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| Community Voices A News Resource ... A Positive Perspective! |
History ... oUR foUNDAtion!
HISTORY
| A race without knowledge of its history is like a tree without roots. (Charles C. Seifert) |
AFRICAN AMERICANS WHO
BLAZED A TRAIL
by Donna Odom
SW Michigan Black Heritage Society
Executive Board – Donna Odom, President;
Mary Ann Mitchell, Secretary;
Patricia Bell Phillips, Financial Officer;
Dr. Romeo Phillips, Chair, Advisory Committee
BLAZED A TRAIL
by Donna Odom
SW Michigan Black Heritage Society
Executive Board – Donna Odom, President;
Mary Ann Mitchell, Secretary;
Patricia Bell Phillips, Financial Officer;
Dr. Romeo Phillips, Chair, Advisory Committee
THE “RACE” STORY
The election of a black president was
a historic event. Have race relations
improved as a result? That is an important
question to which we may have some
interesting answers as the Black Heritage
Society engages in several projects as a
member organization of the Southwest Michigan RACE Exhibit Initiative.
The RACE exhibit, “RACE: Are We So Different?” comes to the Kalamazoo Valley
Museum on October 2 of this year. It is a powerful, thought-provoking family exhibit
which uses history, science and lived experience, to explore human variation and reveal
the reality – and unreality – of race. Through film, still photography, interactive
components and programming, the exhibit invites us to explore race as well as the
impact of race as an economic, political and cultural construct. The RACE Exhibit
Initiative is a collaboration of over 50 community organizations of Southwest Michigan,
providing guidance and expertise for RACE programming and organization in
preparation for the exhibit. The Initiative’s mission is to use the Race Exhibit as a
catalyst for community transformation around issues of race in southwest Michigan.
The Black Heritage Society’s “Telling the Kalamazoo Community Race Story” project
explores questions of race and ethnicity and highlights the differences, not in terms of
“race,” but in how we interpret the concept of “race” and how that informs our lived
experiences. Through a series of oral history interviews with members of the African
American community, question and answer sessions with individuals from a variety of
ethnic groups, and a set of profiles of people from various neighborhoods within the
city, we have attempted to tell the Kalamazoo community “race story.” You can learn
about our findings by logging on to the RACE Exhibit Initiative website where we have
posted excerpts from conversations with community residents: http://www.raceexhibit.
org/telling-kalamazoo-community-race-story.htm-0.
You can attend one of the panel discussions where the Kalamazoo College and
Western Michigan University students, the Loy Norrix, Portage, and Kalamazoo Central
high schools students, and the interview subjects discuss the oral history project. The
first panel will be a part of the Initiative’s “Voices United” youth group program on April
13 at 4:00 p.m. at the Maple Street YMCA. Demarra Gardner will moderate. The second
panel will be May 4 at 7:00 p.m. at the Multicultural Center in Trimpe Hall on the campus
of Western Michigan University and will feature some of the interviewees and local
historians and be moderated by Stephanie Esters.
To provide a historical background for the RACE Exhibit the Black Heritage Society, in
cooperation with the Fetzer Institute and the RACE Exhibit Initiative, will sponsor a
showing of Traces of the Trade; A Story From the Deep North at The Little Theater on
April 8 at 6:30 p.m. The film was an Official Competition Selection in the 2008
Sundance Film Festival and 2009 Emmy Award winner for “Outstanding Individual
Achievement in a Craft: Research.” It tells the story of how the De Wolf family,
descendents of the largest slave trading family in U.S. history, makes the devastating
discovery of a hidden past. In order to understand their familial legacy and the
subsequent privilege attached to it, as well as to consider the deep impact of the
institution of slavery on the United States as a nation and Americans as individuals, the
family members retrace the steps of the Triangle Trade to confront the past head-on.
How will the lessons of ten cousins translate into daily lives, and how can healing and
reconciliation begin? Family member, Tom DeWolf, author of Inheriting the Trade, will
discuss that question and many others as he leads a discussion after the film showing.
On April 9 at the Fetzer Center at 12:00 noon, Mr. De Wolf will speak about his book,
Inheriting the Trade, written as a companion piece to the film. The price of the luncheon
includes a complimentary copy of the book. Registrations for the luncheon can be
made on our website, www.smbhs.org. A cocktail reception at the YWCA, 353 S.
