EMILIE JOHNSON

Snow. And this is the church across the street where they are shooting a movie at the moment. Black Nativity. With Forest Whitaker, Angela Bassett, Jennifer Hudson (based on Langston Hughes' gospel musical) about the Baltimore boy who is sent to Harlem to spend Christmas with the grandparents he doesn't know. Harlem it really is. In the beat-up church across the street. They asked if they could hang Christmas lights in our windows for the film. Sounds good to us.

This is one all-purpose church - actively used every Sunday for services, but it is also rented out most other nights of the week and late into Saturday night for dance parties, Quincenaeras (think lots of colored balloons and bright colored streamers). Most nights the florescent/neon lights flashing from the windows and the beats make me think we live next to a discotheque. The church garden is the site of the neighborhood easter egg hunt and spring/summer community garden. And now a film set! Everything here.