New Community Space Being Renovated!

The Flying Squirrel Community Space is the multi-use community center being renovated at 285 Clarissa St., formerly the location of the historic Flower City Elks Lodge. Most of these renovations are being completed by volunteers, supported by donations from Rochester activists and community organizers. We expect a formal opening in late October.

Together, we want to provide a welcoming space that will cultivate and sustain long lasting relationships between artists, activists, and community members in Rochester so that we may work together to create positive social change. We are excited about the location because of its historic significance as a community center, its potential as a multi-use building, its central location as a gathering space for Rochester area groups, and the rich cultural history of the Clarissa St. neighborhood.

The Flying Squirrel will operate as a grassroots meeting space that will host: gallery space exhibiting regional art; community workshops and community classrooms; 'open-mic' and local poetry readings; practice spaces for musicians; live entertainment in the form of local musical performance, locally produced dance, and film screenings of locally produced work; community craft production and craft exhibits; small academic conference space and public lecture space; and a community kitchen — all this provided reliably and consistently at no cost or for a small donation.

Meetings are held on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7pm and on the 2nd and 4th Monday of the month at 6pm.

In our meetings, we sit in a circle because we want everyone to see each other. We don't have a president, director, or chairperson. We have rotating roles that everyone shares such as facilitator and note taker. We raise our hands and wait to be called on by the facilitator to speak so that everyone's views are heard and respected. We use consensus process to make decisions. This means that any decision made is one we've all agreed upon. If concerns are raised, those are addressed before moving forward. That could mean a new proposal or the modification of an old one. We're either all in agreement with the final synthesized proposal or no decision is made and we go back to reformulate the proposal.

We started as a collective of 10 or so folks active in professional, non-profit, civic, political, and cultural organizations and we have been providing such community center services on an ad hoc basis for the past 2 years or so. We have provided spaces for such events in our private homes and in rented or borrowed facilities with their own sets of restrictions scattered across the city. From first-hand experience, we discovered a strong need for a local center that might reliably and consistently provide these services at once. The Flying Squirrel Community Space will be donation driven and thrives on the energy and ideas of its members and the communities it serves.

A plethora of groups and organizations have inquired about using the space. Currently we are setting up a process to welcome and orient new groups to the space. Some of the groups that may end up using the space are Activists Against Racism Movement, Students for a Democratic Society, Rochester Indymedia, Declaration of Peace, Clarissa Street Reunion, Industrial Workers of the World, Rochester Food Not Bombs, Rochester Free School, and Genesee Valley Earth First!

According to Howard Griffin Sr. writing about the history of the Elks club in the Corn Hill neighborhood, "Since the early 1900s, the Elks Club was a Corn Hill mainstay. Located in a converted house at 285 Clarissa Street, Elks Lodge #91 Flower City Chapter and Eldorado Temple #32 Auxiliary claimed this location as their headquarters (since 1906 and 1907, respectively.) Initially, the Elks Club was organized by African-American Rochesterians after being rejected from membership into the BPOE of W (Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of the World), which was exclusively white. This newly formed group became known as the IBPOE of W (Improved Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of the World.) The Elks Club welcomed both blacks and whites alike. Its members came from a wide cross section of the community and represented various occupations and businesses in the Rochester area.

"Back "in the day," the Elks Club was in good company on Clarissa Street, sharing notoriety with the likes of the Pythodd Club, Shep's, Smitty's Birdland, LaRue's, Scotty's Pool Hall, Scotty's Drum and Bugle Corps, Ray's Barber Shop, Vallot's Tavern and the Lattimore Funeral Home. The Elks Club was the last remaining black-owned business on Clarissa Street, which was historically a mecca for the African American social scene."

Rochester Indymedia, in collaboration with the Flying Squirrel Community Space, is interested in collecting and archiving as many stories about the Elks Club and the Clarissa Street neighborhood as possible in order to preserve the history of the space. If you'd like to get involved please send an email to FlyingSquirrel@rocus.org or RochesterIndymedia@rocus.org.

Email us! FlyingSquirrel@rocus.org
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