2018-2019 Elinor Williams Hooker Tea Talk Series Expansion
The BHTNH will host three of our signature Tea Talk programs in three new locations around the state. These intentional and participatory dialogues act as a catalyst for deeper excavating of New Hampshire’s Black history, while also facilitating intellectual and communal connections between racism’s grip on our past and its contemporary manifestations.
The mission of the BHTNH includes fostering dialogues about race, diversity, and inclusion in our state by deepening understanding of cultural and historical contexts in the state and nationally.
Sponsored in part by New Hampshire Humanities, Southern New Hampshire University, University of New Hampshire Law School, and Dartmouth College, these Events are Free and open to the public.
Sunday, November 4, 2018 3 – 5 pm
Southern New Hampshire University, Robert Frost Hall, Walker Auditorium, Manchester
On Being Muslim in the Deep North
One-third of Muslims in the United States are Black, and many African immigrants resettled in New England over the past two decades are Muslim. Despite this, pervasive images of Muslims are limited to people of Arab identity. For this panel, presenters will explore the intersections of their identities as Black Muslims living in post 9/11 New England. Their shared stories will offer perspective and insights about what it means to be part of a religious group that is broadly misunderstood, mischaracterized and even persecuted within mainstream American culture, one whose tenets include freedom of religion for all.
Presenters: Robert Azzi, Rashida Mohamed, Daouda Dieng & Kafisa Ibrahim
Moderator: Kayla Page
Saturday, January 19, 2019, 2 – 4 pm
University of New Hampshire Law School, The Rudman Center, Concord
The Coloring of Law and Punishment: Exploring the Role of Race, Ethnicity and Class in Incarceration
This dialogue will explore the history of law and punishment in New Hampshire, disproportionate incarceration rates of racial and ethnic minorities, and the social impact of mass incarceration. Presenters will examine the consequences of incarceration on communities of color, intensifying surveillance and criminalization of poor and Black communities, and what a shift from punitive to restorative justice within our criminal system could look like.
Presenters: Devon Chaffee, Bill Celester, Carlos Camacho, Dan Feltes
Moderator: Tonya Evans
Saturday, February 2, 2019, 2 – 4 pm
Dartmouth College, Haldeman Center #41, 29 N Maine St., Hanover,
Sites of Memory: Reconstructing the Past
In a compelling speech about race in America, Mitch Landrieu said, “There is a difference between remembrance of history and reverence of it.” Through discussing physical and artistic sites of memory, this panel will explore how widely accepted narratives of our collective past shape and inform our collective present social identity.
Presenters: David Watters, Eric Aldrich, Joel Christian Gill, Nora “Gus” Guszkowski
Moderator: Graziella Parati
PRESENTERS BIOGRAPHIES
Robert Azzi is a photojournalist, columnist, public speaker and education consultant. An Arab American Muslim, he writes on issues of identity, conflict and Islam. His goal is to open up new perspectives for his readers and expose them to points of view which he believes are important and which they might not have previously considered. He encourages tolerance, understanding and interfaith dialog.
Rashida Mohamed is a victim advocate for the Manchester Police Domestic and Sexual Violence Unit. She works in conjunction with the Domestic Violence Project, a grant-funded, community-based effort to support all victims of domestic violence and aims to hold offenders accountable for their actions.
Daouda Abdoulaye Dieng was born and raised in New Hampshire to a Muslim father from Senegal, West Africa (a Muslim majority country) and a mother from Germany. Between his interracial background and growing up in New England, he was exposed to a variety of religions and encouraged to search for his own truth. That journey has guided him back to his roots and he is now a practicing Muslim.
Kafisa Ibrahim is a junior honors student at Southern New Hampshire University. She serves as Vice President of the Multicultural Student Union and Director at Large for the Human Resource Student Association Club.
Kayla Page is the Director for Diversity Programs at Southern New Hampshire University. A life-long New-Englander, she came to SNHU with over 14 years of experience in the field of social work in a variety of settings including public education and family services.
