North Minneapolis‘ Phyllis Wheatley Community Center celebrates 100 years

NINA MOINI: A long-standing community hub of Black community members in Minneapolis is celebrating 100 years. The Phyllis Wheatley Community Center, located in North Minneapolis, marked 100 years in October.

But tomorrow, they'll be hosting their centennial gala. Valerie Stevenson is the Interim executive director and has worked with the center for more than 20 years. She joins us on the line now. Thank you so much for your time this afternoon, Valerie.

VALERIE STEVENSON: Absolutely. It's a pleasure to be here. And thank you for having me. Appreciate it.

NINA MOINI: Absolutely. Wow, 100 years, I have to wonder what that milestone feels like for you.

VALERIE STEVENSON: For me, it is so surreal because Phyllis Wheatley Community Center was a place I visited as a child at 14 years old and went to their camp. And then years later, I came back and worked at Phyllis Wheatley as an advocate for 20 years.

And then six months later, after I retired, I was asked to come back and work as a consultant with some of their programming. And then while here, they asked me to step into the role as an interim executive director. So this has been like for the last--

NINA MOINI: You were like, I'm just trying to retire.

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VALERIE STEVENSON: So for the last 24 years, Phyllis Wheatley has been instrumental in my life.

NINA MOINI: Wow.

VALERIE STEVENSON: This is amazing for me. Yes.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. So when people visit Phyllis Wheatley, for folks who have not been, and then they come inside the doors, what are they seeing? Who's there? I'm assuming it's lots of different ages, lots of different people.

VALERIE STEVENSON: Yes. What they are seeing is they're going to be definitely greeted by some friendly faces, staff, people who welcome them in. And they're seeing programs that will accommodate their whole entire family. That's what they're seeing.

So whatever their need is, whatever they're dealing with, whatever they're struggling with, we have services here to provide and support them, to help them through whatever their struggle or need is. So you're going to see different things going on.

You're going to see-- we had a COVID program here. We have a women's program. We have men's program. We have a child daycare center here. We have a truancy intervention program. So you're going to see multiple programs and services here when you come in.

NINA MOINI: Amazing. And when you think about its origins 100 years ago to what's happening now, can you tell just a little bit for folks who may not know about the origins of the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center and just how it feels to see how it's grown?

VALERIE STEVENSON: Yes. So actually, some of the programs that we still offer today were in existence--

NINA MOINI: Wow.

VALERIE STEVENSON: --50 to 60 years ago. Yeah. So some of the same contracts that we have for services, we had those same contracts. We had those services more than 50, 60 years ago.

Phyllis Wheatley has learned to pivot. So whatever the community is facing or dealing with, we try to accommodate that need by offering a service and providing services to help families who are struggling or dealing with whatever the growing need is in the community.

So one thing we've always been able to do is to just accommodate, to make sure that when we're serving families, we're serving them holistically. So we're trying to make sure we're meeting them exactly where they are, not where we want them to be, but where they are, and using their strengths and their interest to make sure that we can successfully guide them and give them the resources and tools that they need to be successful.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. Early on, who was coming through the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center?

VALERIE STEVENSON: Me as a kid-- so let me just say this because back then-- I don't want to give my age, but we're talking 40 years ago. When I was coming here as a kid, most of the people that were serviced through Phyllis Wheatley-- at that time, there was a-- they called them the projects. But there was a subdivision directly across the street from Phyllis Wheatley. That's who it primarily serviced at that time.

And this would have been, I want to say, like the '60s when Phyllis Wheatley actually moved to this building because they weren't always located at the address that they're at now. They were actually located at 807 Aldrich. That was actually the settlement house. And then they ended up moving to 1301 10th Avenue.

And they actually primarily serviced the people who lived in the housing project across the street. And that was demolished. They built a private housing across the street. But that's who it primarily serviced. But now it's open to anyone and everyone who needs services, no matter where they live.

NINA MOINI: Oh, that's important. Thank you.

VALERIE STEVENSON: Yes.

NINA MOINI: So looking to the future now, to the next 100 years hopefully-- you have this gala tomorrow night honoring your past, building our future. Honoring our past, building our future is the theme. What does that theme mean to you? And then what's it going to be like tomorrow?

VALERIE STEVENSON: I'll start with saying tomorrow, it's going to be really exciting. We're also going to be honoring some people who have been with us through our journey for this 100 years as well. So we will be giving awards to a lot of people who have just been instrumental in making sure that Phyllis Wheatley reached this milestone of 100 years.

And we plan for people to have a good time and just sit back and enjoy our entertainment and network and get to know each other, get to know more about Phyllis Wheatley and its history over the years, and how vital and important it's been in the community. I think people will be able to see our journey where we've been, where we're going. And hopefully, this will help us to leverage ourselves to moving to another building located in North Minneapolis.

So we're in a bigger space so we can service more people and also do more partnerships and community. For me, my motto has always been if we work together, we can serve more people and make sure that everyone in our community is successful and have the resources and tools that they need. But I'm looking forward to tomorrow. We are working, busy here, just getting everything ready for tomorrow. I want people to come out, have a good time, and enjoy themselves and just find out and learn more about our history and why we are so prevalent to this day.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. And it's the idea sometimes of the third space or the community center. I feel like sometimes people aren't utilizing that as much anymore.

VALERIE STEVENSON: No.

NINA MOINI: What do you think about just that hub in the community and that place where people could go?

VALERIE STEVENSON: Well, I know for me-- and like I said, I always use myself as an example because my family-- this is where I grew up. I think for me being able to come here to learn about outdoor spaces, going to the camp-- I think a lot of children now are not experiencing the outdoors like they used to. And I think that's really vital and important.

Phyllis Wheatley owns its own camp. We're revitalizing it and bringing it back to life. So we want kids to come and enjoy themselves and family to have an experience outdoors because that's just really important in being a kid, being an adult. You want to experience nature. You want to experience outdoors. And you don't see that common too much.

We try to also offer services that will bring people in the doors just for the social part of it. Because a lot of times, a lot of things are on internet. So people don't come to actual physical spaces anymore.

So we try to work to make sure that we are offering services. Like we do a community computer service where we're offering just seniors and older adults. We're teaching them how to go online--

NINA MOINI: That's great.

VALERIE STEVENSON: --and order things. So yeah. Because we know that times are changing. We know things have become more technical. So we just want to make sure that if they are, at least people are equipped to be able to get online and do certain things that will help them in their everyday life.

So in this physical space we have, we want to be able to bring people in and show them how to do those things. So we try to offer services to accommodate just the new technology that we're seeing that's happening now.

NINA MOINI: I love that everything that you've talked about today is so critical, so holistic. You're getting younger people. You're helping older people. It's just really beautiful work. So thank you so much, Valerie, for coming by and sharing with us. Congrats on 100 years.

VALERIE STEVENSON: Absolutely, absolutely.

NINA MOINI: Thank you.

VALERIE STEVENSON: And we look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow at Quincy Hall, 1325 Quincy Street Northeast. Please come out and join us in our 100-year celebration.

NINA MOINI: Thank you.

VALERIE STEVENSON: We would love to see you there.

NINA MOINI: Thank you so much.

VALERIE STEVENSON: Thank you so much for having me. Thank you. You have a good day.

NINA MOINI: You too. That was Valerie Stevenson, interim executive director of the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center, which is celebrating 100 years. Thanks to the entire team that produces Minnesota Now. And thank you for listening. I'm Nina Moini. Have a great weekend.

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