THE ART OF COMMUNITY - Learning With Each Other And Discovering Our Passion!

Barb...When I think of stories about community, I always think of what our family and many others learned from our daughter. Erin was a young woman with Down syndrome and her life demonstrated the rich connections and relationships that result from an inclusive learning community. Among her passions was theatre and she met and celebrated with many friends through that love. It began at Westerville South High School and introduced her to Otterbein University and many wonderful and reciprocal relationships with other theatre lovers! Real friendship often comes from our shared interests and passions and not our shared abilities.

Facilitating Community

Kelley…Sometimes we are in situations that are stressful or intense and that can help a group come together in community. In my visual I wanted to represent the members of my methods class who have come together largely because of our instructor and especially because of an activity that she facilitated. We each shared stories about ourselves and then reflected back to each other what strengths we heard from those stories about each of us. It has helped to create a supportive learning community.

Some Things to Think About…
How do we create welcoming communities where each person can feel comfortable and supported?
Are we open to discovering the gifts in each person?
Do we see the glass as half full or half empty?

Reflecting and Sharing Stories

Steven…I love to travel, see new places and meet new people. I also value learning and that was handed down to me by my grandfather, a run-away slave. My neighborhood community back in Youngstown has a reunion every few years and a scholarship is offered to a college student in memory of my grandparents. We support each other. It is important to reflect on the past as we move forward to the future.

What have we discovered from our life journey so far?
What have we learned from our experiences and relationships?
Do we welcome and celebrate ALL diversity?

The Art of Community - Belonging and Participating

Jane…I feel grounded and surrounded by love in my Westerville and Otterbein College community. I graduated 60 years ago and have lived here ever since. Belonging, participating, and contributing to this college community continues to enrich my life.

Some Things to Think About…
What makes you feel welcomed?
How do you welcome others?
Do you accept the hospitality of others when it is offered to you?
How do you participate?

The Art of Community, "Offering hospitality…"

Dana…When I think of community I think of eating together! I think of welcoming guests and enjoying each other’s company. I think of family and friends and not forgetting the importance of our relationships.

Some Things to Think About…
⇒ What makes you feel welcomed?
⇒ How do you welcome others?
⇒ How do you accept the hospitality of others when it is offered to you?

Connecting (from the Art of Community collage)

Kat…I found community in a sorority – something that is not always thought of as inclusive and welcoming to all. Our small, local sorority welcomes and celebrates diversity. We are free-spirited yet connected in our support of one another and women’s issues.

Remember a time in your life when you felt most engaged,most included, most welcomed in your community. Create a poem, image, or story that resonates with your experiences.

Listening and figuring out how to include everyone...

Petie…Thirty three years ago I was teaching theatre in high school and directing a Children’s Theatre production which the students would perform for various elementary schools. One of the students involved had autism. We all had to figure out how to ensure his active participation. Another student really modeled how to be open to his differences and respect his involvement. We structured the performance much differently than we would have without him. It was a wonderful learning experience for all us. We all were stars!

Remember a time in your life when you felt most engaged, most included, most welcomed in your community. Create a poem, image, or story that resonates with your experiences.

Another Story - Acting on Diversity

Jordan…I’m a little more politically minded as part of the DIY (Do It Yourself) scene in Columbus. We try not to rely on corporations and focus on community activities like pot luck dinners and supporting musicians traveling through town. It is important to have a common vision, but I also feel that we each need to be an independent thinker and share our individual uniqueness to create a richly diverse community. I disagree that “patience pays off.” I think there must be a sense if urgency and that “action pays off.”

Remember a time in your life when you felt most engaged, most included, most welcomed in your community. Please share that by creating a poem, image, or story that resonates with your experiences.

A Story from the Art of Community Collage - Love and Togetherness

Lois…The sense of community is extremely important to me. As I was picking the pictures and objects to use I thought about the things that I love about my life, including friends, family, books,animals, and music. The pictures I chose represent to me togetherness, love, family, fun, laughter, and adventure - all things I feel are important in a vibrant community.

Remember a time in your life when you felt most engaged, most included, most welcomed in your community. Please share that by creating a poem, image, or story that resonates with your experiences.

The Art of Community@the Library...Making it Happen

The Erin McKenzie Virtual Welcoming Space at Otterbein Courtright Memorial Library encourages conversations and facilitates discovery of cultures, experiences, struggles and how we are connected. The welcoming space celebrates the gifts and talents in each of us in hopes of creating inclusive communities where all are valued. Annual events are planned with this vision in mind.

In 2009, participants representing the areas of Women Studies; Black Studies; Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered & Queer (GLBTQ); International Education; Disability; and Diversity discussed making connections and community building at Otterbein College. This event resulted in two key findings:
1. The need to create spaces where all feel welcome to share and interact and
2. The need to engage more students, listening and hearing their voices and perspectives.

