#Berea Kentucky

[thebereatorch]

United Student Workers of Berea-CWA Announce Union Campaign at Berea College, Kentucky

A strong majority of Berea College students have already signed union authorization cards.

By Ameer Abedy and Ülvi Gitaliyev On March 16th, United Student Workers of Berea (USWB), affiliated with the Communication Workers of America (CWA), announced their unionization campaign in Berea College. Berea College, a work college consortium, requires students to hold labor positions along with their academic duties. The aforementioned positions can range anywhere from manual labor, such as…

[kevinnance]

Color wheel © 2023 by Kevin Nance

(Berea, Kentucky)

[digitalmagpie]

"

It started with a few sentences in a book I was reading about the history of the Appalachian Mountains. The book briefly discussed Kentucky, before colonization, being covered with dense thickets called canebrakes, which mostly disappeared when settlers plowed and cleared the fertile bottomlands where they grew. “Cane,” the book claimed, was likely the origin of the name Kentucky—“Kain-tuck.”

“Cane” was just what the settlers called the tall, woody plant that dominated in canebrakes—the name refers to any of the three similar plant species belonging to the genus Arundinaria. In Kentucky, it was most likely A. gigantea, or giant river cane. Giant river cane has no relationship to plants like sugar cane, and are actually North America’s only native bamboo.

Bamboo? In Kentucky?

I recalled having seen some strangely bamboo-like plants in the area, including a large patch in an empty lot close to my house. My memory rushed back to several years ago, when my brother had been camping in a “bamboo forest” along a creek that bordered a farm. How strange, I had thought. Who would plant bamboo in the middle of nowhere like that?

Unless…it was native bamboo?"

[queenlua]

just found out Berea College pulled their motto from Acts 17:26. total chad move, what a baller institution

[nomaishuttle]

why am i getting an ad for university of kentucky guys its actually really scary

[intheholler]

Appalachia & Southeastern USA LGBTQ+ Resource Masterpost

Under the cut, you'll find queer-focused resources sorted by state.

I have a sister post with donation links for those outside of the region who'd like to help us grow.

If you aren't from the region, I encourage you to find the organization that speaks to you the most, put your money where your mouth is and help us be better.

If you are from the region, I sincerely hope this can help you or someone you know in some way.

This list is inexhaustive as Tumblr is only permitting 100 links (which is also what necessitates the sister post and is why you may not see your contribution unfortunately).

Disclaimer: I do not (necessarily) personally endorse these organizations, nor have I vetted them thoroughly. If I have included anything you know to be detrimental or harmful in any way, please DM immediately me so I can rectify it.

General Regional Resources

Appalachian Outreach organizes events and provides access to resources for the queer community all across Appalachia.

STAY (Central Appalachia) is a youth-led activist organization in central Appalachia.

Trans in the South is a directory for gender-affirming healthcare in the south.

Southerners on New Ground (SONG) is a queer liberation group funding projects, protests, and campaigns to build a queer-friendly south.

Southern Trans Youth Emergency Project (STYEP) connects trans youth affected by anti-trans legislation with gender-affirming healthcare providers in the southeast; they offer grants up to $500 to individuals for emergency support.

Trans Health Project helps trans folks understand, access and utilize their medical insurance. They provide grants for gender-affirming surgeries.

Campaign for Southern Equality provides funding, training and resources for/to queer individuals and activists.

Not region specific, but important all the same: Help suspected transgender John and Jane Does regain their identities.

Resources by State

Alabama

AIDS Alabama helps provide housing to vulnerable individual and families, including helping queer youth find housing.

ALTGO’s list of local resources for gender-affirming care, legal services and generally queer-friendly physical/mental healthcare.

The Knights & Orchids Society provides housing, healthcare, and general support to the Black queer community.

Based in Birmingham, Magic City Acceptance Center offers supportive safe spaces and direct support to 52 counties in Alabama.

Medical Advocacy and Outreach in southern Alabama provides HIV+ care, as well as HIV & hepatitis C testing.

Prism United funds free therapy and hosts gatherings for queer individuals along the Gulf Coast.

Shoals Diversity Center is a Florence-based group that offers mental health services, support groups and other resources for the queer community in the Shoals area.

T.A.K.E. Resource Center provides direct support, grants, housing advocacy and other services for trans women of color in Alabama.

Thrive Alabama facilitates access to queer-focused healthcare services in North Alabama.

Georgia

Carollton Rainbow organizes queer-focused social events in West Georgia and provides tools for advocacy in the community.

Emmaus House is a soup kitchen in Savannah also providing laundry and shower facilities.

Emory is an Atlanta-based, queer-focused law firm.

Feminist Women’s Health Center (I know the name isn’t necessarily ideal, sorry) in Atlanta offers trans-inclusive, affordable medical care. They also provide access to abortions.

First City Network in Savannah provides referral services for healthcare, advocacy, education and mutual aid for queer Georgians.

