Place Matters

If you haven't heard, the Racial Healing Initiative of the Southwest Michigan Black Heritage Society is doing some pretty great things in Kalamazoo in partnership with some pretty great organizations. Every month since September 2013, the Racial Healing Initiative and the Kalamazoo Valley Community College's Arcadia Campus Committee for Cultural Understanding have been screening sections of the documentary film: Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick? The film, which is broken into half hour segments, explores how socioeconomic and racial inequalities severely--and often shockingly--affect our physical health. The screening, which is free and open to the public, is followed each month by a discussion facilitated by the YWCA, which gives community members a chance to explore exactly how the issues presented in each section of the film are playing out in our own community.

"Health is embedded in the larger conditions in which we live and work"

January's Lunchtime Film Series segment was called "Place Matters," and it examined how closely one's physical environment and neighborhood determines risk factors in health. In this section of the film, we follow Gwai, a Burmese refugee now settled in the run down city of Richmond, California. Once a bustling and successful city in the '40s, Gwai's neighborhood in Richmond is now struggling due to the closing of the shipyard and the subsequent loss of thousands of jobs. While white families were able to use federally funded loans to move out of the dying city and start new, many families of color were not afforded that opportunity. According to the film, "Between 1934 and 1962, less than 2% of $120 billion in government-backed home loans went to non-white households. In Northern California around the same time period, out of 350,000 federally guaranteed new home loans, fewer than 100 went to Black families." This left many folks of color in Richmond, where all the jobs, economic stability and opportunity were leaving. 

Gwai, now living in this low-income area finds himself with a lack of access to safe and affordable housing, wholesome, healthy foods and employment. He has become a statistic, a low-income man of color fighting heart disease in his 50's. The documentary notes chronic stress as a possible contributor to his condition, as the constant pumping out of cortisol and adrenalin has the power to weaken immune systems and significantly increase the risk of illness. The film notes that his stress in life is massive, and the "accumulation of multiple negative stressors" (such as unpaid bills, dangerous neighborhoods, little money, racial inequality and a lack of fresh, wholesome foods) with fewer opportunities to cope (such as vacations, extra income to relax with an indulgent cup of coffee, the chance to take a safe and comfortable walk in a neighborhood with green trees) all this compounds his stress. Sending him into a spiral of mental, emotional and physical distress. Here, place matters. 

More often than not, the documentary explains, folks cannot simply choose to escape these stressors when they live in these neighborhoods, for "choices of individuals are often limited by the environment in which they live." When we shop, we tend to shop in areas that we can access, which tend to be those areas closest to our homes, especially if we are low on cash money or transportation. The documentary informs us that buying a cars in low income neigborhoods are on average $500 more expensive, as is the trend with groceries and many other goods and services. This phenomenon, dubbed the "poverty tax," tends to perpetuate the problem for these neighborhoods and keep people in. All in all, "Place Matters" shows us that there is a very close correlation between income and health. Without a safe and inviting social environment with access to good, healthy food and employment, and free from chemical exposure, statistics show that these living environments lead to lower life expectancy and much higher rates of asthma, diabetes, heart disease and other health ailments.

My favorite part of these Lunchtime Film Series meetings is, naturally, the dialogue that happens after the screening of the film. Since joining on with the Black Heritage Society, I've seen it proven time and again that people are starving for dialogue about race. Our January Lunchtime Film Series brought out the largest crowd yet, giving way for some welcomed discussion--facilitated flawlessly, of course, by YWCA staff Cheree and Sheri. Every day, and especially during each event, I am learning not only more about race and racism, but more and more about how it plays out in this little city I call home. Kalamazoo Community members are some fantastic people. If you're looking for a way to get involved, please join in on the discussions we are having. 

The next screening of Unnatural Causes will be on February 19, 12:00-1:00PM at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum. Remember, its free and open to the public! Bring a sack lunch and we'll feed you cookies, coffee and pop. Check out the Unnatural Causes site if you're interested in learning more about the documentary.

http://www.unnaturalcauses.org/

Furthermore, you have a wonderful chance to be a part of dialogue and creating change in Kalamazoo by joining us for our follow-up to the Summit on Racism 2.0, which was held in November 2013.  During the Summit on Racism, over 100 passionate community members gathered together to develop action plans and address institutional racism in Employment, Health, Housing, Education and Law Enforcement in Kalamazoo. We are following up with a response to evaluations from event participants who asked for ways to delve deeper. We are creating a space for community members to return to these issues, make moves and create Action Networks to help organize communication and collaboration about racism in these areas.

