Loisaida Fall Festival brings pumpkin-picking fun to East Village residents

Reporting and story by Stacie Joy

East Village residents are invited to the Loisaida Fall Festival on Saturday outside Mariana Bracetti Plaza at 251 E. Third St. between Avenue B and Avenue C.

Kanielle Hernandez, the CEO/president of The Loisaida Foundry Inc., a lifelong resident here, talked about the inspiration behind the event.

"This is my third year serving the community through my foundation, and this year, I wanted to recreate a city version of a pumpkin-picking harvest festival," she said. "As a kid, I only saw this on TV and in movies, and I always wanted to experience it."

She continued: "When I became a mom, I was finally able to experience it and some wonderful small-town suburban life activities with my son. I'm blessed to have a vehicle, which allows me to do so, but it's not the case for most families in the community."

The Fall Festival will feature a pumpkin patch where each child will receive a ticket to pick out their own pumpkin for free and get a cup of apple cider. Via an art table from sponsor Loisaida Inc., the kids can carve and decorate their pumpkins.

The afternoon will also feature a reveal of the NYCHA beautification garden project in front of 251 E. Third St. For Hernandez, this is a significant development. She has been an outspoken advocate about the quality-of-life issues at the public housing complex (see links below).

"This is important to me because I was born and raised in this community. I'm a third-generation resident of the Lower East Side and a lifelong NYCHA tenant. I truly love my community, but when I started advocating for it, I was motivated by anger at the conditions we as a community faced with quality of life and public safety," she said. "I started off upset, but as I dived deeper into my mission to change things, I realized the issues surrounding us were deeper than I ever understood."

Saturday's Fall Festival is from 2-6 p.m. And despite some rain in the forecast, Hernandez said they will move forward with the event (city permits do not allow for rain dates).

"Bring your umbrellas and get your kids a free pumpkin, and support our awesome vendors who have worked hard to prepare for this event," she said.

Previously on EV Grieve:

• Local elected officials, NYCHA reps get firsthand look at the problems at Mariana Bracetti Plaza 

• Residents say dangerous safety conditions at Mariana Bracetti Plaza lead to illegal and hazardous activities 

• Another look at conditions in and around the Mariana Bracetti Plaza public housing complex