Embracing Multiculturalism: Putting values into action through votingby Madeline Labriola
Westerly Sun July 18, 2024 I was so excited to vote for the first time in a presidential election when I voted for John F. Kennedy. The year was 1962. He was handsome, dynamic, optimistic, and Catholic. I’m embarrassed to admit I knew very little about his policies, and I had little understanding of the nuances of an election and the meaning and value of my vote. In 2024, the situation is the opposite. I am older, wiser, and bombarded with more information than I need to know. Today’s candidates must offer me more than physical appearance, sweet talk, or catchy slogans. This year, I will research their social media sites, attend debates and presentations, meet them face to face, and ask questions — lots of them — about the issues and values I find centrally important. Westerly’s School Committee and Town Council have several positions open in November. This is a critical time when local government faces pressure from many sides. Our goal as a community must be to work toward a Westerly that is a welcoming, affordable, just, and equitable place to live. Today, I look for candidates who value transparency, hold open meetings, allow and honor respectful public commentary, and communicate frequently with constituents. We have had enough of public officials treating citizens poorly, rudely, dismissively, or worse when they have tried earnestly to participate in the workings of local government. Likewise, we have sadly witnessed too many members of the public substitute defamation, insult, and willful misinformation for civic participation. We can all do better. Our town needs creative thinkers, impactful, objective, data-based citizen input, and leaders with civility and integrity. We cannot allow the shadows of the past to obscure the path to Westerly’s brighter future. No decision will meet everyone’s needs or expectations; good leaders compromise civilly, and those in power and our citizenry must accept and support fairly made decisions and just processes. These days, I am asking myself, “What kind of town do I want Westerly to be?” and “What kind of community do we want to raise our children in?” Rather than ask, “What’s in it for me?” or “How can I protect my self-interest?” I’m asking how I can contribute to building community, forming friendships, and helping to make life easier and better for everyone to broaden the inclusivity of our beloved community. Traditional values of welcoming the stranger, sharing our bounty, and caring for one another must become our modern-day guides and goals. So, I am asking the candidates who seek my vote to work to build a sense of community where everyone feels safe regardless of socioeconomic status, gender, faith, political affiliation, or race. I need to know if I am voting for candidates who will allow those of privilege and wealth to avoid paying a fair share while our working middle class is further burdened and loses ground. Am I voting for creative and progressive leaders to face the climate crisis threatening our lives and property? Am I voting for candidates seeking the best for the community in the face of self-interest; will they act to ensure that everyone’s right to vote is honored and sacred? Will the candidates seeking my vote work for everyone, not just me, to protect our human rights and democratic processes? Education is a priority. Westerly schools are showing good progress, but there is room for improvement in achievement, student behavior, and an inclusive school climate. The beauty and creativity of our young people are constant indicators for me of a community’s health. We cannot be satisfied with attempting to create systems of the past to educate for the future. Education for tomorrow needs adequate funding, equity-based decision-making, a diverse workforce, and curricula that foster critical thinking, inquiry, and problem-solving while teaching truths of history, health, and well-being. Our School Committee cannot be a field of ideological play losing focus upon children’s real and urgent needs. Our priority, on every level, can be to educate and support the sound and healthy growth of the next generation. We must ask our candidates to uphold a free, safe, and meaningful public education for every student. Locally, we are making strides addressing critical issues. At the top of my list are affordable housing, thoughtful, planned, and managed development, prioritizing the climate crisis, equitable, secure, high-performing schools, and safe, inclusive neighborhoods for every citizen. What issues top your list? I challenge you to stay informed. Attend meetings, watch and listen to the videos and recordings of meetings, and talk to our leaders. Good and open communication between officials and private citizens is vital to good government. Answering our letters, emails, and phone calls demonstrates a desire to build responsive civic relationships. It is also an opportunity for elected officials to express their reasoning and to understand ours. Communication is the stuff of civil, productive compromise. Westerly ARC is dedicated to supporting the candidates who will put our values of fairness, integrity, inclusion, diversity, and equity into action. Above all else, we uphold truth, honesty, and respect for diverse opinions and one another. Westerly faces challenges, for sure. However, the beauty and talent of our citizens can usher in a flourishing and richly rewarding future for everyone. I’ll vote for that. Will you? This column is written by members of the Westerly Anti-Racism Coalition, which embraces multiculturalism to address racism. Geoff Serra is a contributing editor. A community coalition unaffiliated with any state, national, or international organization, ARC meets on the steps of the Westerly Post Office each Sunday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. All are welcome. Learn more and subscribe to ARC’s newsletter at westerlyarc.weebly.com. Contact them at [email protected]. Embracing Multiculturalism: Why celebrate Juneteenth in Westerly?Westerly Sun
