Bridging the ‘Downtown-Southside Divide’: OneCommunity, Localtopia Partner for Diversity
Wednesday, February 19, 2020
– By Gypsy C. Gallardo for Power Broker Media Group (Photo: Localtopia 2019)
The annual Localtopia Festival is billed as St. Pete’s largest “Community Celebration of All Things Local.” Indeed, the seven-hour “surround sound” event happening this Saturday, February 22nd, will showcase 250 independent businesses and community organizations, welcoming 20,000 patrons for seven-hours of non-stop entertainment.
For each of the past six years, since Localtopia took flight, the mega fest has reflected the demographics of St. Petersburg’s thriving downtown and artist communities. Which is to say, the vast majority of vendors, performing artists and patrons were white.
Not that festival planners wanted it that way. According to Tahisia Scantling, lead organizer for a new diversity initiative for Localtopia, the absence of African Americans and other people of color is due to a lack of awareness and “that old mental perception that things that happen downtown aren’t for them.”
Scantling says, “Most black vendors and consumers I’ve talked with simply did not know about the festival, or if they did, they didn’t feel it was for them.”
The partnership was arranged by St. Petersburg’s Urban Affairs Director Nikki Gaskin-Capehart along with Olga Bof, Founder and Executive Director of Keep St. Pete Local, and Scantling in her capacity as Chairperson of the One Community Plan Business Network.
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Categories: Business, History, Art & Culture Organizations