ONE of Savannah’s most unique community-building organizations celebrates a new home.
Your Space Collective gave a housewarming of sorts this past weekend at its new location on West 36th Street. The “Grand Re-Re-Opening” theme was both a nod to Bob’s Burgers and an acknowledgement that they hope the third time’s a charm in finding a more permanent space.
Calling themselves a “community hub,” Your Space offers an ambitious and eclectic mix of activism, education, and mutual aid, with an emphasis on encouraging solidarity among marginalized groups.
“I’m a Savannah local – my family has a business here. We’ve been rooted in the Savannah community since the ‘80s,” explains director and co-owner Laila Abdallah, who is of Palestinian heritage.
“After getting my masters degree, I came back to Savannah. This is where I want to make the changes -- this is where I want to make things happen.”
The new location at 902 W. 36th is in a spacious but cozy former church administration building, set within a close-knit neighborhood near Ogeechee Road and the 37th Street Connector.
“We’re not coming in to gentrify the space – we’re coming in to enhance community services in the neighborhood,” says Abdallah. “You have to have a passion about the community you’re serving.”
Your Space’s original location was in a restored Victorian-style former residence at the corner of MLK and Victory Drive. Abdallah says that space was crucial in building the organization, but in an increasingly familiar story, it became less feasible as rent pressure increased.
“The space was beautiful, and it was very big. We did like the location a lot. But the rent was expensive,” she says.
Then, Your Space found a more warehouse-style space on West Bay Street, which didn’t last long.
“Then we moved to the second location, and it was OK. But we were really trying to make it work from scratch.”
The stroke of serendipity came earlier this year.
“People’s Blueprint did a teach-in at this building in February. All of our volunteers and crew members were like, ‘Why are we not in here?’ And we asked ourselves, what do we need to do to make this happen? What are the logistics for us,” she says.
“When we found out it would become available in May, we thought, this feels right, this is what we want.”
Saturday’s free open house featured free hamburgers and hot dogs for anyone who wanted them, all kinds of cool merch and radical/counterculture literature, free pats with house kitties Merc and Cosmo, and even a set from legendary Savannah rapper Dope KNife.
In addition to extensive mutual aid, some of the services Your Space offers at its affordable membership rates include use of the in-house recording studio and co-working office space.
Above all, the goal is weaving together a community during particularly difficult times.
“We live in an artsy community, but it often feels out of reach for the average person,” says Abdallah. “We want art and creativity to be within reach and be directly connected to the reality of being a person living in this city, during these times.”
While Abdallah has always been proud of her Palestinian culture and heritage, the urgency of the past several years has brought that struggle to the forefront for her, as it has for many others.
“For me being a Palestinian, for most of my life the struggle was invisible. Or it was really an ignorant conversation,” she laughs. “In the last few years I feel like it was an opportunity for more people to learn more about Palestine.”
But with that comes with its own struggles, she says.
“People in the U.S. are not used to Palestinians being the ones taking the lead. They’re sometimes not used to seeing a strong, confident woman who’s not a victim, as opposed to someone very far away who they can support in concept.”
As a Muslim, Abdallah explains “we’re very often guests in spaces. It’s nice to have a place where people are seeing an Arab woman, or Muslim woman, or Palestinian woman there, and they can say, ‘oh, it’s one of us.’ Often we’re trained to see our allies and advocates as being someone we would identify specifically as American… this is about people of color not feeling like they’re being hyphenated in a space.”
While the presence of Palestinian flags and symbols and books about independence and solidarity might be off-putting to some, that is the price of activism and courage.
"That’s the whole point of this – if it makes one person upset and gets five people interested in this resource, that’s fine," she laughs.
"The whole point of Your Space is have a place for people come together to combine creativity and community to make something change."
But in the end, the main thing about Your Space is simply that they seek to live up to their name.
“This is your space, make it your own,” says Abdallah. “The idea is it’s accessible, it’s affordable, and you can make whatever creative ideas of yours come to life.”
Join Your Space Collective here.