June 20, 2024 by Geoff Serra Dates make history, but so do changes in minds and hearts. History often reveals lags and gaps between those dates and changes. Teaching history critically uncovers meaning in those gaps. Why Juneteenth in Westerly? A mix of national, personal, and local history offers a glimpse at an answer. On June 19, 1865, Union forces arrived in Galveston, Texas, commanded by Gordon Granger, to announce that the war was over. Africans could no longer be legally enslaved. The Emancipation Proclamation, signed in January of 1863, had taken effect immediately, but only in Confederate states. When the war ended in April 1865, Texas was the Confederacy’s last standing state, and Galveston landowners were holdouts, planning to use their free labor for one more harvest. In 1968, I left home for college in Williamsburg, Va. Arriving, I entered a small bus station: two men’s and two women’s restrooms and two water fountains. The “Colored Only” signs were only recently removed. I knew very little about the Jim Crow South. Blatant and subtle marks of segregation and racism were everywhere in that idyllic colonial town and on the campus of a prestigious Southern Ivy. At football games, the white crowd sang “Dixie,” waved confederate flags, and sipped flasked “Rebel Yell” bourbon. Walking to class, we passed Black laborers landscaping, doing maintenance, and chores. They laid brick sidewalks in patterns that were works of art. Black people prepared and served our meals, drove the buses, and did our laundry. On the street, Black folks stepped aside to let us pass. College students tutored struggling Black students in the “integrated” high school. Many white children in town attended Christian or independent schools, most of which sprung up overnight when recent efforts became serious to enforce the1954 Brown v. Board of Ed ruling. That year I broke off my first college romance with a Southern girl who pronounced my name in a lilting two syllables. Seeing a wedding announcement in The Westerly Sun, she remarked that her Roanoke newspaper would never publish a photo of an “N-word” bride. And though we had an on-and-off relationship through college, it would never last, and didn’t, because we saw color in very different ways. I would not bend on equality, and she could not bend on the way she was raised. By 1970, I worked in a local nursing home, earning good spending-money for a college kid. However, my Black co-workers Ethel and Corrine struggled daily to stretch the same paycheck to support families. One night, county law-enforcement patrolling shanty-town pulled me over on a backwoods road driving my two co-workers home after our 11 p.m. shift. “What you doing out here and why?” the officer asked, not politely. “Let them girls walk home or call a cab. You don’t belong here and had better get.” At that moment, the weight of the lives of those two women descended on me. I received an excellent education at William and Mary and loved my time there. I also learned so much more than I was prepared to. What does all this have to do with Westerly and celebrating Juneteenth? Westerly was and is not immune to separatism and racism. Though those forces hit our immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and elsewhere over the years, Europeans assimilated because they were seen as white. Not so with those whose caste marker is their skin color and whose ancestors were brought here in bondage or whose lands had been taken by colonialism. Not many years before I went to college, a Black family required white backing to purchase a home in Westerly. Indigenous people were looked down upon, often isolated at the margins of Westerly life; Black and Indigenous people worshiped only at the “colored people’s church” on Pleasant Street. Polite society accepted racial jokes and epithets. Westerly had barely turned the page on an ugly chapter of regular KKK activity on the fringes of Woody Hill Road and in the yards of local granite quarries. I did not know these facts when I entered that bus station in 1968. Like many of my generation, I also thought when I had reached my ’70s we had left racial bias behind, wiped away by advances in race relations in a “post-racial” America. One White Supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 dispossessed me of that naïve notion. Recognizing what happened in Galveston, Texas, in June 1865 heightens our awareness and sharpens our commitment that racial slurs, performance gaps, and disproportionate disciplinary code enforcement on students of color have no place today in our community’s schools. Our ugly, untaught past need not determine our future. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson, author of “The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration and Caste,” says, “There is a direct line between our history and the headlines you see today …. And nothing will improve until we address that history.” So, join us on the Post Office steps. We have lots to learn and share. We are not divisive; anti-racism is not racism, as some claim. We desperately need to learn, acknowledge, and teach all our history to fill with understanding the gaps between dates and minds and hearts. This column is written by members of the Westerly Anti-Racism Coalition, which embraces multiculturalism to address racism. A community coalition unaffiliated with any state, national, or international organization, ARC meets on the steps of the Westerly Post Office each Sunday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. All are welcome. Learn more and subscribe to ARC’s newsletter at westerlyarc.weebly.com. Contact them at [email protected]. Embracing Multiculturalism: In Westerly, respecting neighbors is traditionby Bob Serra
The Westerly Sun May 16, 2024 In conversations today, sometimes we need to pause to define our terms. Times and language change. For example, let’s reflect upon the ever-changing meaning of the word “neighbor.” In our world, “neighbor” can increasingly mean folks living next to us who may not share our culture but share a similar complex history of how we became neighbors. Our country’s history is one of changing neighbors and neighborhoods — Native Americans, European explorers, colonizers, and invaders, enslaved African captives, Europeans and Asian newcomers, Black folks who moved north in large numbers after Reconstruction, pioneers and settlers making their way west to the Pacific over many decades, and now folks from Central and South America. Like many towns, Westerly’s history is one of demographic change, with different cultures weaving into our community fabric over time. Today, Westerly’s demographics may not boast the cultural variety and diversity typical of large U.S. cities. However, we record increasing diversity, and the summer months bring temporary neighbors and even more ethnic and racial diversity. We are a world and nation in constant motion. Movement and relocation will continue to reshuffle human population as long as there is planet Earth. Each reshuffle enriches our understanding of others and ourselves. Merging histories, traditions, and cultures reshape our sense of community, identity, and belonging. However, some things stay the same. The