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The event is to celebrate labor, climate justice, worker and human rights and Beltane, which is a Pagan holiday about midway between the vernal equinox and the summer solstice. In addition, Beltane is to celebrate spring at its peak as well as the upcoming summer.
Also integral to the fest are workshops and presentations on social-justice topics, vendors and community groups providing home goods and art, community meals and live music.
One group distributed information blasting Dublin-based SOBE Energy Solutions’ proposal to open a business near downtown Youngstown, a move the group contends will create additional air pollution because SOBE plans to superheat tires to produce then burn synthetic gas for steam heating, as well as produce and sell byproducts such as carbon black, gypsum salt and mine cryptocurrency.
Also Saturday was a one-hour roundtable discussion about the fight for justice in East Palestine in the aftermath of the February train derailment there.
The diverse set of organizations and entities that are part of the celebration include Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past, the Steel Valley Reproductive Freedom Coalition, Lit Youngstown, Defend Equality, Full Spectrum Community Outreach, the Ohio Peace Council, Plant Ahead Ohio, the League of Women Voters of Greater Youngstown, the Ohio Fair Trade Network, and the Citizens Climate Lobby. The family-friendly event also features a farmers market and a pop-up library, courtesy of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County.
“It’s to promote acceptance and the idea that all of us are deserving of love,” Erica Putro, the Free Mom Hugs of Ohio’s state chapter leader, said.
The Oklahoma City-based Free Mom Hugs organization, founded in 2015 by the mother of a gay son, seeks to empower others to celebrate the lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, queer, intersex and asexual community via education programs and initiatives, visibility and dialogue, Putro noted.
A 15-foot maypole set up in the building because of intermittent rain featured up to about eight dancers who, in a series of swoops and rhythmic moves to music, wrapped their colorful ribbons around the pole.
Also on hand Saturday was RW Franklin, secretary of the board for Lit Youngstown. The nonprofit organization was founded in 2015 to offer workshops throughout the year and other resources for writers, readers and storytellers “of any age, any genre, any level,” Franklin explained.
At one point, Franklin was busy instructing Gabby Wyndham, 8, of Warren, on filling in a series of blanks on a sheet of paper to create her own story. Gabby, who also was the recipient of a bit of face-painting, titled her story, “My Imaginative Life.”
Selling fair-trade coffees, teas and other such merchandise was Marc Alvarado, who’s affiliated with the Inter Religious Task Force on Central America. He also was representing the Ohio Fair Trade Network, which is part of the IRTF coalition.
The network promotes such practices in Ohio and alternatives to capitalist means of exchange while offering ones based on mutual relationships, Alvarado said.
He noted that the IRTF was founded after four churchwomen — Maura Clarke, Dorothy Kazel, Jean Donovan and Ita Ford — were killed Dec. 2, 1980, in El Salvador while working with the poor.
The Ohio Fair Trade Network works with worker-owned co-ops, along with farmers and artisans who set their own prices “to determine what is fair to themselves and their communities,” Alvarado explained, adding that the emphasis is away from a profit-based model.
Erin Timms, the Calvin Center’s owner, said she’s grateful for the mixed assortment of vendors, presenters and community groups at the fest. Subjects discussed Saturday were on the environment, voting rights and sustainable living habits, added Timms, who also led a talk on enzymes.
The event’s value also was in its ability to bring varying community groups together, said Timms, who recalled having grown up in Youngstown during a time when workers and environmentalists often clashed.
“It’s great to share the diversity we have in this and find some common ground,” she added.
It’s all about diet and remediating climate change. Diet is everything,” Flak, who runs the Vegetarians of the Greater Youngstown Area organization, said.
Flak added that such plants also create a greener and healthier footprint during a time when widespread deforestation in the U.S. and worldwide continues to be detrimental to the environment.
She also was among the diverse group of vendors who set up shop Saturday for the third annual May Day Festival at the Calvin Center, 755 Mahoning Ave.
The gathering continues noon to 6 p.m. today at the center.