Folio Staffers Carmen Macri, Social Media Manager and Lead Writer, and Ambar Ramirez, Creative Director recall some of their favorite moments at James Weldon Johnson Park.

CARMEN: Me and Ambar, we work together at Folio, whenever we were in the Laura Street office. When we first started, Amber was really shy, and I kept asking her to come get lunch with me. She finally said yes, and we came down to the Park. We sat in those chairs over there.

AMBAR: And I remember you asked me a very specific question — very telling of how our friendship would go — and the question was what’s my favorite form of potato.

CARMEN: Such a valid question.

AMBAR: When you asked me that question, I was like, this is a girl I want to have in my life forever. Because I love potatoes.

CARMEN: You can tell a lot about a person by the type of potato that they choose.

AMBAR: My answer was tater tots, and yours was…

CARMEN: Crinkle cut fries. Our friendship really blossomed outside of a work setting, because we got to actually sit down and get to know each other.

AMBAR: Potatoes in the Park. Other than being a very calming and safe space away from the hustle bustle — working for an alternative news magazine, staring at a screen — this Park was a relief from that. But it was also learning a lot about the community. I always felt like I was finding something new. The artwork, who was performing on the stage, the food trucks.

CARMEN: We would always come to the Art Walk parties. It was our favorite day of the month. Hang up work and come out here, look at all the booths, the vendors, the food trucks. There was a little piña colada booth on the one corner and they would serve it …

AMBAR: … in a pineapple.

CARMEN: And we would get them every single Art Walk.

AMBAR: When our print issues hit the streets, we’d come to the Park to shoot video — walking around with the physical magazine, letting people know it was out. One time I read it to the statue of Charles E. Bennett. I held the magazine up to him, like I was reading it to him. Everyone loves that clip.

CARMEN: Another time I got up in one of those trees, hung upside down, and read the magazine upside down. No one stopped me. There were cops, people everywhere — they just let me hang there.

AMBAR: The Park was very playful for us. We felt like our inner childs in the Park.

CARMEN: Being from the beach, I had my own preconceived idea of what downtown was. I never came down here. But when I started spending a lot of time in the Park, I just completely changed what I thought downtown was. People think it’s unsafe. I’ve loved every experience I’ve ever had here, and I miss it. I miss the Park every day.

Photos by Toni Smailagic