Great Barrington — Connecting to his childhood self and remaining truthful to his lived experiences were top-of-mind for Delano Burrowes—the Great Barrington native turned Brooklyn-based writer and artist—as he put pen to paper in preparation for a lecture in his hometown this month. The concepts of writer, scholar, and activist W.E.B. Du Bois, in particular of double consciousness and how Black people internalize the idea that their existence is inherently seen as a problem, have been central to the work of Burrowes, who unveiled The Great Barrington Project on Main Street last May. On Monday, February 20, Burrowes will deliver the 26th Annual W.E.B. Du Bois Lecture at Bard College at Simon’s Rock at 7 p.m. in the McConnell Theater at the Daniel Arts Center; the event is free and open to the public.
“To speak a truth for myself, but also that child who didn’t think that his voice mattered—who didn’t think his presence in the world mattered—[and who] thought education had given up on him,” said Burrowes on what fueled his lecture entitled “The Languages Black Folks Speak: Letting Go of the Myth about Finding our True Voice.”
Looking back, Burrowes now realizes he’d given up on himself. He left high school in 11th grade, after a persistent feeling that he didn’t fit, which makes his impending appearance—speaking from the stage at Simon’s Rock—particularly profound.
“There’s this voice,” Burrowes told The Edge, “[one that’s] absorbed all the media and social conditioning that equates Blackness with negativity.” As a result, hard emotions defined this past year for Burrowes. Amidst invitations to sit on boards, make art, and converse with literary agents, there were unexpected emotional consequences of having launched The Great Barrington project at home, an experience the artist called powerful and uncomfortable. “I had to address my internalized fears which [were] deep. I sat with pain and sadness. I sat with my younger self,” he shared after launching his project one day later than expected after 10 people were killed and three injured (11 of whom were Black) at a Tops Friendly Markets store in Buffalo.
“I feel this split between what I’m performing and what I’m feeling, and only when I start to talk about it—really talk about it honestly—am I able to make some peace … and understand … the childhood voice of fear,” Burrowes says of his healing process. Instead of talking about the authentic voice, he’s leaning into the necessary voice—one Burrowes combines with deep listening in his new role as a racial justice coordinator at Multicultural BRIDGE.
“We all have journeys,” Burrowes says, pointing to individuals who have gone through challenges and survived, those who are still walking and moving forward, while noting that the process of talking with others is where healing comes from. At BRIDGE, Burrowes is fully ensconced in these conversations “… about [issues including] access to health care and mental health, which aren’t discussed in certain circles [and with individuals from certain] backgrounds … and how people working in government and business are applying a racial equity lens,” most of which center on listening. As to his favorite part of the job so far? “I love that BRIDGE walks into the uncomfortable and does so with grace.”
Established in 1996, the annual W.E.B. Du Bois Memorial Lecture is given each year by a distinguished individual whose own achievements carry on the legacy of Du Bois. Its timing is slated to coincide with the date of Du Bois’ birth—February 23, 1868—and just happens to fall during Black History Month, a construct that, for many, undermines the fact that Black history is woven into the fabric of American History and needs to be acknowledged as such. For Burrowes, shifting the paradigm happens via conversation—one that is ongoing and centers on who the people are in our community, from all different backgrounds, affecting change right now.
“Let’s hear their stories,” says Burrowes, “and not just think of Black history in this historical context [of a single month],” he says, pointing to the Black Oral History Project and recent interviews he conducted with Black elders who came here at the end of the Great Migration, as not only “mind blowing” but also “a bridge [to the past] and, as they get older, in danger of getting lost.”
The Lecture is one of many ways Simon’s Rock draws inspiration from Du Bois and his life; recent visitors include Pamela Larde, Shana Russell, Keeanga Yamahtta-Taylor, David Levering Lewis, Lorene Cary, John Edgar Wideman, Sonia Sanchez, and Penelope Andrews. A livestream of Monday’s event will be available online; for more information, visit the Simon’s Rock events page.
Meanwhile, like all of our voices, Burrowes’ continues to evolve: “I now think that I have something important to say. I think that my life matters, that all of our lives matter … [and] I’ve got to say something that’s really truthful so that when I leave, I feel that I’ve honored my [current] self and I feel that I’ve honored my childhood self.”
NOTE: Burrowes’s ongoing discussion and performance art series, The Great Barrington Project, explores how Black people are seen and will next be enacted in New York City and Reading, Pa., in 2023. He is one of the co-founders of The Blackyard Collective NYC, a nonprofit mutual aid and social network for Black queer people in recovery from addiction to alcohol and drugs. Burrowes has studied and taught mindfulness meditation for over 10 years and is committed to introducing it to historically excluded groups. He has performed solo and collaborative art throughout NYC, including the International Human Rights Art Festival; his written work has been published in HuffPost, The Rumpus, and Kweli Journal among other publications.