At this session groups will be given the chance to identify the most urgent issues and ways forward in one of the five areas of focus, establish preliminary action plans for combating racism and create protocol for communication for groups to best collaborate and grow. 

Our first Action Network organizational session is Friday, March 7, 2014 from 12:00-2:00PM at the YWCA of Kalamazoo, located at 353 E. Michigan. It is free and open to the public, so bring your lunch, we'll provide cookies and beverages. Please RSVP by Friday, February 21 to smbhs03@gmail.com

And finally! Here is nifty a food desert locator. Although I cannot get the darn thing to work on my computer (since it is a 2007 two time hand-me-down I got for free (thanks, Kevin and Tina!)) it looks like a cool resource. Click on this link and look up your own community!
 Food Desert Locator

Racial Healing Initiative Book Club, Connecting & Challenging with "Clybourne Park"

Every other month the Southwest Michigan Black Heritage Society holds a Book Club meeting at Kazoo Books. The Race Initiative Book Club is founded out of the SMBHS’s Racial Healing Initiative, which is a program that maintains that the “lingering legacy of historical injustices must be addressed through” four steps: facing history, making connections, healing wounds and taking action. The Book Club is a drop-in club that fits into this structure by opening up a space for people to read and discuss books that promote racial healing and reconciliation. As the newest member of the SMBHS team, I jumped on the opportunity to join.

I arrived to Kazoo Books for my first Book Club meeting on a rainy, chilly November night. Inside I was welcomed by an intimate and cozy room shelved floor to ceiling with used and new books. A reader's paradise. Fluffy, grey cat included. Although I’ve visited this little bookshop on Parkview dozens of times, it was nice to be greeted by a community of like-minded activists, questioners and curious souls. A dozen or so women and one gentleman (yes, only one…) said their hellos and pulled up a chair for me around a large table. After old friends and first timers introduced themselves, Donna Odom, Executive Director of the SMBHS, passed around a tin of cookies and we were handed a set of guidelines they call Boundary Markers. Used at the Racial Healing Retreats, this set of practices is used to “create and protect safe spaces.” Talking about race is not always easy—as “Clybourne Park” demonstrates—so having a full page of ideas like, "Speak your truth in ways that respect other people’s truth," provided the other members and me with tools to handle our discussions with respect and consciousness. I thought it was a great way to start off what can often times be a difficult and sensitive topic. After a brief chat about these Boundary Markers, we began. 

November’s book choice was actually a 2009 play written by Bruce Norris called “Clybourne Park.” Written in response to Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun,” the dark, confusing and sometimes hilarious play fearlessly tackles issues of race, gentrification and housing in an all-white suburb in Chicago—which actually ends up being Any City, USA.

The first of the two-act play takes part in 1959 around a white, middle-aged couple, Bev and Russ Stoller, who are packing up their modest home to move into a new neighborhood. Throughout the first act, the Stollers are visited by a group of characters, including their neighbor Karl Lindner, who discloses that the family buying the Stoller's home is a “colored” family. Tensions rise as Karl does all he can to convince them to back out of the deal, afraid that desegregating the neighborhood will bring property values down and encourage other black families to move in. As the conversation escalates among the small crowd, each character is confronted with their own biases and judgments. Act 2 is set in the exact same home as Act 1, though it takes place 50 years later, with the house in visible disrepair. The neighborhood has become an all-black neighborhood, and our group of characters sits discussing housing codes. There is a white couple planning on buying and remodeling the house, who are negotiating with local housing regulations and neighborhood organizations, represented by a black couple. We quickly discover the meaningful connections these characters have to Clybourne Park: the black wife is a relative of the family that bought the house in 1959, and the lawyer representing the white couple is the daughter of Karl Lindner. She mentions quickly that her family moved out of Clybourne Park right around 1960. Discussions of housing codes quickly dissolve into debates and arguments filled with racial tension and resentments. By the end of the short play, the characters and readers have been forced to look racism and gentrification dead on.

