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"Chicano Park",,"I had been in San Diego for less than a week and was still unsure of bus routes. Having successfully navigated the trolley-to-bus transfer from La Mesa to the Gaslight District downtown, I figured I was close enough to walk. If it were a different day I would welcome any unexpected detours as a result of getting on the wrong bus, but today I was headed somewhere specific.
It was July, Saturday, and sunny. I walked southwest from downtown heading toward Barrio Logan. A historically working class Mexican and Mexican American neighborhood in the city, Barrio Logan is home to Chicano Park. Chicano Park is located under the Coronado Bridge and contains over 70 outdoor murals that decorate the pillars that support the bridge.
Chicano Park came into existence in April 1970 when neighborhood activists occupied the then vacant space under the bridge. The bridge was built around three years earlier, displacing thousands of residents in the process. Though the vacant space under the bridge was originally set to be the site of a highway patrol station, community activists instead demanded that the site be turned into a public park. After months of struggle, the city ceded to the community activists’ demands and designated the site a park. Soon thereafter local residents began calling the space Chicano Park. The name Chicano Park reflected not only how Barrio Logan was a predominantly Mexican and Mexican American neighborhood, but also how those involved with the takeover supported El Movimiento, the civil rights movement in the U.S. that focused on those of Mexican descent. Activists who participated in El Movimiento regularly identified themselves as Chicanas and Chicanos.
Since the 1970s artists like Victor Ochoa, Yolanda Lopez, and Salvador Torres have painted murals dedicated to Mexican and Mexican American culture and history on the bridge’s bare pillars. Popular murals painted in the 1970s include Historical Mural, Quetzalcóatl, and Birth of La Raza. Much like the name of the park, artists found inspiration in El Movimiento’s goals of eradicating ethnoracial discrimination and used the bridge’s pillars to present positive renderings of those of Mexican descent. Also starting in the 1970s, a festival, or Chicano Park Day, is held each April commemorating the day community residents occupied the land under the bridge, reinforcing the park’s continued importance to the local community.
After around a half hour of walking toward the park, colorful pillars broke into view. I entered the park and saw people walking among the pillars taking photos of the murals and reading the walls. People sat on steps of the green, red, and white painted kiosko situated near the center of the park. As I walked around taking my own photos a man in his mid-20s approached me and we began to talk. Learning that I was not a local, he began running through aspects of the park’s history. While I would later tell him that I was writing about Chicano Park in my dissertation, I initially kept this information to myself. I was more interested in hearing about how he spoke of the park. As he talked he braided the park’s history and importance to the community with the park’s significance in his own life. We stayed in the park and talked for hours while he guided me from pillar to pillar discussing the murals.
My “Humanities Moment” is therefore the confluence of walking to the park, seeing the pillars for the first time, and listening to a man – now a friend – talk about the importance of Chicano Park in his life and to the community. Chicano Park is representative of Mexican and Mexican American activism, culture, and history in the U.S. and reveals the power of community to determine the shape of its immediate surroundings. As my friend also demonstrated, Chicano Park is deeply personal and holds layers of meaning for community residents and those who visit the park. ",,"My visit to Chicano Park in San Diego, California ",,2017,"Sean Ettinger, 28, PhD Candidate in History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign",,,,,,chicano-park,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"During the National Humanities Center VGSSR2020","Activism,Artists,Communication,Community,Cultural History,History,Public Spaces,San Diego, California",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/17/401/73849b6c02430c12b5db2964049f4acb.jpg,Text,"Graduate Student Residents 2020",1,0
"Feminist Killjoys",,"In my 'Problems and Issues in Feminist Theory' graduate course in the Women's and Gender Studies Department, my professor assigned a new release in feminist and queer theory called Living a Feminist Life by independent scholar Sara Ahmed. Reading the book, I laughed, cried, and underlined more than any other academic book. I had never felt so seen in a book, and the accessibility but depth of the concepts in the book were mesmerizing.
The Humanities Moment came when the class came together to discuss the book - all of us had the same response to the book. My professor asked us to be vulnerable and share some intimate moments in our lives while weaving academic theory and lived experience. In this space we shared the laughs, tears, and validated each other's experiences of moving and living in this world as someone assigned female at birth, committed to feminism, and navigating academia.
The end of the book shares a resource called the ""Feminist Killjoy Toolkit"" and it encourages readers to build their toolkit, which includes your other Humanities Moments that are important to you and keep them in your back pocket. To use, learn from, lean on, and rest with. We all created our own toolkits and I've carried it with me throughout graduate school. The intellectual and feminist community and solidarity I felt in the classroom that day, connecting over this book and the shared experiences it spoke to and brought forth, also stays with me.","Sara Ahmed","Living a Feminist Life",,"Fall 2017","A.F. Lewis, 27, Ph.D. candidate and graduate instructor ",,,,,,feminist-killjoys,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"NHC Graduate Student Summer Residency","Ahmed, Sara,Community,Feminism,Feminist Authors,Gender Studies,Women,Women's and Gender Studies,Women's History",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/18/459/open-book-1428428_640.jpg,Text,"Graduate Student Residents 2021",1,0
"Nola ",,"My Humanities Moment occurred in 2005, the year that hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. I lived in New Orleans pre-and-post Katrina and lost my house to the “Great Deluge.” I helplessly watched 85% of New Orleans proper fill up with water due to the 28 levee breaches throughout the city. The widespread flooding in New Orleans and other Gulf Coast communities in 2005 caused nearly 1,400 deaths and forced several hundred thousand people from their homes. Americans watching television were shocked by the plight of residents stranded by the flooding: the squalid conditions in the evacuation centers, the lawlessness in the streets of New Orleans, and above all the unsatisfactory response of emergency management officials. Frankly, I didn’t fully appreciate New Orleans until I almost lost her.