fundamentals of neighborliness are the same: recognition/acknowledgment, making eye contact, simply smiling, a nod or a wave, an extended hand, a soon-to-come introduction, and sharing warm words and phrases. We comment on the weather, daily stressors, and needs. Before long, we’re exchanging hints of our likes and dislikes, reflections about our families and friends, interpersonal similarities and differences, and challenges and setbacks. If we are lucky to share a meal, a world of opportunity awaits us. We open up about personal and extended family experiences, vagaries of culture and language, and future aspirations and fears. Respect for and understanding of our neighbors are keys to thriving neighborhoods. And neighborhoods build communities. Whether our neighbors live above or below us, next to us, miles, mountains, or oceans away, or in spaces diametrically opposed to us on the globe or in belief, we must intentionally remind ourselves that diversity enriches and strengthens us. Thirty years ago this month, Westerly celebrated its first Neighbor Day. It was the beginning of more than 20 such annual events. Neighbor Day was the brainstorm of then-Town Council president, community activist, and visionary Mary Jane DiMaio. She recognized the constants and importance of neighborliness as changes came to our town. DiMaio made Neighbor Day her signature event and stamped Westerly as a neighborly place to live. Official Town Hall records document her focus and passion year-round. Communities across Rhode Island and more than 20 states adopted her idea. In addition to local leaders, she invited our Rhode Island U.S. senators and representatives. Over time, Westerly issued formal invitations to a U.S. Secretary of State, United Nations officials, a U.S. President, Queen Elizabeth, and a Pope. DiMaio’s efforts were extraordinary; her definition of “neighbor” was ever-expanding and inclusive. Today, our community challenge is not to recreate her Neighbor Day but to rekindle her legacy of Westerly “neighbors” and, by extension, Westerly’s “neighborliness.” Embracing and growing through our differences, we go a long way to living and belonging with one another in our town, state, country, and world. We help and support one another; we truly become a community. What could be better than that?!? Next month, look for a wonderful Juneteenth celebration at the Wilcox Park Bandstand and Greenery area on Sunday, June 16. “Freedom to Celebrate: Honoring our Community” will have food, music, and a variety of activities and events. Juneteenth will celebrate our multicultural community for all our Westerly neighbors. Learn more about Juneteenth on our website. This column is written by members of the Westerly Anti-Racism Coalition, which embraces multiculturalism to address racism. Geoff Serra is a contributing editor. A community coalition unaffiliated with any state, national, or international organization, ARC meets on the steps of the Westerly Post Office each Sunday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. All are welcome. Learn more and subscribe to ARC’s newsletter at westerlyarc.weebly.com. Contact them at [email protected]. Embracing Multiculturalism: PEOPLE HAVE GATHERED ON THESE STEPSby David Madden
Westerly Sun April 18, 2024 Since 1996, the Academy of American Poets has set aside April to salute poetry’s “integral role in our culture” and to assert that “poetry matters.” The Academy celebrates poetry’s central artistic and cultural role by issuing a unique annual commemorative poster based on an image and a quotation by an American poet. This year’s poster recognizes “raising the boats” by African American poet Louise Clifton (1936-2010). It depicts a young African American girl sailing through the air on a dive into the water by Jack Wong, an award-winning children’s illustrator. The poster quotes Clifton’s words, “May you in your innocence/sail through this to that.” It is inspiring. Since Westerly ARC’s beginnings in 2020, poetry has been a cornerstone of our group’s community-building efforts. It has fostered creativity, strengthened friendships, and facilitated the sharing of ideas. It binds, challenges, and inspires us; a poetry share has become a regular part of ARC’s monthly programming. This year, ARC events have emphasized the arts in new ways – a groundbreaking African American art exhibition at the Artists’ Cooperative of Westerly, professional programming supported by the Washington Trust Foundation at the Westerly Library, and a screening and discussion of Ava DuVernay’s movie Origin at the United Theater (based on Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabelle Wilkerson’s trailblazing work Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent. For ARC, the arts—literary, visual, or performing—help us understand our differences, see our humanity, and respond with empathy and compassion. Our column this month features an original piece by Westerly Multicultural Committee member David Madden, a resident, retired teacher, community volunteer, member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), husband, father, grandfather, and published poet. This piece, written last year, expresses ARC’s mission, goal, and solidarity with America’s dedication to the ideals of equity, justice, and freedom for all in our community. People Have Gathered on These Steps For over three years, since May of 2020 to be precise, people have gathered on these steps to raise their voices in a variety of strong emotions, to sing, to play instruments, to pray, to hold up signs expressing heartfelt longing, to advocate on behalf of justice, to urge this country to live up to the ideals it has always espoused in principle, but not always in practice. In January’s biting cold, in July’s blistering heat, in pelting snow, in pouring rain, in brilliant sun and blustery wind, people have gathered on these steps, perhaps inspired to be here by a great cloud of witnesses composed of men and women such as Frederick Douglass, Rosa Parks, John Lewis, Coretta Scott King, Bayard Rustin, Susan B. Anthony, Medgar Evers, James Meredith, Shirley Chisholm, Chief Joseph, Fannie Lou Hamer, Cesar Chavez. People have gathered on these steps as others once did at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963 in Washington D.C., a much larger gathering then and there, but the purpose here and now is the same, for those who meet today also seek to bring ever closer that day when, in the words of the prophet Amos, “justice will roll down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream,” that day Martin Luther King, Jr. told us must come before we will be satisfied, that day