The play brought on a much welcomed discussion for me at the Book Club. As we spent time going over the scenes of the play, I was happy to hear members of the table bring forth their own experiences and perspectives on racism in housing—sometimes challenging one another on our levels of knowledge and acceptance of racism and gentrification in our own Kalamazoo. I hadn’t recognized what some members considered the causes and beginning stages of gentrification in some of our neighborhoods. It was nice to be challenged to think more critically about this. I also valued the comfort I felt around the table. Although there were clearly disagreements, everyone was in that space to learn, speak and grow. The Racial Healing Initiative has done a good job, in my opinion, on creating that safe space where people can challenge themselves—and ask to be challenged by others—without the fear of saying the wrong thing or feeling ignorant. I left the meeting thinking about housing in a way that my privilege, youth and diverse upbringing has not forced me to think of it until this point, and I am grateful for the discussions and the people that opened this up for me.

One member reminded us that there exists in most of us a deep fear of the unknown. You cannot truly know a thing, you cannot truly know a person unless you are in close quarters with them, until you become familiar with their culture, their ideas, their history. This takes commitment to ideals of integration. It takes, in many ways, for many people, courage, I think. This club is one of the many spaces Kalamazoo has to take up this courage and talk about these issues, so please join! The next club meeting is Thursday, January 16^th at 6:30p. We meet at Kazoo Books at 2413 Parkview and we will be discussing A Stronger Kinship: One Town’s Extraordinary Story or Hope and Faith by Anna Lisa Cox. This book explores the attempts of the people of Covert, Michigan to defy racism and create an integrated city as far back as the 1860’s—despite the laws and standards of the surrounding world.

Plus, (lucky us!) “Clybourne Park” is coming to the Zoo. Come see the 2011 Pulitzer Prize winner for drama, 2012 Tony Award winning play here in Kalamazoo. It is showing at Farmer's Alley beginning Friday, February 7, 2014. For more information or to buy a ticket, see: 

http://www.farmersalleytheatre.com/current-season/clybourne-park-feb

And lastly, if you find you have some time on your hands, check out This American Life's timely broadcast of housing and racism. 

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/512/house-rules

Celebrating 10 Years, Honoring our History

Enoch and Deborah Harris were among the very first settlers in Kalamazoo.
Their descendants were honored Sunday, October 20th at the 10th Anniversary Celebration.

We are pleased to say that The Southwest Michigan Black Heritage Society has been a part of Kalamazoo and the surrounding areas for one lovely decade!

Marking 10 years in October, let me be the first to say that I feel honored as a new contributor to the Society to have been present at the celebration, which took place October 20th. The Celebration included a tour of some of the most influential black men and women presented throughout the Kalamazoo Valley Museum's exhibits, showing African American contributions in our city spanning from the agriculture of William Ampey, to the music of Gilmore Phillips and the Civil Rights and social justice work of  Moses Walker and Duane Roberts. The tour was followed by a presentation of awards to some of the descendants of the founding families of Kalamazoo, including the Ampeys, the Hackleys, the Harrises and the Sanders--all of whom put together tables of information on their families for visitors to explore in the reception. 

We shared the day with dozens upon dozens of wonderful community members, who not only contributed to the celebration by bringing their own stories and experiences, but also imparted a sense of warmth, curiosity and appreciation that showed me how the SMBHS has created a sincere following, a true community of patrons and people who care to preserve the past. 

As a young lady in her mid twenties, the celebration was an incredible opportunity for me to hear stories of the past and connect their meaning to the present. At the risk of speaking too boldly for my generation, I'll just say that for myself, it is all too easy for me to get caught up in the speed of today's age and disregard the very people, places and events that have brought me to this present day. As young people, we are connected at every minute, every second through facebook, twitter, email, texting. Forced, it seems, to give in to the instant gratification of the world of technology. Forgetting, all too often, about the roots that feed our forests. Spending my Sunday afternoon at the celebration reminded me that whether we believe it or not, whether we ignore it or not, we wear our histories on our bodies. We carry the very experiences, successes and failures of our ancestors. We cannot simply shrug off history. It is quite literally a part of our fabric. The bones that hold me up, the skin stretched over my muscles is in part a collection of all the parents and grandparents and great, great, great, great grandparents that have come before me. Celebrating the SMBHS's 10th Anniversary was a good chance for me to check in on this. 

All in all, it was simply inspiring to hear people so connected to their roots, and it is exciting to imagine my own tree--not only from the past and present, but the future, as well. How electrifying, the thought of feeding my tree, nourishing myself with my grandparents stories, nourishing future branches and limbs with my own stories. On and on, up and up. 

Below you'll find a link to an article written about the event. 

http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2013/10/southwest_michigan_black_herit_1.html