St. Paul – For the last four years, the Rondo Center for Diverse Expression has hosted an annual Juneteenth celebration at the Rondo Commemorative Plaza, commemorating the history of the neighborhood.
This year, there was much more to be celebrated in the old Rondo neighborhood, as on April 30 Concordia Avenue from Griggs Street to Mackubin Street and St Anthony Avenue from Western Avenue to Rice Street, were renamed by the city of St. Paul back to Rondo Avenue.
The commemoration by the city of St. Paul harkens back to the days before the construction of I-94 red-lined many homes and businesses within the neighborhood and displaced hundreds of residents, the majority of which were Black.
“A lot of people were forced to leave but Rondo never really stopped,” said Linda Cobb, Director of Administration for Rondo Center of Diverse Expression. “There were setbacks but the culture is alive. And that’s one thing we want to do here is we want to keep that history alive and pass it down to younger children, younger generations, and make sure they know the history.”
Elpis Enterprises was invited to be a part of these celebrations as the Rondo Center for Diverse Expression, as Elpis and the Rondo Center formed a new partnership this spring. Cobb had reached out to Elpis as the Rondo Center was looking for a business or non-profit that could help them print t-shirts.
“Over the past year, we’ve been trying to find someone to print our t-shirts and we were really struggling to find a service-oriented or a Black-owned group that,” said Kaite Hyde, Civic Engagement Director for Rond Center. “We found out they were a similar non-profit organization and we really liked the mission of the organization. We don’t want to partner with someone who is just printing t-shirts to make money off them for profit, so that was really important for us.”
Elpis went on to print 51 shirts for the Rondo Center which were available for purchase at Rondo’s Juneteenth event. The shirts Elpis printed for the Rondo Center were designed by their executive director, Marvin Anderson. Hyde shared what inspired Anderson to go with his chosen design.
“He had this idea that when we’re talking about R, R means Rondo. We think it’s a good conversation starter. I don’t know if we’ll continue printing these particular ones in the future, but we’ve talked about printing our seal on shirts, which would be cool.”
Hundreds of people living in St. Paul and the surrounding communities came to the Rondo Center’s Juneteenth celebration last Wednesday. The community partners invited to the event were chosen as their mission to help the communities they serve reflect what the Rondo Center of Diverse Expression hopes to continue within St. Paul.
“Elpis and all our partners here, we’re all in the same business of trying to save people, not necessarily save people, but get them on the right track and guide them. Let them know their history and the greatness that we all share,” Cobb said on inviting Elpis and fellow community partners to the event.
As for what’s next with Elpis and the Rondo Center, there are many doors and opportunities open for these organizations to continue creating products and help educate those within St. Paul and the surrounding communities.
“We both really like working with each other, so we hope that opens more doors for it,” said Hyde.
