Bless the Streets
Monthly Community Space for healing through
praise, prayer, community song & stories that uplift, connect & heal.
Bless The Streets (BTS)
BTS is a grassroots initiative started by Tucson families who are members of the Baha’i Faith, an independent, world-wide religion. We gather monthly with neighbors and friends, co-workers and family to pray, tell stories, ask for support, wish healing on ourselves and others, lift up our voices in song and move to the rhythms we co-create. In doing so, and over time, we can draw on the energy of the gathering to inspire change within ourselves, and in our neighborhoods.
Menlo Park Neighborhood
The Black Lives Matter Murals Project at The Mercado San Agustin Annex (by artists Adia Jamille and To-Ree-Nee Wolf) has become our homebase since the summer of 2020. We connected with one another in a time of isolation and deep grief in the context of this years compounded challenges. The long- standing reality of deeply entrenched racism in our country; the multi-faceted impacts of the pandemic; unimaginable immigration injustices. These compelled us to gather and honor the lives of those both living and lost, in the sacred space of public art. The intention is to multiply these public devotional gatherings across Tucson as a catalyst for social justice through community-building - on spiritual terms.
Testimonial
“I am just so... Like overwhelmed with joy. I don't know why, like, overwhelmed needs to be in there but it is. I just feel so full from this morning, for a lot of reasons.... It was so healing and honoring and amazing. Like I'm filled with so much joy just in witnessing… this community. And then I'm just filled with so much love and gratitude to be able to come, as I am. And to share my father's name....I wasn't sure what to expect upon preparing to go, and then...when I got there.... And (we were invited to) share names (for healing prayers), I really wanted to share more.... But the tears just, like, came.... I'm just grateful that I could speak my father's name, that I could be there and hold him in my heart as we were all singing, and you know praying for all the people, all the names that came up today and for ourselves and for each other....I drive home in silence and I love 35 minutes from where we were to just let it settle and let it soak in and just be with all of it... So just know how grateful I am. Thank you so much for inviting me... I cannot imagine my day having started in any other way than it did."
— First time to Bless the Streets