List of housing assistance in the Savannah area

Stonewall Bar Association of Georgia serves the queer community’s legal needs in Georgia.

Kentucky

AIDS Volunteers of Lexington (AVOL) provides housing and assistance to low-income people living with HIV/AIDS.

Arbor Youth Services provides emergency shelter to queer youth in Louisville, up to age 24.

Berea Human Rights Commission offers free investigations into claims of housing or employment discrimination with a focus on queer folks.

Kentucky Health Justice Network provides referrals to gender-affirming providers, as well as financial assistance for trans healthcare and abortions.

Kentucky Youth Law Project provides free representation to queer youth.

Massive Kentuckian LGBTQ resource list provided by Lexington Pride Center, broken down into easy-to-browse categories.

Louisville Youth Group strives to give queer youth the tools and skills they need to grow personally and facilitate positive change in their communities.

Sweet Evening Breeze helps queer young adults in Kentucky between the ages of 18-24 obtain emergency housing.

Trans Kentucky’s list of gender-affirming healthcare providers across the state

Guide on changing your name following gender-affirming surgeries in Kentucky, and a tool to help you do so.

Louisiana

AcadianaCares supports folks living with HIV/AIDS while providing support to houseless and impoverished individuals.

ACLU Louisiana website.

Community resources in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Lafayette (much of it only provides addresses and emails, so it’s hard to link individually here).

Directory of trans-focused healthcare providers

List of in-person and online queer support groups. In-person groups are based in Monroe, Lafayette and Baton Rouge.

Mutual aid in Shreveport

Out of the Closet provides clothing for the queer community with multiple locations throughout the state.

OUTnorthla is a queer film-festival hosted by PACE Louisiana.

Queer-forward healthcare in Louisiana.

QUEERPORT is a grassroots org offering a platform for queer creatives.

Tulane Drop-In Clinic provides free medical and social services to runaway and otherwise houseless youth.

Guides for legal name changes in Louisiana.

Mississippi

Capital City Pride hosts pride events, meet-ups and book clubs for the queer community around Jackson.

Gulf Coast Equality hosts drag shows, food drives and other events for the Gulf Coast area.

The Spectrum Center in Hattiesburg offers a community closet, short-term emergency housing, free HIV testing and scheduled support groups/events for the queer community in Hattiesburg.

Violet Valley Bookstore is a queer feminist bookshop owned by a published lesbian author in Water Valley.

Guide for name changes in Mississippi.

North Carolina

Charlotte Transgender Healthcare Group (CTHCG) connects trans folks with gender-affirming care.

Down Home NC helps rural working class communities organize to advocate for their rights.

Guilford Green Foundation & LGBTQ Center provides financial support to queer nonprofits and activist groups in NC to fight anti-queer legislation.

Ladies of the T is provides resources and support to trans and gender non-conforming women of color in the Tri-City area. .

North Carolina Gay and Lesbian Attorneys (NCPMB) provides attorney referrals, visibility, and support for the queer community.

Pitt County Aids Service Organization (PICASO) provides HIV prevention and testing services in Eastern NC, as well as support for individuals living with HIV/AIDS.

Asheville-based Tranzmission’s compilation of trans-focused medical, social and legal resources in WNC.

Triad Health Project provides free HIV testing, contraceptives, prevention outreach, daycare and access to their food pantry in Guilford County.

Durham-based Triangle Empowerment Center provides the queer community with emergency housing, access to PrEP, as well as support groups and other events.

South Carolina

Harriet Hancock Center is a community center offering social support for queer individuals in the Midlands area.

Free gender-affirming gear to South Carolinians!!!

Alliance for Full Acceptance (AFFA), a queer-focused social justice group

List of queer-friendly medical providers across the state

Uplift Outreach provides safe spaces for queer youth in Spartanburg.

Charleston Black Pride serves the queer POC community in the low country area.

We are Family Charleston’s community center hosts support groups and provides direct support to the queer community around Charleston. They offer microgrants to trans individuals in the state as well as in-person support groups and aforementioned free stuff for trans folks.

Closet Case is a thrift store by and for queer individuals, operated by We Are family, offering safe and affordable clothes shopping.

T-Time holds support groups for trans individuals, based in Myrtle Beach.

Palmetto Community Care provides confidential HIV testing and support as well as free contraceptives.

South Carolina based community support network for the trans community

Legal assistance in Columbia, SC/Midlands area

Guide on changing your name in South Carolina

List of queer-safe, gender-affirming care providers in Columbia, SC

Tennessee

CHOICES provides low-cost LGBTQ healthcare, among other services, such as abortions.

Emergency housing in Tennessee for those living with AIDS

Launch Pad helps queer youth among others obtain emergency shelter in the Nashville area.

Metamorphosis provides transitional housing and other emergency support for queer youth between 18 - 24.

