[On Tuesday July
25th, I’ll be talking to the Central
Massachusetts Genealogical Society on the topic of “Remembering
the Salem Witch Trials: The Limits and Possibilities of Public History.” So
this week I wanted to highlight five recent talks and events I’ve given or been
part of—please share your own experiences in comments!]
On two of the
many inspirations I took from Bryan Stevenson’s Hartford remarks.
In early June, I
had the great good fortune to attend the 2017
Stowe Prize gala and dinner, where the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center’s
semiannual Prize
for Writing for Social Justice was presented to Bryan Stevenson for his
book Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. (I’m not sure
there could be a more pitch-perfect trifecta of writers, public scholars, and
activists than the last three Stowe Prize recipients: Stevenson, Ta-Nehisi
Coates, and Michelle
Alexander.) The entire event was one of the most inspiring evenings I’ve
ever spent, from the location (in a tent erected between the Stowe Center and
the Mark
Twain House, in Hartford’s historic
Nook Farm area) to every single person with whom I had the chance to chat
(such as Emily Waniewski,
formerly a Stowe Center staff member who is now the Programming Director for Hartford Performs; or Katherine Kane, the
Stowe Center’s tireless Executive
Director). But most inspiring of all were Stevenson’s remarks, first in an
interview session and then at the dinner itself, and I wanted to highlight here
two standout ideas from his comments.
Stevenson spoke
at length about two of the topics that are nearest and dearest to my heart: how
much Americans do not remember our histories, particularly
our darkest ones; and the vital need to counter that trend, collectively
and comprehensively. Those two threads are the central subjects of my
latest book, about which I had the chance to chat briefly with Stevenson at
a reception prior to dinner. But Stevenson engaged more overtly with a side to
these topics I hadn’t considered as fully: the accusation that focusing on such
dark histories means “blaming” certain Americans for the horrors and
oppressions of our past. His answer to that charge was the most clear and
powerful I’ve ever heard: he argued that the goal here is not to blame anyone,
but rather to liberate everyone. That is, we’re all limited by both these
histories and (especially) our inability to remember and grapple with them; and
thus if we can truly do those latter things, we will all be freed to move forward
into a more unified and hopeful future as a result. I’ve certainly tried to
argue for that optimistic, forward-looking goal of these historical
engagements, but Stevenson’s emphasis on liberation was a new frame for me, and
a hugely compelling and inspiring one. I look forward to incorporating it into
my own future!
If that idea of
Stevenson’s represented a new angle on a topic I’ve long considered, the other
one I want to highlight here was more genuinely new to me. Stevenson was asked
in the Q&A portion about whether he supports reparations
for African Americans; he said that he does, but his argument for how that
controversial idea could be enacted was one I hadn’t quite heard made in this
way before. I won’t be able to do full justice to his ideas here, but the short
version (which I hope I’m getting right) is that he supports a community
building form of reparations, one that would apportion money to cities and
communities (such as our host Hartford) and use it to build and strengthen civic
resources such as the public schools, housing and neighborhoods, health care
and social services, and so on. I grappled in
this post with the idea of communal reparations in the form of educational
and commemorative projects (which in that case had fallen frustratingly short
of the promised support), and in
this one with whether and how such ideas might be applied to African
American reparations. But I’ll admit that I hadn’t really considered this other
option for communal reparations, one that likewise goes beyond payments to
individuals but considers a different and more immediate way of supporting and
funding community initiatives. As with everything Stevenson said at this wonderful
event, this idea gives me a lot to think about, and hope for.
Next event recap
tomorrow,
Ben
PS. Events or
experiences you’d highlight? I’d love to hear about them!
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