The UN Visits Jackson, and A Cultural Agent Testifies

In January, members of the United Nations’ Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent visited Washington D.C.; Baltimore; Jackson, Mississippi; Chicago; and New York City as part of its mission of assessing “the situation of African Americans and people of African descent.”

USDAC Cultural Agent Monique Davis was there in Jackson, testifying on issues of food injustice, and Chief Policy Wonk Arlene Goldbard had an opportunity afterwards to ask her about the experience. Before saying more about Monique’s testimony, here’s a little of the context for the UN visit.

As the Working Group’s report puts it, members “gathered information on the forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, Afrophobia and related intolerance that they face. We studied the official measures and mechanisms taken to prevent structural racial discrimination and protect victims of racism and hate crimes as well as responses to multiple forms of discrimination. The visit focused on both good practices and challenges faced in realising their human rights.”

After detailing the many positive developments (such as criminal justice reforms and improved healthcare programs) brought to the Working Group’s attention, the report goes on to preface an even longer list of concerns with this statement:

Despite the positive measures referred to above, the Working Group is extremely concerned about the human rights situation of African Americans.

The colonial history, the legacy of enslavement, racial subordination and segregation, racial terrorism, and racial inequality in the US remains a serious challenge as there has been no real commitment to reparations and to truth and reconciliation for people of African descent. Despite substantial changes since the end of the enforcement of Jim Crow and the fight for civil rights, ideology ensuring the domination of one group over another, continues to negatively impact the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of African Americans today. The dangerous ideology of white supremacy inhibits social cohesion amongst the US population. Lynching was a form of racial terrorism that has contributed to a legacy of racial inequality that the US must address. Thousands of people of African descent were killed in violent public acts of racial control and domination and the perpetrators were never held accountable.

Contemporary police killings and the trauma it creates are reminiscent of the racial terror lynching of the past. Impunity for state violence has resulted in the current human rights crisis and must be addressed as a matter of urgency.

The Working Group

Arlene Goldbard: So the UN came to Jackson?

Monique Davis: We were one of five cities, and it was a huge honor for our small, sleepy southern town.

Arlene: You testified before the panel. What did you talk about?

Monique: I talked about my personal experiences of living in a poor community and shopping at a local grocery store, comparing that to my experience of shopping at that same grocery store chain in more affluent neighborhoods. How the quality and variety of produce is different, the lighting is different, even the background music is different, the cleanliness of the store is different. I talked about how our neighborhood is plagued by convenience food stores that don’t offer fresh produce. Many of our families are time-starved: they need something to be quick and easy. We may almost have to go to the drawing board again to teach people how to take advantage of fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables because there’s generations of families that only know how to cook things that come out of a box and the impact on their health means mass re-education that needs to happen.

Arlene: Food is culture too, and what you’re describing is a food culture that puts the seller’s convenience and profit above the well-being of the families who consume the food. Here’s a quote from their report, which sounds like it was influenced by your testimony:

The Working Group learnt that African Americans have limited access to food variety including healthy food as they are concentrated in poor neighbourhoods with food outlets selling unhealthy and even expired food. African Americans have the highest rates of obesity which is linked to “food deserts”. Racial discrimination impedes the ability of Black women to maintain overall good health, control their sexuality and reproduction, survive pregnancy and child birth, and parent their children. Black women in the USA die from pregnancy-related complications at a rate three to four times higher than White women.

Did you hear any of the other testimonies?

Monique: There were powerful stories about mass incarceration. People spoke about a recent trial where a gentleman in Stonewall, Mississippi, was pulled off his horse and buggy and strangled by a police officer. (Note: Here’s a description of the killing of Jonathan Sanders.) People testified how under- and unreported that was because it was rural Mississippi. People spoke of the lack of prosecution of the people that are responsible and that fact that even though time has progressed, some things still haven’t changed as much as we would hope.

I was really impressed by the panel, I think they heard and honored the testimony and they even practiced some of the story circle principles we use—like after people shared just took a deep breath and said “thank you.” I was pleased that they gave people’s stories the honor and attention that they deserved. That was a great experience.

