Grassroots organization got priced out of its home in Liberty City. Here’s what’s next
It’s just after 10 a.m. on a Friday and the Miami sun has already begun to take its toll on Kedrick Fuller.
As the beads of sweat roll down his forehead, Fuller has the unenviable task of painting over the mural made up of homages to the Black Panther Party, DJ Uncle Al and Nipsey Hussle that cover the facade of the Roots Blackhouse, the former home of the Roots Collective and several Liberty City organizations aimed at uplifting Black Miami. It’s a solemn moment, one written all over the face of Fuller who considers the place a beacon of hope.
“People wake up in the morning with nothing to eat,” he says, pouring the dull gray paint into a tray. “The hope was here.”
Just minutes after he says this, a woman walks up asking about food and the Village Free(dge), a food pantry founded by Sherina Jones that moved into the Blackhouse earlier this year. Fuller – and Phil Agnew, the brother of the late Roots Collective co-founder Danny Agnew, who was inside helping to clean the building – have to politely turn the woman away and give her the food pantry’s new location: 4300 NW 12th Ave.
“When people were in need,” Fuller says, “they were here. The doors basically never closed.”
After five years, the Roots Blackhouse’s time on Northwest Seventh Avenue has come to an end. At its peak, the Blackhouse was the corridor’s anchor, a multi-use space that belonged to the Roots Collective and later, the Free(dge) and Black Men Build (BMB). The Blackhouse provided the community a little bit of everything: enlightenment, encouragement and enjoyment. Now, the Roots Collective will be the newest of six organizations to reside inside the Freedom Lab, the brainchild of Liberty City activist Valencia Gunder. Although a new chapter in the Roots Collective saga, one that brings many of the organizations that Agnew supported under a single roof, it’s tough to say goodbye to a building that meant so much to the community at large.
“I don’t want people to look at us by moving into the Lab as regressing,” said Isaiah Thomas, who co-founded the Roots Collective with Danny and James “Munch” Mungin. “I feel like we’re being surrounded by love. It’s a lot on me. It’s a lot on Munch. But to be at the Lab, there’s a lot of support.”
Pressure to vacate the eastside of the corridor had been building for months. The Roots Collective’s landlord raised the rent, according to Thomas. BMB, the Free(dge) and Dade County Street Response, all of which were inside the building neighboring the Blackhouse, had been evicted in February after failing to pay rent. Representatives of those organizations, however, had voiced their concerns with the building’s leaky roof, the evidence which could still be seen at the time of their eviction, for months before deciding to withhold rent.
“It’s them that created the problem because they don’t pay rent,” James Goldsmith, the CEO of Gator Investments, the owner of the building neighboring the Blackhouse, said in February.
The Freedom Lab, which opened in 2022, offered a great alternative. Dade County Street Response moved its free clinic there in June and other organizations soon followed. The relationship between the Blackhouse and the Freedom Lab, however, goes back years. Gunder had always been a supporter of Roots Collective, which took a multifaceted approach to activism. The Blackhouse hosted a little bit of everything – Black-owned businesses, summer camps for children, gatherings where discussions about liberation were always lifted by libations – and Gunder always admired that.
“When we saw the Roots Blackhouse, that motivated a lot of of organizations,” Gunder said, praising the Roots Collective’s ability to secure a brick and mortar space where unapologetic Blackness was welcomed. The move just made sense.
Freedom Lab houses six other organizations, including the Free(dge), Dade County Street Response as well as two that Gunder lead, The Smile Trust and The Black Collective, which provide resources to the houseless community and focus on building Black voting power, respectively. A person can now get clothed, fed and checked by a doctor all in one place, just one of the many benefits of the coalition building at the Freedom Lab, according to Gunder.
“This is what Danny would’ve wanted,” Gunder said, calling the space a “laboratory of liberation.” “This is the first time we’ve seen this many Black organizations under one roof. So I feel like even us moving in together, which is another success, shared resources will come eventually and that will help sustain the capacity of all the organizations that are here.”
The ultimate goal remains the same: owning a place. In the months since Agnew’s June passing, a GoFundMe created by his family sprung up to assist in these efforts. The donations have rolled in but it’s still not enough. Additional fundraising opportunities will come in due time but for now, Thomas wants everyone to know the Roots Collective – and certainly the Free(dge) – is not going anywhere: plans for a turkey drive in November and an enrichment program for students on winter break are already in motion.
“That was Danny’s goal: to own something,” Thomas said. “I’m just going to take my time and make sure we do it right.”
