Elinor Williams Hooker Tea Talk Series
Elinor Williams Hooker Tea Talk SeriesProgram Description
What happens when people live in the same country yet experience it in profoundly different ways? Two Americas explores the racial divide not only through history or statistics but also through lived experience, relationships, education, place, and the difficult work of honest conversation.
Drawing on the experiences of Black and white Americans — including a decade-long relationship between residents of Tuskegee, Alabama, and South Berwick, Maine — this four-part Tea Talks series asks how we learn about race, how our environments shape what we believe, and what happens when we intentionally enter one another’s worlds.
The series moves beyond the familiar search for common ground to examine difference, discomfort, trust, and transformation. Can we talk honestly about race without retreating into defensiveness or fear? Can relationships change long-held assumptions? And can conversation move us from understanding one another to changing the communities we share? Two Americas asks whether we can build a more connected nation without first confronting how differently Black and white Americans have experienced it.
What is the EWH Tea Talk Series?
The Elinor Williams Hooker Tea Talks are a series of participatory panel presentations and discussions related to New Hampshire’s Black history and African American culture. These dialogues occur every Sunday throughout February as part of celebrating Black History Month.
Additional Information
Registration is required for both in-person and online participation. Seating is limited for in-person events. If the in-person event is full, please call the BHTNH office to be put on a waiting list - 603-570-8469.
Please plan to arrive at least 10 minutes before 2:00 PM. If you do not arrive by that time, your seat may be given to another participant.
In case of inclement weather, talks will be virtual only.
2027 EWH Tea Talks Schedule
Tea Talk #1 | Sunday, February 7 | 2:00 PM | St. John's Church, Portsmouth, NH
The Stories We Inherit: Learning and Unlearning Race
No one is born with a fully formed understanding of race. We learn it from family, neighborhoods, schools, churches, the media, history, and the communities we grow up in.
This conversation examines how Black and white Americans are socialized to understand race and each other. It asks: How do we form racial ideas, and what does it take to recognize, question, and unlearn them?
Presenters:
Kelly Touhey-Childress, Executive Director, Racial Unity Team
Tanisha Johnson, Executive Director, Black Lives Matter NH
Anne Romney, Facilitator, White People Challenging Racism (WPCR)
Lavette Coney (Moderator), Co-Facilitator and Leader, WHite People Undoing Racism
Tea Talk #2 | Sunday, February 14 | 2:00 PM | Portsmouth Public Library
Same Country, Different Worlds: Crossing the Racial Divide
For more than a decade, residents of predominantly Black Tuskegee, Alabama, and predominantly white South Berwick, Maine, have visited each other’s communities, shared meals, exchanged stories, and built relationships across differences in race, geography, history, and experience. Their journey offers a rare opportunity to examine what happens when Americans intentionally step into a world very different from their own.
This conversation asks what we discover when we move beyond merely observing another community and begin listening to how its residents experience America. Can we truly understand another America if we only encounter the parts people are comfortable showing us?
Presenters:
- Amy Miller, Common Ground, South Berwick, ME
- Guy Trammell, Common Ground, former Mayor of Tuskegee, AL
- Nathaniel Harris (Moderator)
Tea Talk #3 | Sunday, February 21 | 2:00 PM | Portsmouth Public Library
In the Classroom: Race, Belonging and the Education Experience
College is often described as a place where students encounter new ideas, new people, and new ways of seeing the world. But race can profoundly shape that experience. What happens when a white student attends a Historically Black College or University? What does a Black student experience at a predominantly white institution? And how does that experience differ for a Black student educated within an HBCU community?
Through the perspectives of people who have crossed educational and racial boundaries, this conversation explores belonging, visibility, curriculum, identity, and lessons that extend far beyond the classroom. At its heart, this conversation asks: Is integration the same as belonging, and what can education teach us about ourselves when we experience the world from a different racial position?
