Hopkins hosts annual community block party

Hundreds from Hopkins and Baltimore alike attended Convergence, a block party sponsored by the University to bring the Homewood and Charles Village communities together, on St. Paul between 32nd and 33rd Streets this past Sunday afternoon.

In spite of overcast skies, a series of games on the professional football docket, and a simultaneous street fair mere blocks away, the block party was well attended.

"It's an event to bring together the university and surrounding neighborhoods, to show the neighbors what the university can offer, and vice-versa," Melissa Thompson, Community Affairs Coordinator in the Office of Government, Community and Public Affairs, said.

Convergence attracted droves from 2–5 p.m. on Sunday, featuring free food, raffles and in the spirit of merging the worlds of Hopkins and the surrounding environ, booths run by both undergraduate student groups and local nonprofit organizations.

Thompson, who rallied the nonprofit groups for Convergence, worked with individuals in the Government, Community and Public Affairs Office to organize the event. Among them: Rebecca Lafleur, manager of the Barnes & Noble Johns Hopkins bookstore; Carrie Bennett, the University's Student/Community Liaison and Compliance Officer; and Salem Reiner, director of the Office of Community Affairs.

Reiner, who first organized Convergence seven years ago, recalls a more modest time in the fair's history.

"I'm going to put my ego aside and talk about the first Convergence," he said. "It was President Brody, myself, and maybe twelve others on this blustery day. It was a whole lot simpler."

This year, Reiner said, was another year on the event's seven-year upwards trajectory of success.

"Last year we saw a thousand visitors, and this year was a bit smaller, though this was the first year we've done it on a Sunday," he said.

The marginal decrease in turnout aside, Reiner believes Convergence 2011 accomplished what he calls the event's "three primary principles."

"We try to strengthen the relationship between the university and the surrounding neighborhoods, celebrate the community and expose local businesses to Hopkins constituents," he said. "[The event] has become part of the dialogue in the Hopkins community. In the future, I'd like to further incorporate more student organizations."

Though Convergence's organizers hope to keep the event a "modest" one in the future, they rely on word-of-mouth to proliferate the event among the Homewood community. For this, the event's leaders turned to one of their own, Carrie Bennett, better known, or perhaps only known, among undergraduates by the affectionate moniker "the Shush Lady," to advertise the event via Twitter.

"Remember - free food, games, music, raffles (think AmEx GC and more), info tables, dunk tank TODAY 2–5pm at 33rd and St Paul. All for you!" Bennett (@ShushLady) tweeted on Sunday morning.

"She's a well-recognized and extremely well-respected face at Hopkins, among the students but also among the neighbors and police in the community," Reiner said of Bennett.

Bennett has worked with Reiner to organize Convergence since its inception in 2004. As the official liaison between the Homewood campus and the city blocks beyond it, she is responsible for keeping town-gown relations in check – and reinforcing them when members of the Hopkins community threaten them.

For Bennett, Convergence is a welcome treat.

"It's nice for the community and students to meet one another when it's not two o'clock in the morning and people aren't either angry or intoxicated," she said. "It's a lot of fun and a lot of hard work, and it gives students a chance to see our neighbors in the daylight."

Bennett was among those who pushed for the festival to be held on a Sunday. On Sunday, she argued, varsity athletes aren't away at games.

This year, instead of competing for Hopkins, varsity athletes served the university in a different way: helping with the festival. The boys' varsity cross-country and track teams, Bennett said, were at the event to both set up and clean up.

The only athletic entity that seemed to jeopardize the magnitude of the event belonged not to the university, but to the city: the Baltimore Ravens lost to the Tennessee Titans shortly after Convergence wound down.

Regardless, neither Bennett nor Reiner expressed serious dissatisfaction with Sunday's festival.

"We maintained a good crowd, even though we competed with pro football, church and another street fair nearby," Bennett said.

Cooperation, however, was the spirit of the event, and it resonated.

"We had a sign at Convergence pointing towards the fair on Abel Street, and the fair on Abel Street had a sign pointing towards Convergence,"Bennett said.