Michigan at 4:00 that afternoon will be an opportunity for educators and administrators
to receive curriculum materials and learn how the book and film can be integrated into
the classroom.
The overall purpose of these and other RACE Exhibit Initiative events is to provide
space and opportunity for dialogue about race in local, national, and historical contexts.
Has anything changed? Let’s talk about it.
-------------------------
Posted CVs March 10, 2010
The election of a black president was
a historic event. Have race relations
improved as a result? That is an important
question to which we may have some
interesting answers as the Black Heritage
Society engages in several projects as a
member organization of the Southwest Michigan RACE Exhibit Initiative.
The RACE exhibit, “RACE: Are We So Different?” comes to the Kalamazoo Valley
Museum on October 2 of this year. It is a powerful, thought-provoking family exhibit
which uses history, science and lived experience, to explore human variation and reveal
the reality – and unreality – of race. Through film, still photography, interactive
components and programming, the exhibit invites us to explore race as well as the
impact of race as an economic, political and cultural construct. The RACE Exhibit
Initiative is a collaboration of over 50 community organizations of Southwest Michigan,
providing guidance and expertise for RACE programming and organization in
preparation for the exhibit. The Initiative’s mission is to use the Race Exhibit as a
catalyst for community transformation around issues of race in southwest Michigan.
The Black Heritage Society’s “Telling the Kalamazoo Community Race Story” project
explores questions of race and ethnicity and highlights the differences, not in terms of
“race,” but in how we interpret the concept of “race” and how that informs our lived
experiences. Through a series of oral history interviews with members of the African
American community, question and answer sessions with individuals from a variety of
ethnic groups, and a set of profiles of people from various neighborhoods within the
city, we have attempted to tell the Kalamazoo community “race story.” You can learn
about our findings by logging on to the RACE Exhibit Initiative website where we have
posted excerpts from conversations with community residents: http://www.raceexhibit.
org/telling-kalamazoo-community-race-story.htm-0.
You can attend one of the panel discussions where the Kalamazoo College and
Western Michigan University students, the Loy Norrix, Portage, and Kalamazoo Central
high schools students, and the interview subjects discuss the oral history project. The
first panel will be a part of the Initiative’s “Voices United” youth group program on April
13 at 4:00 p.m. at the Maple Street YMCA. Demarra Gardner will moderate. The second
panel will be May 4 at 7:00 p.m. at the Multicultural Center in Trimpe Hall on the campus
of Western Michigan University and will feature some of the interviewees and local
historians and be moderated by Stephanie Esters.
To provide a historical background for the RACE Exhibit the Black Heritage Society, in
cooperation with the Fetzer Institute and the RACE Exhibit Initiative, will sponsor a
showing of Traces of the Trade; A Story From the Deep North at The Little Theater on
April 8 at 6:30 p.m. The film was an Official Competition Selection in the 2008
Sundance Film Festival and 2009 Emmy Award winner for “Outstanding Individual
Achievement in a Craft: Research.” It tells the story of how the De Wolf family,
descendents of the largest slave trading family in U.S. history, makes the devastating
discovery of a hidden past. In order to understand their familial legacy and the
subsequent privilege attached to it, as well as to consider the deep impact of the
institution of slavery on the United States as a nation and Americans as individuals, the
family members retrace the steps of the Triangle Trade to confront the past head-on.
How will the lessons of ten cousins translate into daily lives, and how can healing and
reconciliation begin? Family member, Tom DeWolf, author of Inheriting the Trade, will
discuss that question and many others as he leads a discussion after the film showing.
On April 9 at the Fetzer Center at 12:00 noon, Mr. De Wolf will speak about his book,
Inheriting the Trade, written as a companion piece to the film. The price of the luncheon
includes a complimentary copy of the book. Registrations for the luncheon can be
made on our website, www.smbhs.org. A cocktail reception at the YWCA, 353 S.
Michigan at 4:00 that afternoon will be an opportunity for educators and administrators
to receive curriculum materials and learn how the book and film can be integrated into
the classroom.
