Norris Square resident celebrates community and culture in neighborhood gardens

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- For more than 30 years, Iris Brown has helped grow the six community gardens in her neighborhood. The largest one is called Las Parcelas.

In the garden, visitors can find ornamental banana and tobacco plants that Brown says gives her a sense that she is "back home."

After moving here from Puerto Rico more than 50 years ago, Brown says she felt culturally disconnected and wanted others to have a different experience.

"It was nothing here. It was just an empty lot filled with trash, and filled with a lot of pain, suffering," says Brown. "It was a lot of drugs."

She got to work to cultivate change and celebrate her culture.

"I started working at Norris Square Neighborhood Project," says Brown. "We started with those children's gardens first."

Cesali Morales is the Business and Development Director for Norris Square Neighborhood Project, which was started in 1973.

"We have three pillars - cultural preservation, youth leadership development and community land stewardship," says Morales.

She says she considers Brown a mentor since working with her through this cultural hub that stewards the gardens.

"I'm Puerto Rican," says Morales. "It's very easy to find your place of belonging here."

She says Brown acts as a "grandmother" to a lot of people in the community.

Brown says the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's program, Philadelphia Green, was helpful, teaching them how to have good soil and how to plant.

And Brown co-founded Grupo Motivos to help grow and maintain the gardens.

Morales says the group was "a collective of Puerto Rican women that were activating themselves around what was best for the future of the children in the neighborhood."

"They worked so hard, so we could have this beauty now," says Brown.

"So many people come to visit, and to try to explore their sense of like, culture, history, belonging, family, and Iris kind of helps us connect to that," says Morales.

Each garden has its own motif.

"Villa Africana Colobó, celebrating our African ancestry," says Morales. "El Batey is celebrating the Taínos, the Indigenous people of Puerto Rico."

There's also La Paz, which Morales says is "thinking about the future of peace."

Other gardens include Raíces, meaning roots, and the Butterfly Garden, which honors Natalie Kempner and Helen Loeb, the founders of Norris Square Neighborhood Project.

Garden members are welcome to farm their own plots and continue the work Iris started.

"Being a part of this garden has really allowed me to explore my identity," says Morales.

"It's pure joy," says Brown. "Something that belong to us."

For more information:

Norris Square Neighborhood Project: https://myneighborhoodproject.org/

Gardens of the Norris Square Neighborhood Project: https://myneighborhoodproject.org/gardens/our-gardens/

Norris Square Neighborhood Project
2141 N. Howard Street
Philadelphia, PA 19122