Courageous Conversations: Leaning in for Change
A virtual and in-person series | Sundays, February 6 – March 13 | 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM
The last two years saw an upheaval in race relationships. As Black Lives Matter protests grew across the country and anti-Asian violence surged, latent fears about “the other,” seeded in a history of racial injustice and mistrust, resurfaced.
Increasingly in states across the country, including New Hampshire, we face growing controversy over the teaching of the uncomfortable truths of our local, state, and national histories that continue to drive a wedge between different racial and ethnic groups. Aspects of our past that deal with racism have often been downplayed, ignored, or erased.
For the 2022 Elinor Williams Hooker Tea Talks Series, together we will create a safe space for meaningful interchanges, grounded in history and lived experience between different segments of the Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) community. We will also investigate the current issues that continue to create tension in the community.
The Winter Tea Talks are a series of participatory panel presentations and discussions related to New Hampshire’s Black history and African American culture.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
All talks are from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM.
In-person talks are held in the Levenson Room at Portsmouth Public Library or in Stokel Commons at Portsmouth Middle School. Please note the event location below.
Registration is required for both in-person and online participation. Seating is limited to 50 people 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.
In case of inclement weather, talks will be virtual-only.
BHTNH Covid 19 Policy for in-person events
In response to recent health trends, and in an ongoing effort to provide our tour guides, staff, volunteers, and community a safe environment to come together for live events, The Black Heritage Trail of NH is changing our health and safety policies:
Effective September 1, 2021, BHTNH will require proof of vaccination or proof of a negative PCR COVID test within 72 hours of a live event. Masks remain required inside venues (but not outside on tours, or when eating or drinking.)
As always, we thank you for your continued support during this challenging time!
PROGRAM SPONSORS
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Sunday, February 6, 2022
“Divisive Concepts:” A Chilling Effect on Teaching History
Location: Stokel Commons, Portsmouth Middle School
** The in-person portion of this event is FULL. Please call the BHTNH office to be put on a waiting list - 603-570-8469
Presenters:
Nikita Stewart, Assistant Editor, New York Times
Elizabeth DuBrulle, Director of Education & Public Programs, NH Historical Society
Erin Bakkom, Social Studies teacher, Portsmouth Middle School.
Moderator: Sen. David Watters, NH State Senator and Professor Emeritus Department of English, University of New Hampshire
States across the country have seen new laws prohibiting the teaching of so-called “divisive concepts” that present critical perspectives on histories, laws, social practices, and literature that have excluded the opposing voices and histories of the struggle for justice and freedom from exploitation by African American, Native American, Asian Americans, and People of Color.
This panel will deal with the history of the clashing versions of our American stories—stories that have been written to privilege one group and exclude the stories of people of color, and stories that reveal the resistance to oppression and present a more inclusive vision of America. This is even more difficult with the drastic reduction in teaching history and social studies in New Hampshire schools.
Sunday, February 13, 2022
Absented Presence: “They All Died Off” and Other Myths About Native Americans
Location: Levenson Room, Portsmouth Public Library
** The in-person portion of this event is FULL. Please call the BHTNH office to be put on a waiting list - 603-570-8469
Presenters:
Paul & Denise Pouliot, Chief Speakers for the Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook and Abenaki People
Kathleen A. Blake, Retired Educator
James Edgell Jr., Mohawk/Mi’kmaq and Micmac/Newmarket Chick Wabanaki Relation
Anne Jennison, NH Commission on Native American Affairs, Affiliate Faculty Member for the UNH Native American & Indigenous Studies Minor, Northeast Native American storyteller.
Moderator: Svetlana Peshkova, Associate Professor of Anthropology & Coordinator of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Minor, UNH
Many organizations across the state have been using “Land Acknowledgments” raising awareness of the first nation status and original presence of Native Americans in our state. However, New Hampshire is one of only 15 states that have no federally recognized tribes.
For this panel, presenters will explore various issues in New Hampshire’s Native American community including, inadequate representation, invisibility, access to education, and tribal non-recognition.
Sunday, February 20, 2022
The Myth of The Model Minority
Location: Stokel Commons, Portsmouth Middle School
** The in-person portion of this event is FULL. Please call the BHTNH office to be put on a waiting list - 603-570-8469
Presenters:
Pawn Nitichan, Executive Director, City-Year New Hampshire
Samuel Hyun, Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) Advocate, and Public Speaker
Sandeep Bikram Shah, Senior Program Officer at New Hampshire Charitable Foundation
Moderator: Delia Konzett, Professor of English and Women’s and Gender Studies, UNH.