Devon Chaffee is the executive director of the ACLU of New Hampshire. She has a solid track record of effectively advocating on behalf of marginalized constituencies through innovative, strategic, and persistent lobbying and public education.
Bill Celester. It would seem, at first glance that there are two Bill Celester. On the one side is the tough-talking cop who won praise as a district commander in Roxbury and as police superintendent in Newark, NJ. On the other is an ex-con, who pleaded guilty to three counts of wire, tax, and mail fraud and who did two years in federal prison on those charges. The two sides are intrinsically tied together. Bill Celester is, for better or worse, both. An ex-cop and an ex-con.
Tonya M. Evans, Esquire, is a Professor of Law at the University of New Hampshire School of Law, Chair of the Intellectual Property & Technology Online Programs. Evans has expertise in the areas of intellectual property, new technologies (including blockchain and distributed ledger technology), entrepreneurship & innovation, entertainment law, trusts & estates, and municipal finance. She writes, speaks, and teaches primarily about the intersections of copyright and new technologies as well as estates law issues.
Dan Feltes is a member of the New Hampshire state Senate. In 2014, he ran successfully for the state senate seat. During his first term in the state senate, Feltes worked with the majority Republican legislature and received numerous legislative awards. In 2015, Feltes was named Legislator of the Year by the Home Builders and Remodelers Association for his work expanding access to affordable housing for working families and seniors.
Lieutenant Carlos Camacho is a 16 year veteran of the Nashua Police Department. After serving in the US Coast Guard, Camacho became a police officer in Houston, TX, until he was hired by the Nashua Police Department, where he has served since 1999. Lt. Camacho is an active volunteer at St. Monica’s School in Methuen, MA, a youth soccer and basketball coach, and a member of the Saint Monica Knights of Columbus. He is Chair of the RED (Racial and Ethnic Disparities) committee in Nashua, and serves as police representative on the Nashua Cultural Connections committee and Nashua Community Conversation on Race and Justice.
Senator David Watters teaches courses on New Hampshire and New England literature, history, and culture at the University of New Hampshire. He has served on the executive committee of the UNH faculty union. David is frequently heard on New Hampshire Public Radio as a consultant for Granite State Stories and the Immigration Project. Deeply concerned about preserving our history, culture, arts, and environment, David served eight years as a trustee of the New Hampshire Historical Society, and on the board of directors for the New Hampshire Humanities, the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail, Pontine Movement Theatre, Strawbery Banke Museum’s Center for the Study of Community, and the Robert Frost Farm.
Eric Aldrich, a lifelong New Hampshire resident, lives in Hancock, where he has spent years researching cellar holes and the people who once lived in those now-wild places. He has worked as a reporter for the Keene Sentinel and editor for N.H. Fish and Game Department, and is currently a communications specialist for The Nature Conservancy. He is also an avid naturalist, studying bobcats in a long-term independent project in the Hancock area.
Joel Christian Gill is the chairman, CEO, president, director of Strange Fruit Comics. He is the author/illustrator of 2 books from Fulcrum Publishing, Strange Fruit, vol I Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History May 2014 and Tales of the Talented Tenth Fall 2014. In his spare time, he is the Chair of Foundations at the New Hampshire Institute of Art and member of The Boston Comics Roundtable. He received his MFA from Boston University and a BA from Roanoke College. His secret lair is behind a secret panel in the kitchen of his house (sold separately) in New Boston, New Hampshire where he lives with his wife, four children a talking dog and 2 psychic cats.
Nora “Gus” Guszkowski, Dartmouth ‘22 originally from Pomfret, Connecticut, is a student of the humanities at the college and plans to major in history. Outside of class, Gus enjoys creative writing, public speaking, and social dance.
Graziella Parati is the Director for the Leslie Center for the Humanities at Dartmouth University.
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.
