Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 6/22/2022
FLORENCE – On June 11, 19 educators, writers, artists and activists gathered with members of the community for an all-day conference to talk about the intersection between education, art, race and society.
The Power of Truths Conference was a collaboration between the Northampton Arts Council and Self-Evident Education, an organization that, as stated on its website, “creates multimedia curriculum materials to support educators to teach authentically on the challenging and essential histories of race in America.”
Self-Evident Education Founder Michael Lawrence-Riddell and Ousmane Power-Greene, an author, program director of Africana studies and associate professor of history at Clark University, partnered for the first episode of Self-Evident Education, which highlighted Elizabeth Freeman, the first woman in Massachusetts to sue for her freedom.
The conference was hosted at the Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity, a multi-use space at the First Congregational Church in Florence, across from the Sojourner Truth Memorial. The night before the conference, there was an opening concert with music from DJ Trendz, Marcia Gomes and her band, featuring June Millington, Eugene Uman, Denny Pelletier and Fumi Tomita, The Lox & Keyes Theory and Akrobatik.
“The idea was to launch it with a party, full of joy,” said Lawrence-Riddell.
The all-day conference was structured in four sessions with a choice of programs to attend during each session. The sessions that directly examined education included “Very Necessary: The Need for Hip-Hop Education in the Classroom,” “Educational Equity and Justice: The Clemente Program in the Humanities,” “Moving Beyond Statements: Disrupting White Supremacy Culture in Public Schools” and “Families with Power: Reflections on a local grassroots movement for educational equity.”
Other sessions investigated the intersection of art, race and culture, such as “Representations of Black Girls in Graphic Novels,” “Identity and Visual Arts: A conversation with local Black visual artists,” “The Truth About Speculative Fictions: Imagination and Speculation in Nineteenth Century African American Literature,” and “Is that really true?: Autobiography, Autofiction, and ‘Truths’” in Fiction.”
Finally, several sessions examined race and society. These were “Critical Conversations: Critical Race and Other Moral Panics,” “Friends of Slavery? Rethinking Quaker Benevolence in the Early Republic,” “Can There Ever Really Be Justice on Stolen Land? Accurate and Honest History for All (AHHA): The Power of Stories to Change the World” and “Jobs Not Jails: Liberal Guilt, Radical Cynicism and the Movement Against the Prison-Industrial Complex.”
Lawrence-Riddell said the conference offered a choice of talks about the intersection between art, academics and education. Power-Greene said the variety of talks created a greater chance that more types of people would come. At the same time, Power-Greene, who is a member of the Self-Evident Education Board of Directors, noted it created an opportunity cost by limiting the number of attendees who were able to see any particular talk.
“Ousmane and I were considering having a tour, when [Steve Sanderson, a member of the Northampton Arts Council], said he wanted to stage an event here in Northampton. We said, ‘That’s perfect.’” Lawrence-Riddell said, adding that the vision of a conference with a variety of topics and speakers was Sanderson’s idea.
Another member of the Self-Evident Education Board of Directors, Bayeté Ross Smith, said the conference’s sessions were “intimate.” Attendees could choose from a “buffet” of interests, which allowed them to gravitate toward topics that inspired and resonated with them.
Ross Smith’s keynote address focused on examining the arts in media with an emphasis on social change and shifting perspectives.
Power-Greene, along with author Debra Jo Immergut, led a session titled, “Is that really true,” which examined the role of fiction in examining historical and contemporary truths. He described the point of his talk as examining “how we do truth telling.”
Ross Smith said, “It’s not about telling people what to think, but forcing people to examine their beliefs and ask, ‘Why do I think that?’” He has been with Self-Evident Education since its inception. His background in identity-focused art was a good fit for the work Lawrence-Riddell wanted to do with Self-Evident Education.
Power-Green said the goal of the conference was to discuss what it means to be a writer, artist filmmaker or superintendent with the wider community instead of just the industry. Even the leaders of each session attended other talks to learn more about areas outside their expertise.
Black Minds Matter Tour
Beginning in October, Self-Evident Education will take the Power of Truths format on the road, traveling to cities around the country and hosting day-long conferences. The organization will contact people from the area to speak during their own all-day conferences.
The tour’s purpose is “engaging local community with local talent and empowering people with tools that can help people survive in racist communities,” Power-Greene said. He hoped people would walk away from both the conference in Florence and the tour thinking critically about what historical “truths” and the narratives communities tell about themselves.
“We need to learn about climate, about the way marginalized communities tell truth within their culture,” Power-Greene said. He said, “truth seeking,” is understanding that reality is “much more diverse and broader than the individual heroes people learn about. My work as an engaged educator is presenting information that these fights continued.”
Power-Greene spoke about learning all facets of history and used the example of athletes who happen to also be into art, literature and science, but all people focus on is their athletic prowess, missing large parts of the whole.
Power-Greene added, “Science, education, historical work are constantly being revised. Sometimes, we don’t like it, but sometimes we learn amazing things. A lot of local people are doing important work but are not recognized. Black Minds Matter will highlight them in their own communities and shed light on them.”
The Black Minds Matter tour will travel until summer 2023 and Self-Evident Education plans to bring the Power of Truths Conference back to Northampton in June next year.