The mass shooting in Atlanta last year and the rise in anti-Asian attacks during the Co-Vid 19 pandemic have brought to the forefront the long history of discrimination and injustice toward Asian Americans. Since the end of World War II, the perceived success of Asian Americans -- who have been wrongly portrayed as a monolithic group -- has led white apologists to cast this group as the “model minority.”
This panel will address how this idea has been used to drive a racial wedge between Asian Americans and African Americans, and to allow some white Americans to continue to ignore the ravages of racism and racist policies.
Sunday, February 27, 2022
The Lingual Divide: ¿Y Tu Abuela Donde Esta?
Location: Levenson Room, Portsmouth Public Library
** The in-person portion of this event is FULL. Please call the BHTNH office to be put on a waiting list - 603-570-8469
Panelists:
Andres Mejia, Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice, Exeter Region Cooperative School District (SAU 16)
Shantel Palacio, Administrative Education Officer, New York City Department of Education
Wildolfo Arvelo, Executive Director of Cross Roads House
Moderator: Larissa Baia, President, Lakes Region Community College, Laconia, NH
Traditionally, Black and Brown American populations have seen themselves in a natural alliance in a country historically dominated by whites — an alliance of mostly poorer, darker-skinned minorities whose struggles are similar. However, in recent times the Black/Brown coalition has grown more and more strained with the influx of immigrants into neighborhoods that were, in many cases, previously dominated by Blacks. Many Blacks resent what is seen as Hispanics leapfrogging them up the socioeconomic ladder and point to the strong skin-color prejudices and colorism that divides the two communities. “¿Y Tu Abuela Donde Esta?” (Where is Your Grandmother?) by the Puerto Rican poet Fortunato Vizcarrondo explores this tension within the Black/Brown community.
This panel will explore the issues of colorism, for people within this vast group of ethnicities that although joined together by a common language and culture, experience racism within their own group.
Sunday, March 6, 2022
Conflicted by Race: Family Structures & Racial Identities
Location: Levenson Room, Portsmouth Public Library
** The in-person portion of this event is FULL. Please call the BHTNH office to be put on a waiting list - 603-570-8469
Gene Martin,Nonprofit professional, Teaching Lecturer, and Ph.D. student
Elizabeth Lahey, Attorney and former head of the Civil Rights Unit of the NH Department of Justice
Sharon Tarleton, Bias Response & Support Coordinator, UNH
Moderator: Anthony Poore, Executive Change Agent, and Consultant
According to the 2020 Census, the fastest-growing group in the United States is the multiracial community, and nationwide studies show that 44% of adoptions in America are transracial. Coming from households reflecting more than one race or ethnicity, these individuals face a variety of stresses that demonstrate how far we are as a nation from embracing multi-culturalism.
This panel will address the issues facing transracial adoptees and mixed-race Americans and explore how their circumstances help us to understand the social construction of race and what it is like to discover, cope with, and overcome barriers to developing a strong sense of one’s self and one’s cultural identity/identities.
Sunday, March 13, 2022
Shades of Black: Connected by Color, Culture & Community
Location: Levenson Room, Portsmouth Public Library
** The in-person portion of this event is FULL. Please call the BHTNH office to be put on a waiting list - 603-570-8469
Presenters:
Deo Mwano, Deo Mwano Consultancy
Selina Choate, Vice-President of BHTNH Board, Associate Director for McNair Scholars Program, University of New Hampshire
Dottie Morris Associate Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion, Keene State College.
Moderator: Nadine Petty, Chief Diversity Officer, UNH
Black folk in predominantly white environments have often found it “exhausting” to continually describe for others the negative impact of racism on them. They have also felt it a burden to serve in the position of “teacher” representing the wider Black community, instead of being viewed as individuals with their own unique stories and needs.
For this panel, Black Americans from diverse backgrounds will share their stories on what it means to live in and love their own skin.
Elinor Williams Hooker
Elinor Williams Hooker (July 10, 1933 -January 27, 2012), a longtime New Hampshire resident and community activist, was born July 10, 1933 in Pittsburgh, PA, daughter of the late Dr. Ulysses Williams and Louise G. Williams. The family's Pittsburgh home was near Wylie Avenue an active community of black businesses, jazz music and churches, a location that would shape her lifelong interest in multicultural activities.
Mrs. Hooker was a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University where she majored in French and English. She taught English in Junior and Senior High Schools in Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, PA, Brockton and Quincy, MA and Concord, NH and served as a tutor in the English as a Second Language Program at Nashua's Pennichuck Junior High.
Elinor was the wife of Thomas L. Hooker, who served from 1966 to 1974 as Director of the New Hampshire Division of Welfare.
