Spontaneous Celebrations

MISSION The mission of Spontaneous Celebrations is to create and sustain a community cultural life that unites and empowers people for social change through the arts. DESCRIPTION Spontaneous Celebrations is multicultural center of activism that builds community thorugh participation in festival arts and cultural education designed to foster interracial relationships and promote social change. Major celebrations include: Wake Up the Earth Spring Festival on the 1st Saturday in May, the Jamaica Pond Lantern Parade on the last Sunday before Halloween, the First Night Parade Samba Band, the Tropical Fiesta creating an escape from winter in the beginning of February. Besides creating community festivals the center houses a variety of programs: out of school time prgrams for Middle School and High School teens, a Latin America Family Network, a Children's Theater Troupe, a variety of classes for adults. Spontaneous Celebrations grew out of the grassroots effort to stop the planned extension of Interstate 95 through Jamaica Plain and Roxbury in the 1970s. Instead of the proposed extension, the community now has the Orange Line of the T and the Southwest Corridor Park. To celebrate the victory, some activists organized the first Wake Up the Earth Festival. 1998 marked the Festival's 20th anniversary. IMPACT The organization and its center directly impacts the lives of 100 children who use the building on a weekly basis or more. The festivals have a positive impact on the larger community. They have become cherished traditions looked forward to by young and old. They have enhanced Jamaica Plain's sense of community diversity and unity.