when all God’s children will at last hear freedom ring. Madden’s words inspire us to remain focused on our community’s treasures, talents, history, and people — all people. As we continue creating space to engage, educate, and empower, we invite the community to join us as we honor and celebrate Juneteenth in two months. Our theme is “Freedom to Celebrate: Honoring our Community.” We will celebrate folks who have made a difference in Westerly and beyond, as well as honor our shared democratic freedom to make our voices heard in upcoming political arenas. This column is written by members of the Westerly Anti-Racism Coalition, which embraces multiculturalism to address racism. Geoff Serra is a contributing editor. A community coalition unaffiliated with any state, national, or international organization, ARC meets on the steps of the Westerly Post Office each Sunday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. All are welcome. Learn more and subscribe to ARC’s newsletter at westerlyarc.weebly.com. Contact them at [email protected]. Embracing Multiculturalism: Women under the shadow of biasby Colin Jarvis Westerly Sun March 21, 2024 The 19th Amendment was certified 130 years after the adoption of the U.S. Constitution in 1790. Forty-two years passed between the introduction of the first women’s suffrage legislation in 1878 and 1920 when women voted for the first time. On Nov. 2, 1920, Kentucky-born former slave Anna Thornton Williams, of 21 Newton Avenue, was the first woman in Westerly’s history to vote in a national election. “Washington left principles for everyone,” she told The Westerly Sun reporter, who congratulated her that day for voting. In this Women’s History Month 2024, with its theme of “Women Who Advocate for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion,” we remember their journey in our nation’s history, their sacrifices and hardships to eliminate discrimination, and we honor them. Women have spearheaded efforts for equality, equity, and fairness in homes, institutions, and workplaces. In all levels of community life, women have demonstrated discernment, competence, knowledge, and problem-solving. And in their biologically determined roles, women perpetuate life. We must recognize the central role of women in creating an evolved, developed, mature, healthy, caring, considerate, and compassionate community. Yet we cannot overlook the challenges facing today’s women. There is no doubt that American women continue to live under the shadow of conscious and unconscious bias. The shadow of bias falls darkly in health care, the workforce, and the military. Take, for example, the abysmal state of women’s health care — disparities in treatment and differences in diagnosis result in higher morbidity and mortality rates for women for many diseases, including forms of cardiovascular disease and cancer. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated glaring gender-based disparities in diagnosis, treatment and outcome. Of the 16 million employees in health care, at least 75% are women, yet women account for 33% of management positions. Decision-making agency remains largely in the hands of men in health care and politics. These facts underscore the obvious double standard in agency and autonomy in female reproductive health. Many female health concerns do not apply to men; pregnancy, childbirth, and a host of other conditions. It is an injustice that half of our citizens are not accorded the power of self-determination. We must acquire awareness, knowledge, and insight into these matters and implement policies and practices to eliminate inexcusable disparities in female healthcare. Black, brown, Asian, and Indigenous women often receive different care, resulting in increased incidence of disability, death, infant and maternal mortality with unacceptable regularity in BIPOC women. Inarguably, this is a cause of great concern and great shame in America. Another area of inequity for women exists in the workforce. Research and statistics indicate that women earn 82 cents for every dollar earned by men. In addition, women are more likely to experience barriers to promotion, advancement, opportunity, favorable workplace benefits, assignments, schedules, and bias against mothers and their child care responsibilities. The intersection of race increases gender-based workplace inequities dramatically. Government statistics about gender-based workplace harassment and bullying are another cause for great shame. Gender-based bias also frequently finds its way in a third area — the armed forces, not only for women on active duty but for our female veterans. Significant disparities in physical and mental health services and treatment for women exist in a Veterans Administration designed by men to treat men. Service bias commonly finds expression in the inexcusable incidence of military sexual trauma. According to recent information published in DA Magazine (Disabled Veterans), women make up nearly 19% of today’s military. Upon release from active duty, women tend to underreport or not report their veteran status for a variety of reasons, many of which either result from, or cause, homelessness, drug-abuse, PTSD, domestic violence, under and unemployment, and a host of other conditions. Many of our veteran sisters struggle to build a life for themselves and their families without the benefits they have earned and which should be automatically accorded to them. Women have been called upon to sacrifice mightily and long to maintain our comforts, benefits and well-being. In a healthy society, all must work and sacrifice for the greater good. It took 130 years for Anna Thornton Williams to have the right to cast her vote in Westerly. Her view that democratic principles are for “everyone” sounds strangely urgent 104 years later. This column is written by members of the Westerly Anti-Racism Coalition, which embraces multiculturalism to address racism. Geoff Serra is a contributing editor. A community coalition unaffiliated with any state, national, or international organization, ARC meets on the steps of the Westerly Post Office each Sunday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. All are welcome. Learn more and subscribe to ARC’s newsletter at westerlyarc.weebly.com. Contact them at [email protected]. Embracing Multiculturalism: Equality is not enough. Equity is the goal.by Geoff Serra