Mountain Access Brigade provides abortion funding across the state.

My Sistah’s House in Memphis provides emergency housing and support for queer people of color, as well as access to health services for sex workers.

The Seed Theatre in Chattanooga provides free resources such as binders for the trans community and hosts safe, social spaces.

Tennessee HIV Prevention & Care

Trans Empowerment Project provides support to trans and gender-nonconforming folks around Knoxville.

Youth Villages provides emergency housing for youth under 18.

List of trans-focused healthcare providers across the state.

Virginia

Counseling, free hygiene products, temporary housing and more provided by Side by Side VA

Virginia Home for Boys and Girls partners with Pride Place to provide temporary housing for queer young adults (18-25).

Side by Side VA provides temporary housing for queer youth for up to 6 months.

Nationz, based in Henrico, provides free STI/HIV testing, food pantry, PrEP, and notary services for the queer community.

Justice 4 All provides legal aid for low-income Virginians.

Virginia Rural health Association’s list of gender-affirming healthcare providers

General rural healthcare resources in Virginia

West Virginia

Dr. Rainbow connects folks with queer-friendly care in the state.

Fairness West Virginia’s list of gender-affirming care providers.

Harmony House West Virginia provides queer-friendly shelter for houseless people.

Holler Health Justice is a queer- and POC-led mutual aid organization based in WV, though they seem open to serving all Appalachians.

Holler Health Justice also provides financial/logistic support to West Virginians seeking abortions.

WVFREE connects West Virginians with birth control providers.

Nearby gender-affirming care for trans youth at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Transgender Health Center.

[cartermagazine]

Today In History

Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson, was born in New Canton, VA, on this date December 19, 1875. Woodson had worked as a sharecropper, miner and various other jobs during his childhood to help support his large family. Though he entered high school late, he made up for lost time, graduating in less than two years. After attending Berea College in Kentucky, Woodson worked in the Philippines as an education superintendent for the U.S. government. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Chicago before entering Harvard. In 1912, three years before founding the ASNLH (Association for the Study of Negro Life and History).

Dr. Carter G. Woodson became the second African American to receive a doctorate from Harvard University after W.E.B. Du Bois.

Woodson believed that young African Americans in the early 20th century were not being taught enough of their own heritage, and the achievements of their ancestors. In 1921 Woodson started his own publication the Associated Publishers Press and housed it at his row house on Ninth Street in Washington D.C. He then turned to his fraternity, Omega Psi Phi, who helped create Negro History and Literature Week in 1924.

In February 1926, Woodson sent out a press release announcing the first Negro History Week. As early as the 1940s, efforts began to expand the week of public celebration of African American heritage and achievements into a longer event. In 1976, on the 50th anniversary of the first Negro History Week, the Association officially made the shift to Black History Month.

Woodson dedicated his career to the field of African American history and lobbied extensively to establish Black History Month as a nationwide institution. He wrote many historical works, including the 1933 book The Mis-Education of the Negro.

We honor Dr. Carter G. Woodson legacy through CARTER™️ Magazine, extending his vision for making African American history available for everyone 365 days a year.

CARTER™️ Magazine

[uwmspeccoll]

A Wood-engraved Feathursday

MORE CHICKENS!!

One can never have enough chickens. Today's flock is from a wood engraving by Kentucky potter and engraver Gwen Heffner (1952-2021) entitled Three French Hens from the catalog of the Fourth Triennial Exhibition 2020-2022 of the American American wood engravers society, the Wood Engravers’ Network (WEN). We love how Heffner captures the goofy, maniacal look that chickens often have.

Gwen Heffner received her BA degree in printmaking and ceramics from Luther College in Iowa and her graduate degree in ceramics from the University of Louisville, and she maintained a pottery outside Irvine, Kentucky. Heffner worked as an artist for school systems in her state and had long associations with the Contemporary Artifacts Gallery and the Kentucky Artisan Center, both in Berea, Kentucky. Unfortunately, Heffner passed away before this catalog was printed. We are pleased to share her print with you.

View more Feathursday posts.

View other posts with engravings from the WEN Fourth Triennial Exhibition.

View more engravings by members of the Wood Engraver’s Network.

View more posts with wood engravings!

View more posts with CHICKENS!!

[shewhoworshipscarlin]

Walter Franklin Anderson

The grandson of formerly enslaved people, Walter Franklin Anderson, classical pianist, organist, composer, jazz musician, community activist, and academician, was born on May 12, 1915, in segregated Zanesville, Ohio. Walter was the sixth of nine children of humble beginnings.

Information regarding his parents is not available. Anderson, a child prodigy, began piano studies at age seven, and by 12, he was playing piano and organ professionally while still in elementary school. He was the only Black student to graduate from William D. Lash High School in Zanesville in 1932. Although a talented musician, Anderson was not a member of any of the school’s music ensembles, including the Glee Club or orchestra. Afterward, he enrolled in the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin, Ohio, 100 miles north of his hometown, and received a Bachelor of Music in piano and organ in 1936. Anderson continued his studies at Berkshire (Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra) and the Cleveland Institute of Music in Cleveland, Ohio.

