Conversations on the Land: Indigenous and Scientific Principles for Sustainable Communities

Conversations on the Land: Indigenous and Scientific Principles for Sustainable Communities

Date: Friday, November 7 and Saturday, November 8, 2008

Location: Alumni Lounge (Nifkin), Marshall Hall, SUNY-ESF

Hosted by: The SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF)

See you there.

Chief Oren Lyons discusses sovereignty

Washington Heights Corner Project

I am so happy that Jamie Favaro '02 is here to talk about her journey in social work. Jamie earned her M.S. from Columbia University and LMSW in 2004. Jamie's article, "Reflections of Racial Consciousness in Social Work" was published in the Journal of Student Social Work, Volume II, 2004.

Thursday, Oct. 23 at 12:30 Jamie will talk about the Washington Heights Corner Project which she founded and of which she is now the Executive Director.

12:00 refreshments.

Art Exhibit Room, Macmillan Hall, Wells College.

Jamie was also a Trustee for Wells, but resigned and here is why.

You're Invited

I am looking very much forward to seeing Jamie again.

Click on the poster above to see details.

Silvio Rodriguez Y nada mas

gracias, Inge.

What Becomes You

“How do you write about what cannot be said?”

Hilda Raz and Aaron Raz Link came to visit us at Wells this week. Aaron and Hilda were part of the Visiting Writers Series that Professor Bruce Bennett has been directing for many years with passion and dedication because listening to stories matters.

The book that Aaron and Hilda co-authored, What Becomes You, is the story of a daughter and a mother and then a son often at the window of the kitchen looking out talking and questioning.

At the reading from their book yesterday, they chose passages that they had not read before out loud in public. That is what they said before they began. I was all set to take notes.

Hilda began to read. I wrote a sentence. Stopped. I remembered that readings are for listening, not note taking. I remembered listening to Adrienne Rich and Audre Lorde. I remembered listening to John Preston talking about his growing up working-class and trying to lose his accent, which he did. Leslie Feinberg. Minnie Bruce Pratt. Aaron read from their book. I remembered that readings are stories shared. Gifts. Don't take notes.

They stood and read. Sat down. Hugged each other.

Then Q & A.

This book took 10 years to write. How do you write what cannot be said? We used keywords and wrote essays from those: “vision” and “scars.” Curiosity was what made the book possible and patience that is not gracious and not giving up. Hilda had the sex change, not Aaron. Aaron waves his arms around to signal that he did not die, did not disappear, that he was the same person all along. Transformation belongs to everyone. Discontinuity belongs to everyone. How did we get here? Without pictures. Without words. The failure of the scientific method. How do you find what you need to know when there are no keywords to use for the search?

Drive Slowly Down Rural Roads

I saw the red fox again today. This time running along by the road near our driveway. We are getting to know each other. Across the road there is a conservancy and that must be where the zorro rojo lives. The other day I was sitting having café by the vegetable garden. The crows that have built a nest in the red pines started yelling and yelling. Since they yell a lot I didn’t pay much new attention. But then I saw why there was such a commotion. The red fox eats birds and there it was walking up the driveway. We looked at each other. Just like today. This is the same red fox that was in the back yard one night late when Ellen and I came home. That night the red fox was licking the lips and I thought, “Oh, no, a feral cat got eaten.” I didn’t say that out loud. Instead, I counted. Everyone was accounted for in the feral family that night. The deer the other night that died on the road after being hit by a car, that’s because we have built things in the way of those who live here. Today, I stopped at the end of the driveway. We looked at each other. Then the fox made its way under the guardrail and crossed the road with cars speeding way over the limit. I said, “Corre, corre, get to the other side.” Maybe maybe that was what the fox said to me, too. Or maybe that is only what I thought I heard.

Please drive slowly down rural roads.

Racism Without Racists?

OP-ED COLUMNIST, By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: October 5, 2008

One of this season’s fallacies is that if Barack Obama is paying an electoral price for his skin tone, it must be because of racists. Not so — the evidence is that he is facing what scholars have dubbed “racism without racists.”

Click for complete article

And check out a talk by Yale University Psychology Professor John Dovidio: "Diversity speaker examines an ‘old virus’ In ICSD speaker series, John Dovidio puts ‘aversive racism’ under the microscope to find widespread bias" By Aubrey Henretty

Nuestras Abuelas: Su esperanza, nuestra fortaleza

ABOUT THE EXHIBIT
Nuestras Abuelas: Su esperanza, nuestra fortaleza
Their Hope, Our Strength

Nuestras Abuelas/Our Grandmothers is an educational-historical exhibition that celebrates the legacy of powerful female figures in the lives of contemporary women leaders in the Latino communities in the region. Most of the photos in the exhibition have been published by La Prensa del oeste de Massachusetts as part of the popular series Nuestras Abuelas that started in December 2007 and continues through December 2008.

These photos have been published accompanied with creative texts written by Latina community leaders talking about the memories and most influential legacy of their grandmothers in their life.

The photographs will be on view at the Central Gallery at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst, Sept. 25 through Oct. 25, 2008. Then, in November, a complete exhibit will be on display at the Holyoke Library.