Westerly Sun, February 15, 2024 Two children arrive at the Emergency Room for treatment of lacerations sustained on the school playground. If the wounds were similar, the professionals would clean them with disinfectant, administer an antibiotic ointment, check tetanus shot status, and place a band-aid on them. This would be equal treatment. Equality gives everyone the same service. But, if one of the cuts requires stitches, a different level of care is needed. This difference in medical care is equitable care. Equity gives each child the services needed to heal properly. Equality and equity are not the same. Equality treats everyone the same: equity acknowledges our differences. Why is this easily understood concept often confusing and complicated when applied to education? In 2022, the Westerly School Committee voted to conduct an equity audit of the district. Why? An equity audit finds disparities in services and delivery contributing to performance gaps. An equity-based approach asks, “How can we deliver services so that all students thrive and succeed?” Some children need different or alternative instruction or opportunities to learn the same material. Some children need stitches and not a band-aid. In 2022, the Westerly School Department hired Public Consulting Group, LLC, to conduct an equity audit. According to the consulting group, equity and excellence demand “we consider the needs of each student, with a discerning eye towards students who are historically marginalized or held to low expectations, often due to cultural and linguistic diversity, identified disability, or gender identity.” The consulting firm fulfilled its obligations and delivered a report in March 2023 outlining findings and recommendations based upon data and professional research practices detailed in the report. Since March 2023, the School Committee has studied the findings, data, and recommendations individually and in several workshops. Last week, the Committee placed the Equity Audit on each monthly meeting agenda as a standing item. We applaud this move and the commitment it represents. A significant finding is that Westerly faces socio-economic challenges. A statistical disparity exists in the educational outcomes of children of low-income families, as measured by the 34% of children who qualify for free or reduced lunch, a nationally accepted measure of low income. However, we must recognize families who don’t qualify for free or reduced lunches headed by adults who work several jobs to remain afloat. It’s not just about food or hunger, either. It is about housing, physical and mental health, domestic instability, and a whole host of other concerns. Children can’t learn if they worry about moving again, or must sleep in their coats for lack of heat, or can’t sleep because of domestic instability, or must supervise and feed younger siblings, or worse, are unsupervised themselves, or must hold down jobs to contribute to the family budget. And there is the intersection of other influential factors — race, language, culture, gender, gender identity, and disability. Combining one or more of these factors with economic factors creates potent obstacles to learning and peak performance. These and a menu of other issues often result in poor attendance and other challenges affecting learning despite the best efforts of parents. These are real problems in Westerly and contribute to educational outcomes. Westerly’s equity audit unequivocally reveals some uncomfortable truths. Equality in instruction and opportunity does not produce top performance nor actualize every child’s potential. When schools provide their students with instruction and resources that fit their needs, the entire classroom environment — intellectual, social, and mental health — improves and strengthens. Equity improves communities through stronger social cohesion, better skills, and economic growth. Equity is a profitable social and economic investment. Westerly’s Equity Audit can help the district adopt decision-making through an equity lens and provide meaningful professional development for teachers and all staff — office, paraprofessionals, maintenance, cafeteria, bus drivers and monitors, and coaches. The School Committee itself will also receive training. And what is an equity lens? It is a decision-making framework (like Rotary’s Four-Way Test). Leaders ask four major questions, reflect broadly and deeply about the answers, and then intentionally apply their learning to all decisions. 1. Who is well served by this decision, policy, practice, or program? 2. Who is left out or harmed by this decision, policy, practice, or program? 3. What tools, materials, planning, logistics, etc., are needed for fair implementation? 4. What support, training, guidance, communication, etc., do we need to ensure fair implementation? Such a framework can identify and eliminate individual, institutional, and structural bias so that Westerly schools provide best-practice excellence and educational services to all our children and families. Read the entire Equity Audit on the Westerly School Department’s home page. Learn about the methodology and analysis drawn from research-informed strategies, reflect upon the data, and study the key findings, recommendations, and best practices. Many districts in RI and the nation face similar challenges, but these are Westerly’s to solve. “Enacting … the kind of change that will fundamentally improve outcomes of all students, and especially those from historically marginalized groups,” the Audit concludes, “requires focus, a strong vision from the Superintendent and School Committee enacted by district leadership staff, an appropriate allocation of resources, mandated professional development, and clear, non-negotiable, accountability measures.” This column is written by members of the Westerly Anti-Racism Coalition, which embraces multiculturalism to address racism. A community coalition unaffiliated with any state, national, or international organization, ARC meets on the steps of the Westerly Post Office each Sunday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. All are welcome. Learn more and subscribe to ARC’s newsletter at westerlyarc.weebly.com. Contact them at [email protected]. Embracing Multiculturalism: African American art: Powerful storytellingBy Bill and Paula Alice Mitchell
