![]() Our guest for our next two episodes is, Ben Fink, who sometimes introduces himself as a "communist Jew from the northeast". This is Change the Story / Change the World, a chronicle of art and transformation. ![]() The reason that I share Ella’s story with you today is that her belief in bottom up, community accountable, leadership very much informs the story you are about to hear. She was also a contrarian of sorts, in that she felt that the hierarchical leadership model of the church-based civil rights movement was, largely undemocratic and unaccountable Ella’s words are memorialized in the line you sang from “Ella’s Song” by Bernice Johnson Reagon, who worked with Ella at the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the early days of the civil rights movement.īernice went on to found the extraordinary acapella group Sweet Honey in the Rock, and Ella became a prominent player in the civil rights struggle. Now, a bonus, those ten words we sang have also connected you and your stories to the extraordinary life of Ella Baker. There are no cultures that do not sing.Īnd finally our singing connected OUR STORIES: if we were singing these words together at the same place and time with others, like the members of the Indian Bottom Old Regular Baptist Church you hear in the background, singing A Wayfaring Stranger, we would have added one more tiny layer to the growing web of stories that we spin together every day to define our community-in this case a congregation in Letcher County Kentucky whose faith and hymn singing and sense of mutual support are viscerally connected to the stories they make and share together. This visceral, bodily connecting, is no small thing This is because we humans need nudges like these to begin forging the bonds, the trust we all need to join with others outside of our families and kinship circles to work together. Now next Beyond focusing attention, our singing together also provided a very simple and direct way of connecting our heads and our hearts - inside, individually, and with each other. In fact, our singing here, was a reprise of one of the first strategies that our early ancestors used maybe 100,000 years ago to capture and focus the attention of the tribe to support what we now call -building community, Of course, this singing thing is not new. If you are not alone, you may have had that experience just now. So, what are they?įirst, if we were in a group, what we just did would have captured and focused the attention of those folks. ![]() They also happen to be three of the THINGS, that artists are particularly good at making happen in the world. So, what have we just done: In a little over a minute we have manifested the three human behaviors that many believe have most contributed to survival and proliferation of the human species. If you actually did sing while listening here … Give yourself a hand. Now you: We who believe in freedom cannot rest.Īgain: We who believe in freedom cannot rest. This may seem crazy on a podcast – but here is the lyric:īefore we sing it, please take a moment to ponder what these words mean to YOU, in your life, or in your work, It's so central to the work, because when you make something together, then you are changing that story, because you now have a story of, "we built this we have added to our world in a way that is deeply meaningful of both of us." From that foundation. that act of making things together and owning what we make. How can working with your neighbor help change a community's story?. What community is composed of all people that are the same. Does that mean we're all the same? Hell no. We are living together and we're going to work together. Sometimes my neighbors are across the country. Sometimes my neighbors are across the street. And then they say, oh, what do you mean? Ben now, how do you describe your work if you don't talk about community engagement? I said, "I work with my neighbors". First thing you got to know, fuck community engagement. What I'll usually say, I come in, I'm supposed to talk to a group about community engagement. What is the difference between community engagement and working with your neighbor?. What defines the work of Appalshop and Performing our Future? The work is creating the conditions, for people in communities to tell their own stories, build their own power, and create their own wealth, and doing it really intensely locally rooted in local traditions and local values CSCW EP 17: Ben Fink – A Communist Jew from the Northeast – Chapter 1 Threshold Questions and Delicious Quotes
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