From 1939 to 1942, Anderson taught Applied Piano, Voice Pedagogy, and music theory at the Kentucky State College for Negroes (now Kentucky State University) in Frankfort. In 1943, Anderson married Dorothy Eleanor Ross (Cheeks) from Atlanta, Georgia. They parented two children, Sandra Elaine Anderson Mastin and David Ross Anderson, before the marriage ended in a divorce in 1945.

In 1946, Anderson was appointed the head of the music department at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, thus becoming the first African American named to chair a department outside of the nation’s historically black colleges. Two years later, Anderson was a Rosenwald Fellow in composition from 1948 to 1949, where his variations on the Negro Spiritual, “Lord, Lord, Lord,” was performed by the Cleveland Orchestra. Moreover, John Sebastian, the conductor of the Orchestra, commissioned him to write “Concerto for Harmonica and Orchestra” for a performance with the same orchestra. In 1950, Anderson’s composition, “D-Day Prayer Cantata,” for the sixth anniversary of the World War II invasion, was performed on a national CBS telecast. In 1952, Anderson received the equivalent of a doctoral degree as a fellow of the American Guild of Organists. He left his administrative post at Antioch College in 1965.

In 1969, Anderson was named director of music programs at the National Endowment for the Arts, where he created model funding guidelines and pioneered the concept of the challenge grant. In addition, he spearheaded numerous projects and developed ideas at the then-new agency for supporting music creation and performance, specifically for orchestras, operas, jazz, and choral ensembles and conservatories.

Anderson was the recipient of four honorary doctorates in music over his professional career, including one from Berea College in Berea, Kentucky, in 1970. He retired from NEA in 1983. During this period, he became a presidential fellow at the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies and a recipient of the Cleveland Arts Prize for Distinguished Service to the Arts. In 1993, the American Symphony Orchestra League recognized Anderson as one of 50 people whose talents and efforts significantly touched the lives of numerous musicians and orchestras. He was also a member of the Advisory Council to the Institute of the Black World at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Center.

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/people-african-american-history/walter-franklin-anderson-1915-2003/

[davidnajewiczphotography]

Along I-75 in eastern Kentucky, Between Berea and London - a very foggy morning

[mogai-sunflowers]

MOGAI BHM- Day 1!

Happy BHM! To celebrate the first day of Black History Month, I figured I’d make my first post about the history of BHM itself! i highly recommend you read the whole post, but if you do genuinely struggle with reading very long posts, I will have a summary/conclusion at the end!

Carter G. Woodson-

[Image ID: A black-and-white, portrait-style photograph of Carter G. Woodson. He is thin, Black with a medium-dark skin tone, and is wearing a black suit jacket over a white button-up collared shirt with a necktie that is grey with small white polka dots. He is wearing his hair in corn rows, and has a somewhat solemn expression on his face. End ID.]

The history of Black History Month would be entirely incomplete without discussing Carter G. Woodson! Woodson never in his lifetime got to see official establishments and celebrations of BHM, but he is nevertheless integral to its history.

Carter G. Woodson was born in 1875. Growing up, he was quite poor, and his schooling was very limited- he was mostly self taught. He taught himself basic subjects, and he graduated from high school only two years after entering. He worked in West Virginian coal mines to earn additional income for his family.

From an early age, Woodson was interested in teaching and history. Before getting his bachelors degree in literature from Kentucky’s Berea College, he worked as both a teacher and a school principal, and after graduating with his bachelor’s degree, he went on to travel Europe and Asia before returning to America to earn a master’s degree from the University of Chicago, and he then became the second Black American to ever attend and graduate from Harvard University. Eventually, he became the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Howard University, an HBCU!

The ASNLH, ‘N*gro History Week’, And More

[Image ID: A newspaper clip from 1976. The newspaper clip has three columns of content- the right and left columns are text, and the central column is a picture of Carter G. Woodson’s face with his name as a caption. The title of the article is written across the whole top of the clipping and it reads: “Carter Woodson: Father Of Black History Month In U.S.” The text in both columns reads:

“Editor’s Note: Today marks the beginning of Black History Month, which continues through Feb. 29. In observance of this period, we think it appropriate to begin by running this article by Howard James Jones, who writes a column entitled, “Black Folk In American Civilization”, which runs in the Daily World.

February is celebrated as Black History Month. It received this designation as a result of the dream of one man who was able to work with a number of other persons to make this dream a reality. This seer was that he could do research for his dissertation at the Library of Congress. In 1909, he began teaching French, Spanish, English, and History in the public schools of the District of Columbia. In 1912, his dissertation, “The Disruption of Virginia”, was accepted by Harvard and he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Afterwards, he served as Dean of The School of Liberal Arts at Howard University, but left because he did not agree with certain administration policies. He eventually gave up teaching altogether for this same reason.”