Westerly Sun January 18, 2024 Bill and Paula Alice Mitchell, local collectors of African American Art, are guest columnists this month. They have deep roots in the community. They returned to Westerly in 2020 after years in Maryland, pursuing careers, raising a family, and collecting art. As museums in major cities across the nation acknowledge the place of African American Art in mainstream American Art, the Mitchells have quietly pursued their mission to share their collection and passion with the public. Bill Mitchell discusses their journey. “Paula and I have shared a passion for the arts in all forms for more than fifty years. Fine craft dominated our purchases early on - work created from wood, ceramic, metal, and baskets. Initially, we had no grand plan for what hung on our walls. We purchased art we liked, wanted to live with, and could afford. A chance visit in June of 2011 to the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts & Culture in Charlotte, North Carolina, changed that forever. A collection of paintings, prints, and posters assembled over fifty years by New York City residents John and Vivian Hewitt hung in its main gallery. It was art created solely by African Americans. We saw works that energized us with vibrant colors and evoked intense emotion. This art was different. It required us to look in new ways, and we loved it! Learning more about how African American artists approach making art contributed to this shift in our interest. During our extensive reading and learning, we came across the following description of that creative process: Many African American artists take a decidedly non-Western approach to making art. It is art rooted in African American everyday life and belief, not in a series of abstract concepts. It is art based upon a relationship with ordinary people rather than on the ideas of a few intellectuals. These artists are committed to making art understandable, relevant, and accessible to the average person. It is art created for people, not critics. It appeals to the intellect and the senses, for a story is always told. It is art that reflects how African Americans view the world around them. We have learned that African American artists are excellent storytellers. Historical, cultural, social, or political, their art shares stories that compel the viewer. African American art introduced us to a history of which we had little or no knowledge. This history has essentially been ignored, hidden, misinterpreted, or blatantly denied. When questioned about a particularly challenging work by an African American painter in the permanent collection of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas, founder Alice Walton answered, ‘Yes, it’s a very beautiful work of art. But it tells a story, an American story, not a pretty one, but one that needs to be known.’ Several questions have challenged us since that first afternoon in Charlotte, North Carolina. Why had we yet to learn of, read about, or see this art during the many years we had been actively collecting? Why had we yet to see it in galleries or at art fairs? Why had we yet to see it exhibited in museums? We have come to understand that the absence was by design. With very few exceptions, African American artists and their work had been systematically ignored outside the African American Art community. But a larger question remains. How can the history of American Art be complete without including art created by African Americans?” The Mitchells’ mission is to expose others to the art that raised these questions for them and to share their collections to help others question and begin their journey to learn the answers. Visit Conversations with African American Art, an exhibition of pieces of the Mitchell collection, selected and interpreted by April Dinwoodie, Leslie Dunn, and Kevin Lowther, in the Community Room of the Artists Cooperative Gallery of Westerly at 34 Railroad Avenue in town. The exhibition is on view until the end of February. Also, attend a presentation by the Mitchells in the second session on Feb. 10 of Conversations about African American Art: Talks with African American Artists and Collectors, a series, on three consecutive Saturday afternoons, 1:30-3:30 pm, Feb. 3, Feb. 10, and Feb.17. ARC presents this program, hosted in the Westerly Library Auditorium, and sponsored by the Washington Trust Foundation. Robin Holder of New Jersey presents Session 1, Feb. 3, and Curlee Raven Holton of Pennsylvania presents Session 3, Feb. 17. Both are nationally known, highly respected, and widely exhibited artists, master printmakers and art educators. In 2024, Black History Month highlights the varied history and life of African American artists, artisans, and art. In January and February, a time encompassing both Martin Luther King Day and African American History month, we bring this national celebration home to Westerly. This column is written by members of the Westerly Anti-Racism Coalition, which embraces multiculturalism to address racism. Geoff Serra is a contributing editor. A community coalition unaffiliated with any state, national, or international organization, ARC meets on the steps of the Westerly Post Office each Sunday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. All are welcome. Learn more and subscribe to ARC’s newsletter at westerlyarc.weebly.com. Contact them at [email protected]. Embracing Multiculturalism: This season is all about belonging by Madeline Labriola
Westerly Sun December 21, 2023 For me, gathering for the Feast of Seven Fish on Christmas Eve is a great joy of the holiday season. It has been a tradition in our Italian family for generations. We rise before dawn on Dec. 24 to prepare for the evening meal. The aromas of garlic, squid, and fried dough flavor the constant jibber-jabber of my adult children and their cousins. They reminisce about “the ole days,” argue about how to cook the octopus or how often to change the water in the baccala, and share tears remembering their grandparents. The scene is familiar and fun for us, but it can be overwhelming for others experiencing it for the first time. Everyone is in action, weaving in and out of the kitchen, between and around one another. Six or seven people talk at once; someone shouts orders, laughter spices the whole group, and the seven fish cook perfectly. Prosecco sparkles in wine glasses as the house crowds with friends, relatives, and special guests. The table set, the candles lit, the feast begins. For many, it isn’t easy to imagine any way to observe Christmas Eve other than together in a room full of loud, joyful, and passionate people. Yet, my German friend enjoys a quiet meal followed by lighting the Christmas tree and unwrapping gifts. Many Irish families prefer to attend church in the evening and then open gifts, saving their special meal for Christmas Day. Many Spanish-speaking friends commemorate “Three Kings Day” 12 days after Christmas with a festive cake and other traditional foods and gifts. At about this time of year, our Jewish friends celebrate Hanukkah, an eight-day festival featuring the nightly lighting of an additional candle on the menorah, exchanging gifts, and sharing special foods and dishes. Kwanza, an annual celebration of African-American