This I Believe essay #3

Same as last week, please post your essay here before class on Tuesday. Please also remember to bring a printed copy of your essay to class and be prepared to read it aloud.

This I Believe essay #2

Same as last week, please post your essay here before class on Tuesday. Please also remember to bring a printed copy of your essay to class and be prepared to read it aloud.

Class notes 1/13

***Many thanks to Katie Coyer for taking these notes***

Community Meeting at the Wild Fig Bookstore on North Limestone

January 13, 2015

Angela Baldridge, the Plantory

·         Bringing divided communities together through understanding

·         Ideas taken from Center for Social Innovation in Toronto

·         Creative people come together to solve problems under 1 roof

·         If 10 different groups share a wifi bill, more funding can go towards their actual missions

·         There are currently around 71 members

·         Promotes exchange of ideas

·         Walls built from scrap lumber leftover from their desks

·         They are able to fundraise around $100,000 each year for partners, super-low rent rate as a result

·         Built around the basis of identifying strengths and figuring out how to apply them

Andrea James, Blue Glass Community Foundation, East End

·         Born and raised in Lexington

·         Before she was 18, she had moved 17 different times

·         H1 overlay proposed for the neighborhood

·         Noticed a wide gap, a disconnect

·         Saw potential— self as filler for that gap

·         Also noticed government representation was not communicating, and that she could run for city council

·         Became the first black woman on Lexington city council

·         Race reconciliation became an inevitability

·         Observed inequality that she hadn’t necessarily experienced personally before, but could not deny it

·         Goal to celebrate successes and each other

·         Fostered authentic partnerships

·         Saw same dynamic in rural community after her move from East End

·         Relationships

1.      Trees and economic development

2.      Art and transportation

3.      Food and privilege (who gets what? Cost? Expectation?)

4.      Inequities and structure        

·         Plenty and how you place it

·         Now works for the Blue Grass Community Foundation

·          

Sean Gladding, MLK Neighborhood

·         Bought Andrea James’ house when she moved, a community member

·         Focus on reconciliation

·         Which he defines as becoming friends with someone who people say you shouldn’t be friends with, for whatever reason

·         Pastor who became a part of a motorcycle gang

·         Experienced judgment when he was with his friends, to be looked at as an outsider

·         Understood that feeling of looking for a place to belong

·         Started Communality

·         a place for welcoming people

·         Experiences with Iraqi refugees and Bosnians

·         Became human beings in a room dealing with something together

·         Position as a white man asking and hearing important questions (e.g. gentrification v. community development)

·         Worked at Mercy Street for 7 years--a place for people who may have been hurt by the church in the past

·         Back in Lexington because he missed the community

·         Now gives life to being a good neighbor

·         Believes in people with resources becoming friends with people who have fewer resources

·         But what if people are all in the same boat as their friends?

Richard Young, NoLi CDC

·         Once never felt sense of belonging

·         Highlighted his frequent moving (6-8 times, compared to Andrea’s 17…)

·         SCAPA, later went to a music conservatory

·         American music system--improve self for privilege of playing with the ensemble

·         1 of soon to be 3 staff members of the “NoLi” CDC which is only two-and-a-half years old

·         interested in creative place making

·         art in development conversations

·         Has experience in reclaiming abandoned spaces and turning them into affordable housing (which I remember from last year Griffin saying they prioritized bringing young artists into the community through that housing, though Richard did not mention this--maybe their priorities have changed)

·         Kept calling the Night Market “interesting”

·         Mentioned night market’s “unintended consequences” but did not address what those were or how they were handling them

·         Says they do a “surprising amount of environmental work”

·         Venezuelan orchestra as social group—model for MusicWorks at Arlington Elementary, sponsored by NoLiCDC

Ron Davis, Co-Owner of Wild Fig Bookstore

·         Visual artist and poet

·         Discreet by design

·         Introvert who daydreams about anarchy

·         Constant self-examination

·         Accidental poet

·         Reluctant artist

·         Bookstore has been open for four months since reopening on North Limestone (used to be located elsewhere)

·         Teacher and preacher inside

·         Felt very welcomed by the neighborhood

·         Wants to host conversations

·         Can’t remain static

·         Need to get involved, even as an introvert

This I Believe essay #1

Please post your essay here before class on Tuesday. Please also remember to bring a printed copy of your essay to class and be prepared to read it aloud.

"Burning Truth in the South" question

Post your questions by 5pm on Monday, January 18. Remember to include some context to connect your question directly to the reading: "Burning Truth in the South," a speech by Martin Luther King.

Randall Horton question

Post your questions by 6pm on Sunday, January 17. Remember to include some context to connect your question directly to the reading from Hook, Randall Horton's memoir.

Welcome to Community Engagement Through the Arts (CETA) 2016

Welcome to CETA 2015. Now that you have found our class blog, please return to see photographs of what we are up to, get updates about our visitors on Wednesday nights, and follow our collaborative, community-based public art project: Heroes.