Arlene: It sounds like it. Just the fact of it happening is so interesting. You know how it is, the UN sends election observers to other countries and we feel very smug about our democracy. But in 2012, they sent election observers here. Now the UN is saying people of African descent in the United States are not well treated, as an international body, we have a responsibility to look into that. That recognition is powerful in and of itself.

Monique: Exactly. Just that they felt the need to come here is something kind of monumental.

The Working Group’s report ends with an impressive list of recommendations, the first of which is to “Establish a national human rights commission, in accordance with the Paris Principles. The Government should establish within this body a specific division to monitor the human rights of African Americans.” In a USDAC framework, what they are talking about is the right to culture, a fundamental and indivisible human right reflected in our Statement of Values. Many thanks to Monique for representing this truth to the UN.

Field Office Dispatch: New York and Philadelphia

We are delighted to present these updates from the Philly (Cultural Agent and Chief Rhapsodist of Wherewithal Yolanda Wisher) and New York (Cultural Agent Betty Yu) USDAC Field Offices. To get involved, just drop us a line at hello@usdac.us.

Philly Field Office

In October 2015, the Philly Field Office soft-launched with three successful DareToImagine actions in Chinatown, Germantown, and Hunting Park. The Field Office partnered with Asian Arts Initiative, Germantown Artists Roundtable, and Edison High School to host Imagination Stations that invited passersby to make a #DareToImagine button or a Philly Phriendship Bracelet to give to a stranger, or a papercut flag showing off their neighborhood pride. Local poets and musicians performed re-imaginings of traditional patriotic tunes. And in Germantown, the Germantown Artists Roundtable hosted “Civic School,” where folks waiting for the bus could vote for one of three issues they wanted to see tackled by newly elected Supreme Court judges: full funding for public schools, $15 minimum wage, or gun control. Most found it hard to choose. 

The Philly Field Office plans to continue building its core team and clarifying its focus this spring through spearheading large & small-scale participatory events across the city in collaboration with arts organizations and city institutions. And in the meantime, the Poetic Address to the Nation is coming right up. Learn more about the livecast here. 

Citizen Artists Lenny Belasco, Juliette Quoquoi and Tieshka Smith hold down the Germantown Imagination Station. (Photo by Yolanda Wisher, October 2016)

DareToImagine button maker at Germantown Imagination Station at Greene Street and Chelten Avenue. (Photo by Yolanda Wisher, October 2016)

NYC Field Office

The USDAC NYC Field has kicked off 2016 with a bang. In late 2015 the core team of the Field Office came together to discuss our priority projects and issues we wanted to work on.  Given the success of our June Imagining and October #DareToImagine events that were mainly focused on anti-gentrification and anti-displacement creative organizing strategies in NYC, we decided we would continue along that trajectory so we can deepen our partnerships and relationships with community activists and organizations. One of our main criteria and principles we feel strongly about is: "We should prioritize local cultural organizing activities, art/media projects and other creative social justice efforts that support the self-determination of communities to tell their own stories of identity, struggle, and collective liberation."

On January 2nd, USDAC-NYC animated and transformed the Brooklyn Museum's 3rd floor Beaux Arts Court space into the "City of Justice." We invited participants to an evening where we imagined 2016 and a future where social justice is realized through 10 participatory art-making stations that included poetry, letter-writing, theater, body movement, Story Circles, and story mapping. The planning team had some hesitations about organizing this when it was revealed that Brooklyn Museum had leased the space out to the Real Estate Summit for their annual gathering (a major convening of the real estate giants that are the #1 gentrifying force). USDAC-NYC supported the community protests against the museum. And because of grassroots activism the museum welcomed open dialogue and criticism. We then decided to use the "City of Justice" event as an open space for creative imagination and forward-thinking solutions for housing justice!

