With anecdotes, singing, and hula hooping, Ms. Pearl confidently appears on Tik Tok proselytizing gardening, weeding, and self-love from her Brooklyn Heights Garden and Urban Farm. Sometimes in shorts, sometimes in a fancy dress, she educates about growing food and having confidence in who you are. Captivated, we had to know more.
We visited her at her "garden oasis" in North Nashville consisting of 2 green houses, a hoop house, 3 gardens, a pergola, and what is soon to be an event space (complete with a stage), across the street from her home. In true fashion, she was dressed in a white polka dot and red skirt, a belt with African beads made by a friend, Tommy (Musa) Smith, and bright white tennis shoes. She was today, a lady bug. Ms. Pearl is theatrical and energetic to say the least. At 66 years young, she has 5 daughters, 6 grandchildren, 9 siblings, and has been through it all. She is a reflexologist, dancer, cosmetologist, lifecoach, farmer, writer, and caretaker.
Nella Pearl Frierson is known affectionately as “Ms. Pearl” to everyone that knows her. Brooklyn Heights is a historically black and low-income community, and one in which Ms. Pearl has lived (in the same house) since 1998. “I was a single mom who moved in with my five daughters. Coming from J.C. Napier Homes Public Housing, I was drawn to the community for my girls.”
“Of course, it had its problems,” Ms. Pearl reveals. Shortly after she and her daughters settled into Brooklyn Heights, two rival gangs also moved into the area and began recruiting local kids. Ms. Pearl opened her home as an alternative place for the kids to hang out after school. She would give her daughters and the local kids activities and fun contests to get them outside and around the house to play and have a safe space to go.
One student in particular, a high school football star, visited often to engage with Ms. Pearl and test her quick wit. He would share with her about the gangs and how they tried to recruit him. He was later shot and killed by one of them. His death was a turning point for Ms. Pearl.
“I prayed about this boy, my girls, this community, and what I could do. Prayer to me means to prepare. I kept dreaming about a garden and so I began to prepare my dream.”
Across the street from Ms. Pearl’s home was a vacant lot. She befriended the owner of the property, explained her dream and vision of creating a community garden to the owner, and secured the lot at a reduced rate. By the end of 2010, Ms. Pearl began creating The Brooklyn Heights Community Garden (BHCG) and invited everyone to join her. The garden flourished and in 2014, she registered BHCG as a 501c3. Five years later, she bought the house next to the garden to use as a work-housing space for garden workers and interns, which is currently being rented by one of the garden program directors.
The garden is a true community project. BHCG works with the local public library through the seed exchange, Nashville Foodscapes, Haynes Middle School, several churches and local Universities in addition to the core community of Brooklyn Heights. The garden currently hosts a Learning Garden once a week, and a Gardening Grannies group once a month, along with various community groups, volunteers around the city, and youth mentoring programs. Ms. Pearl is also writing a book with Vanderbilt University about the story of the garden titled The Birthing of Brooklyn Heights Community Garden - You Work You Eat scheduled for publication in 2023.
Even with all she has accomplished, she’s not slowing down. Her plans include expanding the garden grounds and creating an event space for community events and weddings. And she is working with a local church building to create a “Healing Hut” to teach herbalism (natural medicine) for which she will also recruit nurse practitioners and professors to provide a community clinic.
“A garden is a beautiful thing, and so is how people — a community — can support a vision. This garden stemmed from a need for myself, my family, and my community to create a safe place for [everyone from] kids to elders and to create something beautiful.”
Indeed, she has. Visit it for yourself.
Brooklyn Heights Community Garden
1830 Haynes St, Nashville, TN 37207
(615) 474-2887
@brooklynheightsgarden
brooklynheightscommunitygarden.org
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