Some dialogue seems false, too: Would a Black preacher in 1906 use modern mediaspeak like “optics” when describing the appearance of the clergy’s public position on Ota’s captivity? Where’s the dramaturg?
Although each speaker offered a unique perspective on their place in and vision for this major new center, two themes ran through everyone’s remarks: the pivotal role of the arts and learning in our society, and the importance of and commitment to the Berkshire community.
Human dignity is what is at the core of Hansberry’s work and most vividly brought home by the moving, wrenching second-act speech of Walter, which summons all the pain of generation after generation of injustice to the African-American male.
Much in the story has always been harsh and defiant, but there has always been a good amount of old-fashioned heart in the play and that seems to be missing here.
“There is no going back … This is the deepest lie of our recent national politics, the core falsehood encoded in “Make America Great Again.” Beneath the impossible promises—that coal alone will fuel our future, that a big wall can be built around our status quo, that climate change isn’t even real—is the deeper fantasy that time itself can be reversed, all losses restored, and thus no new ways of life required."
--Mayor Pete Buttigieg
Four years ago, 70 percent of South Berkshire 12th-graders reported having used marijuana at least once, and 41 percent reported use within the past month. In 2019, those numbers are 52 percent and 36 percent respectively.
Broken treaties are the most commonly recognized mechanisms for the displacement of tribal nations from their ancestral lands. Less well-known are the destruction of native cultural practices, starvation, wars of attrition and the outright murder of more than 2 million Native Americans.
"As a parent, and someone who’s worked with young people who are at risk, I’m very concerned with how we protect young people from marijuana. We know that marijuana is devastating for developing brains. If your kids get drunk before school, you’re going to notice. But if they’re smoking marijuana, it’s a lot harder to tell." --Berkshire County District Attorney Andrea Harrington
“The fear that black families have when their children leave the house is the same as it was in 1909 [when the NAACP was founded].”
-- Dennis Powell, president of Berkshire County NAACP
Visitors are invited to explore the history of African-Americans in the Berkshires through compelling, contemporary stories from today as recorded by leaders from the local African-American community and the NAACP Berkshire chapter.
In her lecture, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor will give historical context to the Combahee River Collective’s groundbreaking work and how it informs present-day social movements such as Black Lives Matter.
Voter suppression schemes target specific populations, generally nonwhites, and make it onerous or impossible to register, to get to the poll and cast a vote. Recent examples include the shenanigans in Georgia, North Carolina and North Dakota.
In a news release, Clinton Church Restoration said the New York City-based firm, headed by architect Mario Gooden, "is one of the few African-American architectural firms in the country."