The overall purpose of these and other RACE Exhibit Initiative events is to provide
space and opportunity for dialogue about race in local, national, and historical contexts.
Has anything changed? Let’s talk about it.
-------------------------
Posted CVs March 10, 2010
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| Questions? Comments? ...CONTACT CVs |
The 2009-2010 History Detectives
Oral History Project: Telling the
Kalamazoo Community RACE Story
The project will provide young people with
the opportunity to learn about diversity and
community through interviews they will
conduct with Kalamazoo’s citizens of color.
They will be mentored by journalism interns
from Western Michigan University and
Kalamazoo College and receive training in
doing oral histories. The product of the
Telling the Kalamazoo Community RACE
Story project will be tapes and transcripts, a
soft-bound book with interview excerpts,
articles, and biographies that will be
distributed at the community forums and
discussions being scheduled around the
RACE Exhibit to encourage dialogue and
understanding about the racial and ethnic
realities of the interview subjects. Material
from the interviews will also appear online in
columns in Community Voices and video
excerpts on the Public Media Network, the
RACE Exhibit Initiative website, and the
Southwest Michigan Black Heritage Society
website for use by other community groups to
engage discussion and dialogue prior to the
exhibit’s arrival. Project directors, Donna
Odom and Sue Ellen Christian, will partner to
oversee both the university and high school
level students as they work in the community.
Oral History Project: Telling the
Kalamazoo Community RACE Story
The project will provide young people with
the opportunity to learn about diversity and
community through interviews they will
conduct with Kalamazoo’s citizens of color.
They will be mentored by journalism interns
from Western Michigan University and
Kalamazoo College and receive training in
doing oral histories. The product of the
Telling the Kalamazoo Community RACE
Story project will be tapes and transcripts, a
soft-bound book with interview excerpts,
articles, and biographies that will be
distributed at the community forums and
discussions being scheduled around the
RACE Exhibit to encourage dialogue and
understanding about the racial and ethnic
realities of the interview subjects. Material
from the interviews will also appear online in
columns in Community Voices and video
excerpts on the Public Media Network, the
RACE Exhibit Initiative website, and the
Southwest Michigan Black Heritage Society
website for use by other community groups to
engage discussion and dialogue prior to the
exhibit’s arrival. Project directors, Donna
Odom and Sue Ellen Christian, will partner to
oversee both the university and high school
level students as they work in the community.
"Click"
WEB LINKS
-----------------------------------
WEB LINKS
-----------------------------------
... 2010 Book Fair
SMBH and Portage District Library to
host 2010 Book Fair – March 21
Cultivating A Broader Understanding of
Diverse Cultures. Reading Together (http:
//www.kpl.gov/reading-together/2010/) Race
Exhibit Initiative (www.raceexhibit.org). This
open forum will take place at the Portage
District Library, 300 Library Lane, Portage, MI
on Sunday, March 21, 2pm-4p.m. Round
table discussions lead by area book groups
about books that continue to garner spirited,
inspiring discussions about multiculturalism,
ethnicity and diversity. These are titles that
broaden our understanding of the diverse
cultures that surround us locally and globally.
These discussions will tie into the Kalamazoo
County Reading Together selection: Snow
Falling on Cedars by David Guterson and the
Race Exhibit Initiative. Books pre-suggested
by book groups will be available for
purrchase.
SMBH and Portage District Library to
host 2010 Book Fair – March 21
Cultivating A Broader Understanding of
Diverse Cultures. Reading Together (http:
//www.kpl.gov/reading-together/2010/) Race
Exhibit Initiative (www.raceexhibit.org). This
open forum will take place at the Portage
District Library, 300 Library Lane, Portage, MI
on Sunday, March 21, 2pm-4p.m. Round
table discussions lead by area book groups
about books that continue to garner spirited,
inspiring discussions about multiculturalism,
ethnicity and diversity. These are titles that
broaden our understanding of the diverse
cultures that surround us locally and globally.
These discussions will tie into the Kalamazoo
County Reading Together selection: Snow
Falling on Cedars by David Guterson and the
Race Exhibit Initiative. Books pre-suggested
by book groups will be available for
purrchase.
| SMBH PRESENTS |
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