Finally, February has been a busy month so far. The Field Office helped host two Story Circles for the People's State of the Union, co-presented our Anti-Gentrification Story Mapping Activity at VIRAL an interactive performance addressing issues of police violence in Staten Island, and co-facilitated an Anti-Gentrification-themed "Community Imagining" as a part of "Speak Out" an art and activism exhibit on police brutality at BronxArt Space.

City of Justice at the Brooklyn Museum

City of Justice at the Brooklyn Museum

Love Letter to Philadelphia: Poet Laureate Yolanda Wisher and the Poetic Address to the Nation

Dear Philly,

Sonia always puts the words a place called before your name. Girl, you’ve been called so many names. Been called out of your name, too. Philly. Illadelph. 215. Killadelphia. You are corner stores and cranes, murals and museums, litter and Love Park. 

Here at USDAC Central, we are over the moon with pride and admiration for Chief Rhapsodist of Wherewithal Yolanda Wisher, who on February 5th was named Philadelphia’s third-ever Poet Laureate, succeeding Frank Sherlock (2014-15) and Sonia Sanchez (2012-13). The lines reproduced here are excerpted from Yolanda’s Poem “A Love Letter to Philadelphia.” You can watch her reading them on WPVI-TV news.

And then I started to really hear you, came to love you beyond pity and promiscuity. Fed you black beans and Jean Toomer’s “Georgia Dusk” at Toviah’s Thrift Store out West. Sat straight-backed in a plastic chair—room M18 in the Bonnell Building of CCP—while you coaxed a soprano out of me, and I sang—yeah, I sang—“Thank You, Lord” with your sinners and your savers. I caught your spirit.

This is doubly thrilling because Yolanda, whose association with the USDAC began two years ago when she was chosen as a founding Cultural Agent, has been curating and coordinating the 2016 Poetic Address to the Nation. This is the culminating gesture of our People’s State of the Union National Action, in which people across the U.S. share stories revealing the state of our union. You can read hundreds of #PSOTU2016 stories right now at the Story Portal.

I was searching for a pyramid in you, Philly. But pyramids don’t grow here, and that’s alright. Poems do.

The Poetic Address is made up of sonnets contributed by a remarkable group of invited poets, and story poems created by Philly-based poets in response to the stories uploaded as part of #PSOTU2016. Accompanied by music and supplemented by youth poetry, it will be performed live at the Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia beginning at 7:30 pm EST on Saturday, February 20th. If you’re going to be in Philadelphia, be sure to reserve your tickets now. And everywhere else, you can catch the livestream on FreeSpeechTV.

Here are Yolanda’s remarks on being appointed Poet Laureate:

It is a breathtaking honor to be selected to serve as our city’s 3rd Poet Laureate, following in the footsteps of Sonia Sanchez and Frank Sherlock. I’m proud of my city: here we have a post that affirms POETRY as a vehicle for civic engagement and expression.

I walked these Philly streets as a teenager, writing poems on the train down from North Wales and on the steps of Bennett Hall at Penn and UArts. One night in Old City at a poetry reading on 2nd Street, I fell in love with a man who became my muse and my bass player. A few years ago we gave birth to a little boy poem named Thelonious together in Germantown. Philadelphia has been my summer crush, my sister-friend, has become my home.

I step into this position spinning from the love of the unsung poets without laurels who raised me, the teachers who guided my life as much as my lines, and most importantly, my mother, Yvonda, who made countless sacrifices and knocked down more than a few walls so that I could be a writer. Born in Philly, I returned sixteen years ago in search of a poetry community. I found it, and it has shaped and inspired me.

I hope to grow that vibrant and powerful community of poetry and poets during my tenure as Laureate, and I will invite all Philadelphians—poets or not or just wishing to be—to help me write the poems that tell our city’s story. I’m not wasting any time getting started! My first invitation to all of y’all is to join me for the live-cast of the Poetic Address to the Nation, an event I’m hosting at the Painted Bride Art Center on Sat. Feb. 20th. The Poetic Address to the Nation is a State of the Union Address that weaves a multitude of voices across the U.S. into a poem, collaborative composed and performed by some of our nation’s and city’s most talented poets. Please visit psotu.us to learn more.” 

