n early May, Sweet Water Foundation launched its Seedling Market, providing seedlings to neighbors, gardners, and partners across the City of Chicago. As the unseasonably warm weather continued, and the two hoop houses still full of produce from the winter, Sweet Water Foundation shifted from seedling distribution to launch its Weekly Farmer’s Markets with locally grown produce earlier than previous years. Every Friday from 12:00-2:00, new and returning visitors stop by RND Park and Meeting House at The Commonwealth for seedlings, sunflowers, and produce.

Nearly every week, Sweet Water Foundation receives a phone call or email inquiring as to whether the SWF team would be interested in acquiring materials destined for landfills. Because transforming ‘wastes to resources’ is at the heart of SWF’s practice of Regenerative Neighborhood Development, SWF seeks first to utilize the vast waste streams of the city for materials as we grow the neighborhood. Read on to learn more about a few examples of the transformation of ‘wastes to resources’ at The Commonwealth.

Humans of Sweet Water… Meet Mama Afua. Mama Afua is an Afrikan Warrior, healer, and builder. She first visited The Commonwealth before the COVID-19 Pandemic and has been a regular market-goer ever since. More recently, she has been volunteering her time every week to pull weeds, transplant, and seed. Mama Afua is an integral part of the SWF Family who brings a vibrant energy to The Commonwealth every time she is onsite. Read on below to learn more about Mama Afua.

On Saturday, June 19, 2021, Sweet Water Foundation hosted its Fourth Annual Juneteenth Celebration at The Commonwealth. Being mindful of the continued need to protect the health and safety of the community, the 2021 Juneteenth Celebration was not broadly advertised and, instead, shared by word-of-mouth with neighbors, market-goers, and active partners across the network. The event welcomed more than 200 individuals from near and far to create, build, and celebrate freedom + community.

This year, Sweet Water Foundation has very creatively and effectively illustrated the meaning of its visionary practice through the physical manifestation of Regenerative Neighborhood Development (RND). Their practice engages in the important work of rehabilitating, repurposing abandoned spaces and places, and restoring vibrancy and meaning to the South Side of Chicago, an area historically dismissed by city planners and capital investors. Read this reflection by Victoria Pratt Davis about the Sankofa Living Memories Series.

Before the flurry of spring planting and onset of SWF’s peak farming and programming season, the SWF team worked hard to design + build a new suite of carpentry products that will be integrated into SWF’s daily practice of Regenerative Neighborhood Development and lessons for upcoming apprenticeship cohorts, and, in the future, available for sale to neighbors and visitors, alike.

In celebration of Black History Month, SWF embraced the practice of Sankofa, reaching back to the knowledge and wisdom of the past and bringing it into the present in order to build a more radical and imaginative future. The Sankofa Living Memories Series uplifted the wisdom of elders and ancestors and to share and preserve their memories and practices.

The Sweet Water team is excited to announce the relaunch of its newest program, Seeding The Future, which was scheduled to launch in Spring 2020, but was paused due to the onset of COVID-19. In mid-February 2021, SWF began conducting weekly, virtual Urban Ecology lessons with 4th graders at neighborhood schools and distributed soil, seedlings, journals, and seeds to bring their lessons to life.

At the end of 2020, Sweet Water Foundation unveiled its plan to transform an abandoned church in The Commonwealth into a community design center known as the Civic Arts Church. In January, the SWF team launched “Civic Arts Fridays” to activate the church and build momentum towards its transformation into a community design center in 2021.

On October 7, 2020, Sweet Water Foundation opened its inaugural exhibition in the Thought Barn, well · ness at The Commonwealth. The living exhibition explored the many facets and dimensions of water as the source of all life, and offered an emergent and participatory research opportunity for global citizens to contribute and engage. Since October 2020, the exhibit has engaged nearly 2,000 viewers and visitors from across the nation in-person and virtually.

Last fall, artists Ricardia Davis, Arzula Gardner, and Rhonda Long, all from Chicago, joined New Orleans native, Amy Stelly, to discuss everything from memories to mates. The conversation fostered the true mission of the [Re]Construction House: public engagement. Ricardia, Rhonda, and Amy are visual artists; and Arzula is a singer and actor. Collectively, their bodies of work speak to the ethos of the house: spirituality, civil rights, the Black experience, and the tradition of using available materials to create art.

This fall, Sweet Water Foundation (SWF) welcomed an interdisciplinary cohort of five diverse individuals to participate in the inaugural cohort of SWF’s Urban Ecology Global Fellowship. Over the course of 8 weeks, fellows explored the transdisciplinary nature of urban ecology through the SWF’s practice of Regenerative Neighborhood Development via a blend of in-person and virtual programming.

This summer, in-person programming was kept to a minimum to maintain the health and safety of the community. In lieu of traditional workshops and events, SWF offered a blend of virtual and in-person programming to stay connected to the SWF community near and far. At the beginning of the growing season, SWF welcomed Ray Glend, a local chef, to record a cooking demonstration in the Meeting House using produce harvested from the Community Farm.

Humans of Sweet Water...Meet Andrea Yarbrough. Andrea first visited The Commons during the fall of 2019 and has been plugging in ever since. She has been helping create and build in the Work-Shop, grow and support life on the Community Farm, and engage in art across The Commons. Andrea is also interested in curating spaces specific to women of color to discuss and practice care within and outside of an institutional context.