‘Mama Shu’ takes Mich. blight to beauty
From her porch on Avalon Street in Highland Park, Michigan, Shamayim “Mama Shu” Harris has a clear view of the block she’s transforming.
There’s the Homework House, where kids can come to learn and play, eat a meal or take a shower. There’s the Goddess Marketplace – a space for entrepreneurial women to sell their wares, from food and clothing to jewelry and candles. Across the street, there’s the community garden, which – when in bloom – supplies fresh produce for visitors and serves an an outdoor classroom.
During the summer, the porch is where Harris, 58, holds meetings with her team, community leaders and students. She’ll set up her desk out there, with her pencil case and calendar, and take appointments. She’ll ask children playing basketball about their grades and if they ate breakfast. That porch leads into the first home she bought for Avalon Village – a nonprofit that seeks to transform vacant and abandoned lots and structures on Avalon Street into community spaces.
“My overall vision for Avalon Village is to have all four blocks of Avalon Street here in Highland Park totally transformed from blight to beauty, for it to be an example of a neighborhood that was once beautiful and that fell, that can also be beautiful again, that it can rise like a phoenix. That is what I want to show people and also for it to be an infectious example here in the community,” said Harris, founder and CEO of Avalon Village.
Harris is the USA TODAY Woman of the Year honoree for Michigan.
Avalon Village came about after the death of Harris’ 2-year-old son, Jakobi RA Harris, in a hit and run in 2007. Because she was able to endure that loss, Harris said she felt invincible. But she had to brace for more. A few years later, her stepson, Pili Humphrey, died. Then, in 2021, her other son, Chinyelu Humphrey, was fatally shot.
Harris was born in Highland Park and grew up in Detroit. She moved back to Highland Park in 2003. She worked as a school administrator for nearly three decades and would see a dilapidated Avalon Street. Harris, who also is a minister, had a dream of fixing up the block but didn’t have any properties then. Six months after Jakobi died, what would become Avalon Village’s first home hit the market and she purchased the brick home for $3,000. She built a park in her son’s name on the vacant lot nearby. Avalon Village officially became a nonprofit in 2016.
Now, Avalon Village includes nearly 45 parcels of land – about 95% of Avalon Street, between Woodward and Second avenues, she said.
She feels as though her sons are still with her, speaking to her over her shoulder, influencing her actions.
This story has been edited for length and clarity.
Question: Who paved the way for you?
Answer: My mother was always one that she knew that I kind of wanted to do something kind of different . ... My mom died when she was 48 years old back in 1995 . ... But I would say that some of the women that as a little girl that I would listen to ... I think about women like Martha Jean “The Queen.” I think about Mother Waddles. I think about those women back in the day and their work.
What is your proudest moment?
I had a lot of proud moments but I’m going to say when I finished the Homework House. I was so glad to have that space for the children. I worked on that thing for five years and some change. And I was able to actually finish it. I got my certificate of occupancy one year after Chinyelu got killed to the date, on 1/ 26/22. I got my OK from the inspectors and everything ... we had the total grand opening September of 2022. I was so happy. I couldn’t believe it.
What is your definition of courage?
My definition of courage is the ability to keep it moving even after the worst thing has happened.