End ID.]

In the summer of 1915, Woodson attended an event which celebrated the 50th anniversary of emancipation. While the event was wildly popular and successful, it also coincided with Woodson being barred from conferences at the AHA, the American History Association. He realized that his goal of celebrating and recording Black history could not be achieved simply working within the framework of the AHA, so in 1915, he founded the Association for the Study of N*gro Life and History, or the ASNLH, which still exists today under the name the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, ASALH.

In 1916, he founded the Journal of N*gro History, which to this day remains a published journal under the name the Journal of African American History. The award-winning journal highlights stories from Black history and offers book reviews as well.

Woodson’s fraternity brothers sided with him when they helped him found N*gro History and Literature Week, later renamed N*gro Achievement Week, in 1924. While it had a significant impact, Woodson was not fully satisfied with it and wanted to go further. So, in February of 1926, he established what would, in 50 years, become Black History Month- N*gro History Week.

Celebrations of N*gro History Week spread rapidly. They popped up all over the USA, and Woodson along with the ASNLH provided annual themes, study materials, and incentives for celebrations. The spread of N*gro History Week was massive. Official celebrations were established by political leaders, and many schools began forming N*gro History clubs.

Woodson’s Concerns-

While Woodson was definitely pleased with the reaction to N*gro History Week, he still had many concerns about it. Although he chose the second week of February to celebrate the week due to many Black communities across America celebrating the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, both of which occur in the second week of February, he personally disapproved of those celebrations because he believed that they gave to much emphasis to one or two great people, instead of highlighting the history of Black people as a whole.

This concern he brought to N*gro History Week- he worried that people would start only celebrating certain huge figures from Black history instead of celebrating all the Black people from Black history, whether or not they personally made huge advancements, because he believed that the greatness of Black history came not from a few important individuals, but from every single Black American.

Another concern that Woodson had was with the performativity of many N*gro History Week celebrations. He observed that, while many people did genuinely engage in celebrations, many also used it as an opportunity to appear progressive than to actually celebrate Black history. He believed that, if Black history were ever to be truly respected, it must not be confined to a singular week or period of time, but instead must be a constant, never-ceasing pursuit- year-round instead of confined to a time period.

Black History After Woodson-

Rest in power to Carter G. Woodson, who passed away on April 3, 1950.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Woodson’s legacy lived on. The drive to celebrate and commemorate Black history showed up in larger movements for racial change. The Freedom Schools of the South incorporated Black history into their curriculums, Black teachers fought for recognition of Black history within schools, and Woodson’s ASNLH continued to fight for institutional change regarding the celebration of Black history.

In 1976, the first American president officially endorsed February as Black History Month. Every president since has similarly endorsed it. To this day, Black History Month is a thriving celebration, in America and across the world. Although Carter G. Woodson didn’t survive to see the first official celebrations of Black History Month, his legacy lives on through BHM- and so does his call to a genuine commitment to anti-racism and Black history.

Summary/Conclusion/Key Points-

- Carter G. Woodson was a man dedicated to the pursuit of documenting, teaching, learning, and celebrating Black history. He was a teacher, a scholar, and a historian.

- In 1915, Woodson founded the ASNLH to promote independent institutionalization of Black history and its education. The next year, he founded the Journal of N*gro History. Both of these things still exist to this day.

- In 1926, Woodson founded N*gro History Week, which rapidly spread throughout the following decades. It was wildly popular and important, but also raised concerns about performativity.

- Woodson passed away in 1950. After his death, efforts to improve the education about Black history continued, especially in the South with activism from Black teachers.

- In 1976, Black History Month was first celebrated officially across America in February. Woodson’s legacy lives on to this day through BHM.

- While BHM is just a month long, Black history is constant and is not confined to one month of the year. Honor Black history in all you do, not just in February but at any and all opportunities across the whole year.

Sources-

Carter G. WoodsonDr. Carter Godwin Woodson, distinguished Black author, editor, publisher, and historian, recognized for his role in establishing Black HistoNAACP

University of Chicago Press Journals: Cookie absentRCNI COMPANY LIMITED

Origins of Black History Month – ASALH – The Founders of Black History MonthASALH.ORG

Black History MonthFebruary is Black History Month. Paying tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizeBLACKHISTORYMONTH.GOV

[thebereatorch]

Kentuckian, Nurseryman: Interview with 6th Congressional District Democratic Candidate Todd Kelly

Todd Kelly, a nurseryman, is running to unseat Congressman Andy Barr in the Sixth Congressional District of Kentucky.