Prior to Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans residents typically evacuated in a haphazard manner, sometimes packing important documents, gassing up the car, or simply seeking refuge in a neighborhood bar to ride out the storm with other strangers. Dealing with hurricanes was a way of life in New Orleans, a rite of passage for a transplant like me. In fact, I didn’t take Hurricane Katrina seriously and only chose to evacuate last minute after a friend cautioned me to “not just walk to the Superdome as a backup plan.” I eventually evacuated to Delaware to be with family and to attend the University of Delaware because Tulane University experienced extensive flooding. While I experienced incredible demonstrations of generosity, I equally encountered numerous insensitive and ignorant people, whom upon hearing I was from New Orleans, rudely questioned why I lived in a “fish bowl.” I distinctly recall one moment in which a stranger suggested that New Orleans be completely bull dozed and its residents be forced to migrate to higher ground. In the eyes of this naysayer, New Orleans didn’t matter. It was in this moment that I finally appreciated New Orleans for all its flaws and that it was a city worth fighting for.
",,,,2005,"Melissa Tracy, 34, Social Studies Teacher",,,,,,nola,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,#TAC2018,"City Dwellers,Community,Hurricane Katrina,New Orleans, Louisiana,Teachers,U.S. History",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/9/244/Water_Meter_Sign_.jpg,Text,"Teacher Advisory Council",1,0
"The Concert ",,"After 40 years of attending rock concerts I still get excited about them. There’s nothing like counting the days until the band is in town or when I am going to leave to attend a concert or festival in another state. I think about the many conversations I have had with complete strangers in the seats about what songs might be played and special guests that might show up at certain performances. Even scoring tickets to high profile shows in large cities during an artist's multi-night run is fun and the on sale date is greeted with great anticipation.
There’s nothing like that moment when the lights go off and the faint glow of flashlights lead the band members to the stage. Who knows where the music will bring you over the next few hours? One thing i know for sure I will always be looking ahead to the next one. ",,,,,"Bill Perrier, 50, Insurance sales ",,,,,,the-concert,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Craig Perrier","Community,Music Appreciation,Music Performance",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/345/HM_Concerts.jpg,Text,,1,0
"The Perfect Invitation ","
The whole of that poem was me. It “affirmed” my lived experience. Poems do that every day. They clarify a feeling, give us a glimpse into ourselves or, if we’re paying attention, into some other person or place. And they can show us how to live.
Hearing poets talk about their work is another experience all together. Clifton was being celebrated by writers like Toni Morrison and Sharon Olds that evening, and hearing that story from this dazzling artist in the company of her peers not only inspired me personally but also helped me remember that in the midst of all the research and interpretative work I do, it’s the art and the community around it that matters. The structure of the poem, with its repeated call to “come celebrate,” reminds me that we have to remain open, regularly invite people to join us.
","Hearing Lucille Clifton’s poem “won’t you celebrate with me” at a celebration of her work is the Humanities Moment that offered both comfort and a model for how to navigate life as a Black academic. I was a new English professor and was unprepared for the isolation I felt in the academy when a senior colleague invited me to the Clifton event. The evening was packed with more dazzling poets than I can remember, and I really couldn’t take it in. I still don’t remember much about it except hearing this poem and the story behind it.
Clifton had been named a distinguished professor of the arts and because she didn’t have all of the right credentials a man in the office next to hers didn’t think she deserved the honor and took time out of his day to tell her so. The poem is her response. The whole of that moment was affirming, not just the poem but the reason it came to me. More than affirming me, it showed me how to live this life of the mind—to do the work with fierce joy and to invite students, colleagues, and my communities to celebrate it with me.
The whole of that poem was me. It “affirmed” my lived experience. Poems do that every day. They clarify a feeling, give us a glimpse into ourselves or, if we’re paying attention, into some other person or place. And they can show us how to live.
Hearing poets talk about their work is another experience all together. Clifton was being celebrated by writers like Toni Morrison and Sharon Olds that evening, and hearing that story from this dazzling artist in the company of her peers not only inspired me personally but also helped me remember that in the midst of all the research and interpretative work I do, it’s the art and the community around it that matters. The structure of the poem, with its repeated call to “come celebrate,” reminds me that we have to remain open, regularly invite people to join us.
","Lucille Clifton","“won’t you celebrate with me” by Lucille Clifton",,"2005 (ish)","Patricia Matthew, 49, English professor living in Brooklyn, New York",,,,,,the-perfect-invitation,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Clifton, Lucille,Community,Literature,Morrison, Toni,Olds, Sharon,Poetry,Professors,Vocation,Women of Color,won't you celebrate with me",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/7/101/poetry-960x590.jpg,Text,#Humanitiesinclass,1,0 "The Spirit of Community",,"A few years ago I was riding in the car with my mom. She was listing to a book called The Day The World Came To Town. It’s about how the small town of Gander, Newfoundland came together when 38 commercial planes were diverted to their airport on 9/11 when airspace over the US was shut down. When I got home, I downloaded the audiobook and started listening to it. I was intrigued by how the small town of barely 10,000 people came together to help 7,000 people who were stranded there for about 5 days. It shows how there are still good people in the world that care.