Presenters
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David McDermott
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Ed Taylor
- Brandon Ventura
- Amy Warnock (Moderator)
Summer Intern
Tea Talk #4 | Sunday, February 28 | 2:00 PM | Portsmouth Public Library
Moving Beyond the Niceties
Many conversations about race begin with good intentions and common ground. The harder test comes later: What happens when someone says the wrong thing? When a stereotype surfaces? When a comment feels like a microaggression? When honesty risks damaging a friendship built over years?
After a decade of relationship-building between Tuskegee and South Berwick, this conversation asks what happens when people move beyond introductions, hospitality, and politeness into the more difficult territory of trust. Have participants become comfortable enough to challenge one another? Have some things remained unsaid out of fear of causing offense? Has knowing one another changed long-held beliefs—or simply made it easier to talk across them?
Most importantly, the discussion asks what comes after dialogue. Can relationships between individuals influence institutions or communities? Can a model built on repeated visits, one-on-one conversations, and sustained trust be replicated elsewhere? And if conversation does not eventually lead to action, what is its purpose?
Presenters:
- Angelia Watson, Common Ground, Tuskegee, AL
- Guy Trammell, Common Ground, Tuskegee, AL
- Meghan Voss, Common Ground, South Berwick, ME
- Julia Oullette, Common Ground, South Berwick, ME
- Shay Stewart Bouley, (Moderator)
2027 EWH Traveling Tea Talks Schedule
The Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire wants all New Hampshire residents to have the opportunity to participate in these important and thought-provoking discussions. While the EWH Tea Talks take place in Portsmouth during February, the Traveling Tea Talks take place year-round, all throughout the Granite State with various community partners.
Interested in hosting a Traveling Tea Talk? Email us at info@blackheritagetrailnh.org or dariya@blackheritagetrailnh.org for more info.
Travelling Tea Talk #1 | Keene, NH
The Stories We Inherit: Learning and Unlearning Race
None of us begins life with a fully formed understanding of race. We learn it from family, neighborhoods, schools, churches, media, history, and the communities we grow up in.
This conversation examines how Black and white Americans are socialized to understand race and one another. This conversation asks: How do we form racial ideas, and what does it take to recognize, question, and unlearn them?
Moderator & Presenters
Travelling Tea Talk #2 | Nashua/Manchester, NH
In the Classroom: Race, Belonging and the Education Experience
College is often described as a place where students encounter new ideas, new people, and new ways of seeing the world. But race can profoundly shape that experience. What happens when a white student attends a Historically Black College or University? What does a Black student experience at a predominantly white institution? And how does the experience differ for a Black student whose education takes place within an HBCU community?
Through the perspectives of people who have crossed these educational and racial boundaries, this conversation explores belonging, visibility, curriculum, identity, and lessons that extend far beyond the classroom. At its heart, this conversation asks: Is integration the same as belonging, and what can education teach us about ourselves when we experience the world from a different racial position?
Presenters
Travelling Tea Talk #3 | Walpole, NH
Same Country, Different Worlds: Crossing the Racial Divide
For more than a decade, residents of predominantly Black Tuskegee, Alabama, and predominantly white South Berwick, Maine, have visited one another’s communities, shared meals, exchanged stories, and built relationships across differences of race, geography, history, and experience. Their journey offers a rare opportunity to examine what happens when Americans intentionally step into a world very different from their own.
This conversation asks what we discover when we move beyond observing another community and begin listening to how its residents actually experience America. Can we truly understand another America if we only encounter the parts people are comfortable showing us?
Presenters
Elinor Williams Hooker (July 10, 1933 -January 27, 2012) was a longtime New Hampshire resident and community activist.
Elinor was the wife of Thomas L. Hooker, who served from 1966 to 1974 as Director of the New Hampshire Division of Welfare.
The Elinor Williams Hooker Tea Talk Series is named in her honor.
Preserve Black History in New Hampshire