By Ülvi Gitaliyev Andy Barr (R), is running for his 7th term in Kentucky’s Sixth Congressional District. Representative Barr is known for his staunch conservatism, support of former president Donald J. Trump and conservative voting patterns such as voting in favour of military aid for Israel at every opportunity. Although the Sixth District used to be very competitive, most political pundits…

[kevinnance]

Sundown on Big Hill © 2023 by Kevin Nance

(Berea, Kentucky)

[android-and-ale]

Free Appalachian Craft College

Hey Cottagecore and Crafty kids!

I really wish I'd known about this place back when I was applying for colleges.

Berea College in Kentucky charges students $0 for tuition. Before you freak out about it being in Kentucky, go google the town of Berea. It's an arts and crafts wet dream, with a delightful emphasis on the unique culture of Appalachia.

The college is somewhat selective. They accept about 1/3 of all applicants. It's also a small school (student body of 1500), with a 9:1 student:faculty ratio. Half the students are POC. 67% are first generation college students.

Their work-study program is mandatory for all students, but instead of federal minimum wage there are 6 pay grades, ranging from zero responsibility to manager. When you graduate you get a "work transcript" and references as well as your regular transcript. Oh, and a LOT of the available jobs are crafting and working with animals.

The City of Berea has a ton of craft festivals, and students are encouraged to set up booths and make money selling tourists their own hand made crafts.

Art for its own sake is wonderful, but they have an emphasis on Entrepreneurship, so you can learn how to actually manage a business in the arts.

It's a very different education from what you get at the usual [CityX] College of Art and Design. They love art for its own sake, but they also really want to teach you how to make a living (while also giving you a broad based general education.)

If you know a crafty kid who aspires to make and sell any kind of art for a living, this could be a good place to add to their stack of school applications.

[revlyncox]

Love, Liberation, and New Visions: Wisdom from bell hooks

Love is more of a practice than a sentiment. This sermon was offered to The Unitarian Society in East Brunswick on February 11, 2024.

Love is an important practice for Unitarian Universalists. Indeed, love is at the center of the way UU values are described in the proposed revision to Article II of the UUA bylaws. As Valentine’s Day approaches, and we are bombarded with images of romantic love that may or may not be healthy, this is a good time to re-orient ourselves to our deepest values; we remind ourselves about what love means in concrete terms. 

A few years ago, the world lost one of its great sages who wrote about love. The author, feminist, poet, professor, and social activist known to her readers as bell hooks died in December of 2021 at the age of 69. She used her great-grandmother’s name as a pen name. She would write it in all lower case, and said that was so readers would focus on (quote) the “substance of books, not who I am.”

As an author and an academic, bell hooks was successful and influential. She taught at various universities such as Stanford, Yale, and City College of New York before returning home to Kentucky to join the faculty of Berea College in 2004, where she was a Distinguished Professor in Residence in Appalachian Studies. 

With over 30 published books on topics ranging from racism to pedagogy to a culture of place, there is a lot we can learn from bell hooks, yet in honor of the upcoming holiday and our exploration of love in the proposed Article II, concentrating on her book All About Love: New Visions seems the logical place to begin. Written in 1999 and published in 2000, this was her first in a series about love that also included “Communion,” “The Will to Change,” and “Salvation.” While the book All About Love does address romantic love, hooks makes the specific point that romance isn’t the only or the most important kind of love, and that all love is better understood as a practice rather than a sentiment. 

In practicing a love ethic, hooks said that love is best understood as a verb. Inspired by M. Scott Peck and The Road Less Traveled, hooks advocated for clear, operational definitions of love. She wrote, “To truly love, we must learn to mix various ingredients–care, affection, recognition, respect, commitment, and trust, as well as honest and open communication” (From “Chapter One: Clarity: Give Love Words”). We might be surprised that, as a poet, hooks was less caught up in creating metaphors and images that described the inner experience of feeling affection than she was fierce in insisting that we can all learn how to love well. Yet, as a poet, she knew that words need to have meaning in the living world. 

Dr. Takiyah Nur Amin made the point in this week’s Braver/Wiser devotional newsletter that Unitarian Universalism is a lived faith. Our actions matter. She also talked about the theological importance of Black Unitarian Universalist history, because much of what our Black UU ancestors have to teach is written in their lives rather than in essays. She writes:

If you’re seeking sacred Black “text” in our tradition, you have to examine the way our Black ancestors lived. You have to seek out the Black folks who were in Unitarian and Universalist or UU congregations, and the work that they were doing in community—whether it was suffrage, or trying to educate Black children, or their working towards social action or civil access. Our “text” is embodied in the lives of people like Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Joseph Jordan, David Eaton, and countless others.

(Dr. Amin continues)

One of the things I love about this tradition is that our faith is covenantal and not confessional—meaning that to some degree, our tradition cares little about what you stand up and say you believe. The evidence of your Unitarian Universalism is embodied in the depth of your relationships: how do you live in relationship to self and other? (I don't just mean human other: to the plants, to the animals, to the stars…) The proof is in the pudding, for UUs. It’s not about what you have to say. How are you living?

