs available in other cities and states.
Members visited one called “The Door” in New York City, a kind of one-stop-shop offering health care, parenting classes, tutoring and more. On Aug. 26 some members are going to Pittsburgh to visit a program run by Bill Strickland, who has made one of the seven or eight proposals submitted so far.
Bracey declined to give details on the proposals. She said, “We’ve made no commitment yet but we want something that’s going to be here for the long run.”
James Muhammad (pictured), the group’s vice-president, laid out the timetable for action. It includes presenting a draft plan to the community by early October, getting community approval by early January and presenting the final plan to City Hall in February. It would include a plan for a permanent home for the valuable archives from the building that are housed for the time being at the Ethnic Heritage Center.
The group is planning a fundraiser on Sept. 21 at the Savin Rock Conference Center in West Haven, called “Hats on for the ‘Q’ House,” to encourage supporters to “sport your fancy hat for this worthy cause.” Asked after the meeting what kind of funding the group is hoping to pull together, Bracey responded, “We’re not talking about how much money needs to be raised, because the plan would determine it. We’re talking to people running different programs — whether they would provide money for the Q House concept is not known yet.”
Pressed on where the building fits into the group’s plans, Bracey said, “If it turns out, once we develop a plan, that it would not make sense to bring an old building into the 21st century, to say we’d keep the building for the sake of keeping the building, might not be conducive” to the best solution.
Politics Intrudes?
During the meeting, board member Frances Hunter reminded everyone that when the Concerned Citizens first formed, members declared they would eschew “partisan political activity” in order to focus all their energies on saving the Q House. That included an agreement not to run for office or support any candidate for public office. That statement was made when the group was a steering committee. Now that it has legal non-profit status and the group has converted to a board of directors, they felt the need to restate that commitment.
The members Thursday night took issue with an action they felt could politicize the whole effort to save the Q House. Dixwell Alderman Greg Morehead recently sent a postcard to everyone in Ward 22, urging them to attend Thursday’s meeting. It was headlined, “Do you support the Q House? Help Re-Elect Greg Morehead.” The postcard highlighted his support in the Board of Aldermen to have the city buy the building, and stated that he “has been a resource in developing a sustainability plan to resurrect the Q House.”
Morehead, who’s involved in a three-way Democratic primary campaign, made a brief appearance at the meeting. He had already left when James Muhammad took issue with the contents of the postcard. While giving him credit for helping win the unanimous vote at an aldermanic meeting for buying the building, Muhammad said that Morehead’s claim that he “has been a resource in developing a sustainability plan to resurrect the Q House,” is not accurate.
“We don’t want to be used by any candidate who might imply that they are directly connected to the Concerned Citizens,” Bracey added.
Reached after the meeting, Morehead said, “The reason why I put that is that I do feel with me being the alderperson in that area I can be the resource that the Concerned Citizens can reach out to. I’ve made it my business to make the sure the community can be involved. Everything I’ve done has not been political.”
His postcard also quoted one of his opponents in the race, Lisa Hopkins, as telling the New Haven Advocate back in 2007 that the Q House “should be torn down.”
Hopkins (pictured at the meeting) said she had proposed having the Stetson branch library across the street from the Q House carry on its legacy. As the third generation in her family to have attended programs there, she said, “I will work tirelessly to support the Concerned Citizens; I will do whatever I can to bring the purpose and the vision of the Q House to fruition.”
Morehead said the reason he referenced her comment to the Advocate “is that it’s true.”
In the end, based on Thursday night’s meeting, it may turn out the Concerned Citizens group pursues a vision along the lines of that quotation — less tied to the building, more tied to the Q’s 75-year legacy.