The Black Neighborhood Hosts a Hike and Film Screening in the Bayview

With their hikes, gatherings and community service initiatives all around the Bay Area (as well as Los Angeles and New York), the East Bay nonprofit The Black Neighborhood brings people together simply by encouraging them to get outside.

On Sunday, Nov. 17, the group will be in southeast San Francisco leading a three-mile “mental health” hike from the Bayview Opera House to India Basin and back. Ahead of the hike attendees will watch a 30-minute documentary film all about the very neighborhood they’ll be walking through, What Bayview Was, Is, & Can Be.

Directed by the president and co-founder of The Black Neighborhood, Cory Elliott, the film focuses on four key interviews to explain significant aspects of the Black community in the Bayview.

Longtime community members Barbara Givens-Cohen, Janice Smith, Marilyn Odom and Damien “Uncle Damien” Posey share stories of the Great Migration, the impact of the crack cocaine epidemic and the effects of gentrification.

In the film, Marilyn Odom, who was born in San Francisco in 1956, recalls when the area was home to an ice cream shop and a bakery. “We don’t have that anymore,” Odom says.

The community was a fun place until people started believing that “this corner belonged to them, this part of town belonged to them,” says Odom, referring to the division that came along with turf wars.

In discussing the future of the Bayview neighborhood, Odom gets choked up professing the importance of parents being present. With a tissue in her hand and tears in her eyes, she says community change is about parents sacrificing. “Give your child enough to say, ‘I love you,’ enough to say, ‘I want better for my child, I want you to get a good education,'” says Odom.

“Take your last dollar and buy your kids some books and help them,” Odom adds, removing her glasses to wipe her tears. “Don’t let your kids suffer.”

The film leaves audiences with an understanding of the Bayview’s rich history, and the urgency of the current situation many community members face. During the hike after the screening, there’ll be an opportunity to get into some substantive dialogue about the neighborhood’s future.

The Black Neighborhood’s hike and screening of the film ‘What Bayview Was, Is, & Can Be’ is Sunday, Nov. 17. The free event begins at The Bayview Opera House at 10 a.m., and is open to all ages. Free RSVP and details here.