I encourage you to read Dr. Amin’s whole reflection. How we live means how we show up for our values in the public square, and how we treat the people around us, and how we steward the resources with which we have been entrusted, and how we commit to growing as people. It’s all love. 

Here at TUS, one of the ways we practice love is by adhering to the right relations covenant. This document is on display in the hall, and I’ll read it to you:

Right Relations Covenant

As members and friends of this Unitarian Universalist congregation, we affirm that our community is founded on openness, trust, respect, and love. In our time together–in meetings and conversations and worship and work–we covenant with one another to freely explore our values and honor our diversity as a source of communal strength. Therefore, I will:

accept responsibility for my individual acts and interactions;

in all encounters, speak for myself, from my own experience;

allow others to speak for themselves;

listen with respect and resilience;

not criticize the views of others or attempt to pressure or coerce others;

not interrupt–except to indicate that I cannot hear;

participate within the time frames suggested by the facilitator;

communicate with kindness and clarity in service of justice and peace in our community

Love is one of the values named right in the first sentence of the Right Relations Covenant. Love is operationalized, it’s about the ways we behave, and the ways we demonstrate respect. One of the things I notice about this covenant is that it requires us to slow down. We allow others to speak for themselves; that takes time. We listen with respect and resilience; that takes time. Deep and healthy relationships require an investment of the gift of time. 

Love, in a community setting, asks us to communicate about our perspectives, needs and wants; and also asks us to recognize the perspectives, needs, and wants of others. With kindness and consideration, we understand that our own perspective does not equal a demand that all operations be geared toward making us comfortable at the expense of others’ ability to participate. Love calls us to show up in service to others, to express appreciation, to look carefully for the pieces that are missing that would help us create a place where all can, as bell hooks says, “live fully and well.” 

Love makes room for repair. One of the things that sets a covenant apart from a list of rules is that it stretches to accommodate our human-ness. People make mistakes. A covenant should be constructed to take this into account, and to invite people back into relationship as we acknowledge our mistakes and work toward making amends. In this morning’s story, bell hooks (in the voice of Girlpie) reminds us that “there is no all the time right. But all the time any hurt can be healed. All wrongs forgiven. And all the world made peace again.”

We come together in community from a variety of backgrounds, bringing all kinds of experiences and heavy emotions from other parts of our lives; of course we will sometimes make mistakes and have conflicts. Our brushes with misunderstanding, when we navigate them skillfully, can be the sandpaper that softens our sharp corners and helps us to smooth out the pathways for forward movement. 

This is sharply different from how many of us were raised. There are plenty of settings without room for forgiveness or repair. We might say that these are places without grace, though I know that can be a tricky word. There are families where perfection, or at least a convincing illusion of perfection, is expected at all times, and failure to produce that perfection results in isolation and rejection. There are cultural expectations on some of us to be right, and where being right is more important than being collaborative. 

Switching gears to a practice of love in which we can discuss our differences honestly is a profound paradigm shift for many people. It is disconcerting to be asked to acknowledge conflict or hurts if our experience is that these conversations lead only to punishment and rejection rather than to a deeper relationship that comes from mutual understanding. If our previous experience is that discomfort is a one-way ticket to exclusion, the discomfort necessary in hearing other perspectives, in admitting that we don’t know everything, in accepting responsibility–all of that discomfort is hard to tolerate if we have been taught that discomfort and danger are the same thing. The active, flexible, living practice of love is necessary to create the spaces where we can be bold, authentic, and caring. 

This brings me to another point raised in All About Love, which is that the authentic practice of love is congruent with liberation. The true practice of love cannot coexist with abuse or with systems of domination. In the contrast I made just now between the loving community and the settings where no mistakes are tolerated, one of the ingredients that gets in the way of love is fear. As hooks writes in Chapter Six:

“Fear is the primary force upholding structures of domination. It promotes the desire for separation, the desire not to be known. When we are taught that safety lies always with sameness, then difference, of any kind, will appear as a threat. When we choose to love we choose to move against fear–against alienation and separation. The choice to love is a choice to connect–to find ourselves in the other.”

As an antidote to fear, hooks calls us to choose to be known, to choose to be our whole selves and to embrace the practice of other people being their whole selves, different from us. This is what we need to cultivate hope and to overcome the nihilism of isolation, despair, and fear. She quotes Cornel West, who says:

“Nihilism is not overcome by arguments or analyses, it is tamed by love and care. Any disease of the soul must be conquered by a turning of one’s soul. This turning is done through one’s own affirmation of one’s worth–an affirmation fueled by the concern of others.” (Quoted in All About Love, Chapter Six)

Cornel West is also known for reminding us that “justice is what love looks like in public.” For both West and hooks, love is a practice in our personal relationships and in our societal structures. Listen to West here, talking about “affirmation of one’s worth.” This is Humanist language, ready to unleash the potential of the inherent worth and dignity of every person, which necessarily includes dismantling the structures that dehumanize. West and hooks agree that making that turn is fueled by active care and concern, by practices of nurture and affirmation and support. The project of caring for one another and the project of humanizing the spaces we inhabit and the project of cultivating justice and mercy in the public sphere are all the same project. They are all aspects of love. 