#PSOTU2016 in Ithaca: Reflections by Anne Rhodes

Note: Anne Rhodes is a theater artist, activist, and organizer who took part in a People's State of the Union Story Circle in January 2016. Below, her reflections on the experience are interspersed with excerpts from Ithaca stories uploaded to the Story Portal. 

When do we ever get to talk deeply with strangers about things that trouble us, things that inspire us, things that we wonder about?

Last Thursday at our People’s State of the Union event, 35 Ithacans came together to pause, listen, share, and grapple with issues of belonging, difference, damage and healing, despair and hope. 

Our two story circle prompts were:

1. Share a story you think the next President absolutely needs to hear.
2. Share a story about a moment you felt true belonging—or the opposite—to this nation.

What does it mean to belong to this country? For an African American “belonging to” conjured up slavery. Who “belongs in” this country when we are dealing with so much anti-immigrant ­­­­­­sentiment?  We are all so different, and there is so much history or pain; can we belong with each other? How could we get there?

The story I want to tell is what happened to me when I looked at those prompts. First thing that happened was that I had a very strong reaction to the idea of belonging “to” this country. Because this country has a very interesting perspective about what it means to be a black man, and who belongs to whom. So I had lots of reactions to just that language, and thoughts about the language I would have preferred, about the idea of belonging “in” this country.

People's State of the Union Story Circle in Detroit. Photo by Erin Shawgo. 

The stories we told each other were about uncertainty about the future, seeking solace when something horrible happens, feeling connected to and hugging strangers when something wonderful happens, despair from seeing how children are damaged in their families and cannot trust, recoiling from belonging to or with or in this country, finding connection in unexpected places.

I remember when gay marriage was recognized federally....on that day, there was just this amazement, that starting that day we could freely travel anywhere in this country and say “This is my wife” and there was something backing us up. Whether we felt safe to do that was another question, and still is. But being able to call my spouse “my wife” is amazing still. That word: wife. It means I can’t hide, and I don’t want to. The joy of it, and the ownership of it. My heart was home.

And through it all, the theme of belonging, the loss of belonging, the pervasiveness of the glorification of independence and autonomy. The historical ways of belonging in community—extended family, tribe, village, congregation—are often broken or disappearing.  And we are left wondering what can take their place.  There is so much diversity in our country – of ethnicity, gender, class, political affiliation, sexual orientation, religion.  How can we belong to each other? 

Then one of the women who had been quiet, she spoke up. She said, “I have hard time listening to the news right now. My children are Muslim. They are seven and nine years old. And they listen, they hear when the news is on, they hear what people are saying.” She said that her daughter who is seven asked her the other day, if “that man”—and she was talking about Trump—“if he becomes President, do I have to leave America? Do we have to move away?”

When do we ever get to talk with strangers like this?

The evening opened and closed with music.  As we came in, shared food, and greeted each other, Uncle Joe and the Rosebud Ramblers created a welcoming, friendly atmosphere with fiddle, guitars, and stand-up bass.  And at the end of the evening an improvisational singing group, Ephemera, created an on-the-spot vocal offering that reflected back to us what they had heard in the three story circles.  You can hear it here.

I remember coming to Ithaca to go school; it was about a year and a half ago. We found an apartment built in the 1800s and not updated. It’s downtown, and we can walk to the Commons. We can walk to the park. Sarah and I were walking in this community and the streets were packed. There’s people everywhere—friends, and friends of friends. There was life and people and activity. It was different and it had that sense of belonging. I’m grateful to the people in this community for making that happen in a country where that’s not necessarily the norm.

Ephemera’s offering ended with the question: “What if we all sang the same song?” And we all joined in with them, all kinds of voices.  It was fitting to end with a question.  And a question that contains so many other questions:  What would it take? How will we get there? How can we trust? What can I do?  But in the end it was hopeful, singing together, bringing a vision of possibilities: What if we all sang the same song?