Crowds of people dropped off flowers at Portsmouth businesses and a house of worship Friday that were targeted by hateful graffiti earlier in the week.
The bouquets were meant to make a visual statement — that love trumps hate.
“We know that these are not one-off incidences in New Hampshire and in New England," said Jo Kelley, the city's assistant mayor and the owner of Cup of Joe Cafe and Bar, one of the businesses vandalized. "We’re seeing them more and more and more. And so I think if we can do events like this more and more and more, it’s going to show victims and it’s also going to show the community at large that we’re bigger than they are.”
The event, "Love Blooms Here," was organized by a group of nonprofits and volunteers. They included Lovering Health Center, New England BIPOC Fest, Reproductive Freedom Fund of NH, Black Lives Matter Seacoast, The Flower Room and Flowers by Leslie.
Kelley, who is Portsmouth's first Black assistant mayor, told members of the crowd assembled at her cafe that community leaders would not sit silently by when confronted by hate speech or hate crimes.
"So our goal really is to always outshine hate," she said. "We know that silence doesn’t work. We need to be more vocal than they are. They’re proud of who they are. They’re proud of their mentalities, their thoughts. They march proudly in our streets. And so we feel we have to be louder than them.”