I want to back up a little bit and talk about liberation, because it’s not a framework that everyone is used to. Liberation is not single-issue based, and it is not about more powerful people making good things happen on behalf of less powerful people. Liberation is a vision for a different way of being. Putting this in love terms, bell hooks says, “A love ethic presupposes that everyone has the right to be free, to live fully and well.” 

Liberation requires an assumption of agency, particularly the agency of people who are most impacted by oppression. Black liberation theologians like James Cone and Latin American liberation theologians like Gustavo Gutiérrez are also illuminating here. In liberation theology movements, our deepest sources of hope and inspiration are not separate from the world, but are present with us in the struggle for liberation. Liberation means freedom from oppression, living into a world that practices the inherent worth and dignity of every person, moving toward economic justice and collective concern for collective well-being. 

Liberation is a vision in which all of us need all of us. Our thriving is connected. Liberation is not about benefactors or saviors, but about people acting together for the collective good, because none of us are truly self-sufficient. Put another way, liberation is about right relationship, at every scale of relationship. And so, full circle, liberation is about love. When we behave in our relationships in a way that brings about mutual care and shared thriving, that is the love in operational terms that bell hooks spoke of. 

Liberation is a vision, it is a practice we can create on a small scale, even as we acknowledge that the larger society is not yet free. According to bell hooks, systemic oppression, accepted in the larger culture, is a major obstacle to our practice of true love. In All About Love, she explores the obstacles of patriarchy; gender roles and expectations that prevent people from being honest with others and themselves; norms of systemic oppression that turn what could be mutually caring relationships into power struggles. In other writing, she explores how racism gets in the way of relationships and in the way of the feminist movement. Systems of oppression overlap and interlock. Every aspect of a worldview that diminishes the agency, dignity, and worth of some for the benefit of others gets in the way of the practice of love. And practicing love in defiance of those systems–being authentic and demonstrating care and cultivating courage in relationships–the practice of love helps dismantle oppression. 

We cannot practice a love ethic without letting go of racism, patriarchy, classism, wealth inequality, xenophobia, and other oppressions. “Awakening to love can happen only as we let go of our obsession with power and domination,” writes bell hooks. She goes on to say, “To bring a love ethic to every dimension of our lives, our society would need to embrace change.”

Embracing change is, of course, difficult. The pandemic has invited us into a period of profound change, and it’s hard. Our society has the opportunity to improve building requirements for clean air, to normalize masking, to increase access to paid sick leave and to quality health care. We know that no one person’s health is an isolated phenomenon; what happens to one of us affects all of us. Pretending that everything is back to normal is more tempting than making the societal changes we need to take care of each other. 

Out of love, we advocate as best we can in the public square, and we remain true to our capacity to change in the service of love in our own environments. As we as a congregation live into being a hybrid community–a place where people can remain connected even if their disabilities or their caregiving responsibilities make it hard to travel on Sundays–we are going to remember again that change is hard. Practicing welcome and inclusion is hard. Demonstrating our values in the way we do things, even if it’s not familiar or comfortable, is hard. Again, if you are used to comfort being the same as safety, it may not feel like love to do the things that are unfamiliar so that we can be inclusive and flexible. Love asks us to change so that all of us can live fully and well. 

Fear gets in the way of love, and practicing love gives us the courage to overcome fear. Choosing love means choosing authenticity, choosing the possibility of accountability and forgiveness, choosing collective wellbeing instead of power and domination, choosing mutual thriving instead of an ethic of control. Choosing love means choosing connection. It is not easy, and we are capable of doing hard things. Choosing love means we will not be doing hard things alone.

May it be so.

[sybillamb]

I haven't been on insta in months! Its cuz i had to evolve both my phones when i got a fitbit from mt mom for novemberweenmas. TL/DR : i thought i was logged out and couldn't be bothered to look up my psswrd but i wasnt logged out; i just needed to click ALLOW twice. THE MORAL OF THIS STORY IS i dont update. Dont bother telling me to update cuz i wont. Also id fix these spelling and grammer errors on my laptop. Make INSTA work on my laptop you cowards. We genX consider laptops equal to Mobiles so just do it... I promise not to insta from my local area 2013 network desktop asus 8677 you crapple apples! Oops i think i just alowed bacefook to read my googool calender ?? Have fun trying to advertise to my chores list, nerd. (at Berea, Kentucky) https://www.instagram.com/p/CoqwCFFt2aG/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=