Mama shu cnn

Our newsroom delivers the info you need to navigate Detroit — and thrive, mama shu cnn. Sign up for our free newsletters! Instead, she found solace in beautifying Highland Park and connecting with the community. Inher stepson Pili Humphrey died.

She's reimagined her neighborhood, which was overwhelmed with blight, and turned it into something beautiful. Avalon Street, now affectionately known as Avalon Village, is Mama Shu's gift to the city and its people. And then we go down to the other cities going north of Woodward. They are beautiful down there. The grass is green, they have flowers, [and] there is no blight in those places. I'm figuring, why do we have to live like that, and we don't," she said. Mama Shu has rehabbed homes on the block to provide resources for her neighbors and programs for the youth.

Mama shu cnn

Shamayim Harris, or "Mama Shu" , was nominated for the CNN Heroes award, which annually recognizes "people who are making extraordinary contributions to help improve the lives of others in their communities," according to a release from CNN. Harris is elated and feels honored to be nominated, she said Monday. She knew she would be a CNN Hero but didn't expect to make it to the top It's 10 of us. To be chosen worldwide, is a really big deal," Harris said. Mama Shu is most known for founding Avalon Village , which transformed a Highland Park street into a self-sustaining eco-village. Harris plans to use the money awarded from CNN for unfinished projects like the Avalon Village Healing House that is designed to help youth and elders in the community. She lost her son Jakobi when he was 2 to hit and run driver. Since then, her activism has been recognized not just in Michigan but nationally. She was awarded for her advocacy in social justice by a group affiliated with Rev.

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She is among a group of honorees providing scholarships and mentorship for young adults with incarcerated parents, restoring coral reefs in the Florida Keys and connecting migrant and refugee children in shelters with educational resources. Through Avalon Village, the year-old Harris is on a mission to transform vacant and abandoned lots and structures into a sustainable community on Avalon Street, between Woodward and Second avenues. Avalon Village also includes a Homework House for students, a marketplace for women entrepreneurs, a basketball court and a community garden. Avalon Village came about after the death of her 2-year old son, Jakobi RA Harris, in a hit and run in She founded the organization the year after and Avalon Village officially became a nonprofit in

More projects. More transformation. More healing. Motivated by grief after the death of her toddler son in , Harris, known as Mama Shu, has spent years creating her Avalon Village — parcels of land that have been and are being developed into activity center, healing space, cafe, mini-library and other projects. The village, located on Avalon Street west of Woodward Avenue and south of the Davison Freeway, keeps growing and evolving. Voting runs through the end of Tuesday. For Harris, a minister of 22 years, her quest to create Avalon Village has often been one of necessity.

Mama shu cnn

She said receiving this recognition makes her feel "totally elated," and honored for an opportunity to show more people "how you can actually transform blight to beauty. After the tragic hit-and-run death of her 2-year-old son Jakobi in , Mama Shu took action to transform her struggling neighborhood. Purchasing 45 surrounding lots of land, she created The Avalon Village — a sustainable eco-village that provides its residents with resources, youth programming, gardens, small business support, activities and more. In , tragedy struck again.

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I've heard you say that he became an ancestor. One of the things I enjoy is the basketball court that we got installed a couple of years ago. Oh, yes, it is. People can sit in a park and chill and and sit in their cars if they need to get on the internet. His headstone is actually there. Through Avalon Village, the year-old Harris is on a mission to transform vacant and abandoned lots and structures into a sustainable community on Avalon Street, between Woodward and Second avenues. Because, you know, Anderson, sometimes me and my friends, we would hear about things that would happen to other families and their children actually died. You know, sometimes we can be in in grief so long, but at some point we do have to keep it moving because those loved ones have kept it moving. I've done what I've done here on the planet. And remember, wherever you are in your grief, you're not alone. We built one out of a shipping container. What was it like to continue to give back to the community after enduring such a tragedy? He got killed when he was 34 years old.

Shamayim Harris, known in Detroit as Mama Shu, knows all too well the pain of loss.

I saw the people running away. He ended up doing three, but he was held accountable. And there is a beautiful side of it. I can identify the young man and everything. It was. I wanted to help to transform the blight and for us to live in a comfortable neighborhood. Like, when you got to say their name. The blight of the neighborhood and the old ruins bring up old feelings, old energies, old things that no longer exist. I was like, Yes, I am. Literally, I thought I just wouldn't be able to make it. He got 3 to 15 years. A lot of the things we do around children are because of him. Oh, that was Jacobi right there. Finally, I forced myself to breathe deeply. I'm going for it.