family, community, and culture, begins with candles on Dec. 26. Celebrants honor values daily like unity, self-determination, purpose, and creativity. On the sixth day, a communal meal called Karamu combines dishes from Africa, the African diaspora, the Caribbean, and Southern soul. Other friends don’t celebrate this time of year and prefer to eat take-out on Christmas Day and take in a movie. We can all enjoy our traditions, respecting others who may not share our rituals. We can honor all who have various customs holding special foods, recipes, and different stories as part of our community. For people of faith or not, the core of any celebration is our shared humanity and desire to be together and belong. We welcome friends like family, warmly embrace strangers, and open hearts to unique traditions, foods, and rituals. We create a community where the sheer joy of being together is the blessing. How will we celebrate with so much of our world in turmoil this year? Can we leave our worries at the door while carrying the pain of so many in our lives and world? It is hard to be joyful with so much sadness, yet we are called to be hopeful people. All the Abrahamic religions teach peace, nonviolence, and forgiveness. The Torah, the Koran, and the New Testament contain instructions to live together in love and harmony. Every faith tradition endorses the Golden Rule: “to treat others as you would want to be treated.” Compassion and empathy rule every religious or secular philosophy of life. People who interpret holy texts or doctrines of any kind as orders to hate those who are different or believe differently become lost in the conviction that their way is the right, only, true way. Such righteousness and revenge cause horrific violence that tears at our human desire to belong, leaving sadness and pain in its wake. As members of a social advocacy group, we at ARC see and seek the best in people. We strive to share a deep commitment toward listening to one another, discerning our commonality, and believing in the power of love and honor. After our Christmas Eve feast, when the last dish is dried and put away, my family often wishes the joy of the holidays would remain. As Howard Thurman wrote in his poem “The Work of Christmas,” we must “find the lost, heal the broken, feed the hungry, release the prisoner, rebuild the nations and bring peace among brothers.” Then, the true celebration of any season begins. Every week, members of our ARC community stand in solidarity, sacrificing their time to help others, learning to speak with integrity, and sharing their talents to bring about a more just and inclusive community. From the Post Office steps to your house, we wish you and your family a happy and peaceful holiday season in every way you celebrate special moments. This column is written by members of the Westerly Anti-Racism Coalition, which embraces multiculturalism to address racism. Geoff Serra is a contributing editor. A community coalition unaffiliated with any state, national, or international organization, ARC meets on the steps of the Westerly Post Office each Sunday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. This Sunday, meet the author and join the discussion about this column. All are welcome. Learn more and subscribe to ARC’s newsletter at westerlyarc.weebly.com. Contact them at [email protected]. Embracing Multiculturalism: From our table to yours this Thanksgiving by Geoff Serra
Westerly Sun November 16, 2023 Smiling, a sitting group of various ages leans forward in anticipation, and a standing patriarch proudly looks on as his aproned wife places a perfect, uncarved turkey on the dining table. Freedom from Want, one panel of Norman Rockwell’s 1943 oil-painting series The Four Freedoms, has become the iconic depiction of the American Thanksgiving. Rockwell depicts only white American middle-class values and home life. But, today’s many diverse, multicultural, multiethnic families (however we choose to define “family”) look and are different. Today, the aroma of cumin or turmeric is likely to harmonize with sage in the kitchen, and the flavor of conversation in some homes may be more challenging and less celebratory. According to historical sources, those Europeans who celebrated the first Thanksgiving viewed the natives with suspicion as uncivilized pagans. The first winter for the ill-prepared Plymouth colonizers had been harsh. By spring, 50 percent of them were dead. The Wampanoags had saved them by offering succor and teaching them to survive and prepare for the future. They taught them about native plants, agriculture, hunting, and fishing. After that first fall’s harvest, the colonizers planned to give thanks. When the Wampanoags heard the gunshots of a colonial hunt for wildfowl for the thanksgiving meal, they believed an attack was underway. Ninety Indians were dispatched to investigate. They saw the beginning of a feast of gratitude. The Wampanoags returned to their village and brought back food, including venison. It is noteworthy that Wampanoags were not invited to that meal in 1621. They happened upon it and ended up sharing in it. Ironically, the Indians broke bread with Europeans who had no right to the land, who, in time, seized it, enslaved natives, and murdered many others. By 1636, almost 90 percent of the Wampanoag tribe in New England (including RI) had perished in the Great Dying, as it was called, brought on by European diseases. Is it no wonder indigenous peoples have declared Thanksgiving a day of mourning? In 1970, Wamsutta Frank James, the leader of the Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah and president of the Federated Eastern Indian League, declared the fourth Thursday of November a National Day of Mourning. He said, “What has happened cannot be changed, but today we must work towards a more humane America, a more Indian America, where men and nature once again are important; where the Indian values of honor, truth, and brotherhood prevail.” It is a sentiment we can all embrace, especially today. Everyone’s history matters. We must respect and honor all people. Can we? Despite the tension, we often break bread with those family or friends with whom we may disagree, see eye-to-eye, harbor a grudge against, or just plain dislike. It happens: a vocal ideological, philosophical, or religious challenger, a cousin whose life choices we disapprove, an opinionated in-law, a rebellious child or step-child, a rival sibling, an intrusive aunt, a biased uncle, an ungrateful nephew, a complaining niece. The reality is we are not all, or permanently, the smiling, happy folks Rockwell depicts in his painting. At this time of year, we