With those findings in mind, on April 18, 2010, a diverse group of students, staff, and community members gathered to further our knowledge about how to create community at Otterbein. We enlisted facilitator and artist, Candee Basford (http://www.candeebasford.com/), to guide our discussion using a process of arts-based appreciative inquiry.

“Appreciative Inquiry is about the co-evolutionary search for the best in people, their organizations, and the relevant world around them. To inquire means to be open to seeing new possibilities and potentials. Arts based inquiry is the act of exploration and discovery through the arts.” http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/intro/whatisai.cfm

Each member of the group was asked to remember a time in their lives when they felt most engaged, most included, most welcomed in their college and in their communities. Then, each selected various images and artifacts such as fabric scraps, buttons, tree bark, magazine cutouts, metal, etc. that resonated with his or her “story.” Participants arranged these resonating pieces into a story or pattern onto mat board. This created a visual representation or reflection of their story and the insight within. When completed, each member of the group shared his or her creative image and the story or stories that elicited the completed image.

"Art exists in the absorption in the tasks of putting existing things together in ways that have meaning; and inversely, in the engagements that make personal connections to things others have made." Michael Herman

The visuals have been combined into a collage which is now displayed in the library. In the next few months, individual stories and visual representations from the collage will be shared on this blog.

We would love if you would share your story. Remember a time in your life when you felt most engaged, most included, most welcomed in your community. Create a poem, image, or story that resonates with your experiences.

Spinning in Community with Others

Erin’s life inspired the creation of the Welcoming Space in
the Library of Westerville South High School and the Erin
McKenzie Virtual Welcoming Space Web site at Otterbein
College Courtright Memorial Library. Both provide a
diverse mix of media styles and information to encourage
conversations and facilitate our discovery of one another’s
cultures, experiences, and how we are connected; celebrate
the gifts and talents in each of us; and help us to build
inclusive communities where all are valued.

The mural on the wall of the high school library’s space was
inspired in part by an article my friend Candee found about the
Whirling Dervishes of Turkey. The spinning of the dancer is
an intentional act of participation in what is believed to be the
shared similarity and revolution of all other beings.

Student artist Sarah Boatright took that theme and combined it
with the significance of the circle in Native American culture to
create a beautiful painting of a young woman with long,
flowing hair who looks very much like Erin spinning within
a dream catcher. On a wall to the side are the words,
“Mitakuye Oyasin,” which is taken from the Lakota/Dakota
language and can be translated, “We are all related,” or “All
my relations.” It is a belief of oneness and harmony with the
universe.

This connection was also important to Erin. My husband
was involved for many years with the central Ohio Native
American community. When we attended events, Erin was
always genuinely welcomed and invited to dance in the
circle.

Sarah’s artwork has marvelously captured how two very
different cultures celebrate the importance of community.
Erin’s life powerfully demonstrated that too.

May we all spin happily together.

from, REFLECTIONS OF ERIN - THE IMPORTANCE OF BELONGING, RELATIONSHIPS, AND LEARNING WITH EACH OTHER
Copyright 2008, Barbara McKenzie.

The Art of Disability

“Disability is not a ‘brave struggle’ or ‘courage in the face of adversity’. Disability is an art. It’s an ingenious way to live.”
Neil Marcus – a poet, humorist, writer, actor, and adventurer who is “creatively endowed with disability”

This quote was shared at a presentation I attended this past summer. It immediately brought up memories of a play that has always bothered me since I first saw it when Erin was in high school - "The Boys Next Door" by Tom Griffin. The story is about four men who live together and have cognitive and developmental disabilities. It does not paint a pretty picture of living with disabilities.

At a pivotal point in the play, one of the men shares a very sad monologue. “I stand before you, a middle-aged man in an uncomfortable suit, a man whose capacity for rational thought is somewhere between a five-year-old and an oyster. (Pause) I am retarded. I am damaged. I am sick inside from so many years of confusion, utter and profound confusion. I am mystified by faucets and radios and elevators and newspapers and popular songs. I cannot always remember the names of my parents. But I will not go away. And I will not wither because the cage is too small. I am here to remind the species of the species. I am Lucien Percival Smith. And without me, without my shattered crippled brain, you will never again be frightened by what you might have become. Or indeed by what your future might make you.”

Unfortunately this description of disability is the perception of many people, not just the playwright. To counter-act this perception, we go overboard trying to show the "super stars" with disabilities. We talk about those extraordinary individuals who have overcome their deficiencies; have worked hard to become more "normal."

Neil's quote is about valuing all people with disabilities; looking at differences and not perceived deficiencies; discovering and celebrating the gifts in each of us.

Visit Candee Basford's web page

Please consider going to Candee Basford's web page at http://www.candeebasford.com/ . While you are there make sure you check out her blog. As she says on her web page: "Feel free to browse the art, writing and ideas found here...."