When Kate Tucker moved back to Akron in 2021 after years spent in Nashville, she felt something was missing.
While in Tennessee, Tucker, an artist and musician, launched Civic Saturday Nashville. The program was an offshoot of Citizen University, a nonprofit focused on strengthening local communities and increasing civic engagement through open dialogue and personal connections.
Tucker said the experience created “a space for different perspectives and opinions and things to be heard in a place of respect and curiosity.” But when she returned to Akron, she “lost track of some of that civic energy” she had built up while living in Tennessee.
Civic Saturday Akron
Saturday, May 18
10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
981 W. Market St.
RSVPs via Eventbrite are encouraged.
With last month’s launch of Civic Saturday Akron, Tucker is once again finding her civic energy — and encouraging others to do the same. The first goal of Civic Saturday Akron, which happens again this Saturday, is simply getting people together after years of pandemic-related isolation. Through gathering, Tucker explained, comes a better understanding of shared civic power.
“It’s a practice of gathering,” she said, “and then it’s, over time, [a] practice of hearing from each other and understanding the way that power moves, civically understanding the way that policy is made in our city, understanding the change that we want to make individually, in our neighborhoods and in our blocks, in our ward meetings.”
A neighborly space in a former church
When Tucker told her neighbor, Kristy Clark, the idea for Civic Saturday Akron, Clark was immediately on board. She offered up her unique home as the event space. Clark and her husband, Joe, own a former church at 981 W. Market St. in Highland Square. They bought the house in 2020 to use as their family home, with the goal of also hosting community events in the 14,000-square-foot space.
“I was looking for more of something that was really going to build the neighborhood and build a community instead of just one-off type events that happened and then there was no follow up to it, no continued building of community,” Clark said.
While there are no religious or political affiliations with Civic Saturday, in Akron or elsewhere, the structure of the program is similar to a church service. (The program is dubbed “a civic analogue to a faith gathering” on Citizen University’s website.) Tucker was raised in a Christian home, and although she no longer attends church, she drew similarities between her upbringing, her work as a musician and the Civic Saturday model.
“I also think as a performing artist, you start to understand the connection that gets made by bringing a group of people together in a room and how every single person in that room matters,” she said. “Every single person will affect the dynamic of the room.”
Akron author: ‘Is my light shining bright enough?’
On April 13, approximately 100 people from several neighborhoods met their neighbors at the first Civic Saturday Akron — Highland Square, North Hill, Summit Lake and Kenmore among them. They sang along with musician Jenny Baird, shared community announcements, connected with local organizations and listened to a poetry reading by author Jason Blakely.
Blakely read his poem, “The Light,” because its message centers on encouraging people to share talents and gifts with others.
“No matter what neighborhood you live in or where you’re from, at one point we all feel or have felt like, ‘Is my light shining bright enough? Am I doing enough in my neighborhood, in my community, at my job, at my home?’” Blakely said.
“When I write, I want people to feel something. … And with that feeling for them to make a change, positive change wherever they feel that they need to make it.”
Civic circles encourage love and energy
For Tucker, the crux of Civic Saturday Akron is the civic circles. Attendees, in small groups, discuss a prompt related tocivic reflections received earlier in the event. (Tucker, who presentedcivic reflections at the first gathering, described it as the event’s “TEDtalk” and opening remarks.)
“I was completely blown away by the response of this first Saturday,” Tucker said. “I hosted them in Nashville, [and] there was never as much willingness and love and energy in the room as there was in Akron three weeks ago. … It was so encouraging and joyous and celebratory.”
This weekend’s Civic Saturday Akron will feature poet Xposyur, musicians Sarah and Ben White and civic reflections from Alicia Robinson. Portal West Coffee will provide refreshments, and the League of Women Voters, Rubber City Reuse and Akron Cooperative Farms, among others, will be on-site.
Tucker plans to host two additional Civic Saturday Akron events in September and October. She’s open to ideas about where to take it, whether that means expanding to other neighborhoods or supporting community members who want to host their own Civic Saturday. What’s important, she said, is creating a space for neighbors to come together.
In order for us to survive and actually thrive, I think it comes down to a really solid local social infrastructure, local trust,” Tucker said. “The community and coming back to the basics of caring for each other and making sure that we’re taking care of our neighbors is maybe the only thing that’s going to help us get through this super-confusing, tumultuous time in our country.”
Editor’s note: Signal Akron will be at Civic Saturday Akron. Come say hi, meet editor Sue Zake and learn about the Akron Documenters program.