hear and say, “There’s always room for one more at our table,” or “We always have enough for more.” Are such statements genuine? We must ask ourselves, “For whom is there not enough room at my table, or for whom will I not set a place? Or, phrased differently, “Who would show up at my door that I would not invite to join the meal?” Abuse, violence, and crime aside, who would bring discomfort to you should they take a seat at your Thanksgiving table and why? And, who is not welcome at our community’s table and why? These questions bore to the core of the tensions in our lives, both personal and communal. We can choose to bring our biases to light, expose our unsupported or misinformed prejudices to fact, and view our emotional, sometimes irrational, intolerances with the clarity of reason. By doing so, we can discover space where we need most to grow. We must also help those in our community threatened with food insecurity or without a warm, safe home. When we invite those who show up at our door to sit at our table no matter who they are, whether their arrival is actual or metaphorical, only then do we genuinely become the Pilgrims we honor at Thanksgiving. And only then will the spirit of Rockwell’s sentimental picture get it right. A modern Thanksgiving in our diverse world honors the truths of our community, history, and shared humanity. Westerly ARC invites you to our “table” for community and conversation every Sunday, 11-1, at the Post Office. This column is written by members of the Westerly Anti-Racism Coalition, which embraces multiculturalism to address racism. A community coalition unaffiliated with any state, national, or international organization, ARC meets on the steps of the Westerly Post Office each Sunday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. This Sunday, meet the author and join the discussion about this column. All are welcome. Learn more and subscribe to ARC’s newsletter at westerlyarc.weebly.com. Contact them at [email protected]. Embracing Multiculturalism: Rerouting our thoughts about Columbus by Geoff Serra Westerly Sun October 18, 2023 I was the fourth of five boys, a twelve-year difference between the youngest and the oldest. Our house was always noisy – some lots of fun, some not so much. As in many large families, there were disagreements, confrontations, arguments, and fights among us and with our parents. In those moments, my mom, like my grandmother, used a favorite line: “There’s always more than one side to the story.” As a child, I found that line infuriating. How could both stories be right at the same time? One side had to be right – mine; and the other had to be wrong – my brother’s. Mom’s answer was just not fair. All my life that line has remained with me, and as an adult, I have often reflected upon its meaning. With age and experience came an understanding that I do not always have to win or be right. I know now that there can be validity in opposing points of view. Today, I know there can be accuracy in the experience of different people of the same event. There can be space for us to embrace opposite or various perspectives simultaneously, and, more importantly, doing so is a sure route to greater understanding. So, then, let’s talk about Columbus. Can I be proud of my Italian heritage, simultaneously knowing that the historical Columbus was a violent and genocidal force of exploration and colonialism? Can I be a faithful Roman Catholic, simultaneously acknowledging that a bloody arm of Christianity played a significant role in decimating entire civilizations of indigenous peoples? Can I know (sometimes firsthand) the bias, discrimination, and inequity leveled at Italian immigrants and Italian Americans and not embrace a mythic Columbus to represent the goodness of my people and the pride of their accomplishments and contributions to our town and country? Can I attend and support a holiday and a celebratory parade endorsed by many in town while knowing that for others in our community, the holiday and parade represent the origin of a painful history of suffering, massacre, and death for their people? Can I understand that a statue can be an icon of a people’s ethnic pride, but, to others, be an unwelcome reminder of the horror of their people’s annihilation? Can I listen, tempering my emotional responses to different views, to understand, acknowledge, and accept those different from mine? And can I do so without resentment, rancor, or worse? Yes, I can. But not easily. It is an active, conscious choice and a struggle of mind and heart to do so. I must reject the superficial world of the tidy, compartmentalized, absolute answer to embrace the nuanced world of the uncomfortable, sometimes messy, gray. I must know that “there is always more than one side to the story,” and both sides can be valid. Lowering my defenses, I can allow empathy and compassion to deepen my understanding and sharpen my respect. And I can choose to act and advocate that others do the same. In the American classic To Kill A Mockingbird, which many of us have read (and taught) in high school (and which, unfortunately, today too often appears on banned book lists), the penultimate scene depicts Atticus Finch teaching his daughter Scout about bias, respect for differences, and community. He tells his daughter she will “get along a lot better with all kinds of folks” if she learns empathy and compassion. “You never really understand a person,” he says, “until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” It is seemingly simple, folksy advice. In truth, it is the most challenging life lesson any of us will be graced to learn, embrace, and act upon. It is about belief and action guided by rerouting our thought processes and adjusting our mindset. As my mom and grandmother knew, our family’s survival and well-being depended upon it. It did. And so, too, does that of our community and nation. This column is written by members of the Westerly Anti-Racism Coalition, which embraces multiculturalism to address racism. A community coalition unaffiliated with any state, national, or international organization, ARC meets on the steps of the Westerly Post Office each Sunday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. All are welcome. This Sunday, meet the author and join the discussion about this column. Learn more and subscribe to ARC’s newsletter at westerlyarc.weebly.com. Contact them at [email protected]. |
Details
Archives
July 2024
This website is a publication of the Westerly Anti-Racism Coalition. ARC is a community coalition unaffiliated with any state, national, or international organization. ARC embraces multiculturalism to address racism.
|