Forward

EDITED 9/5/24

During the summer of 2023, thirteen seasoned, generous, and dedicated facilitators led us through Nine Conversations on Equity and Justice at the John Brown Farm. My gratitude is deep. Without them the opportunity to practice civil discourse around topics that are often avoided would not have happened.

The unwavering support and guidance of Martha Swan, Director of John Brown Lives!, Stephanie Ratcliffe, Director of The Wild Center, and Ellen Bettmann, formerly of the Anti-defamation League, is a lifelong gift.

Thanks to Shawndel N. Fraser for her enthusiasm to be in dialogue with me and others, to share her trauma-informed and spiritual approach to engagement, and her enriching sense of self-care. Her nourishing and devoted practice brought her back to the Adirondacks from New York City for five of the conversations. Her impact continues to ripple out.

Thanks to Mike Bishop, a doctoral candidate at Cornell University doing research on community engagement, who invited me to sit and talk with him at the John Brown Farm after he saw A Memorial Field. In May and June of 2023, he facilitated Zoom calls to develop connections amongst our facilitators.

A word of thanks to the staff at the John Brown Farm – Brendan Mills, site manager, John O’Neil, groundskeeper, and Cheryl Craft, docent, for their responsiveness and respect during the conversations.

A number of participants attended all nine sessions, treating the summer series as a seminar. A support network and a number of new and meaningful relationships developed. Real conversations require practice, and through this series, each one of us has become better prepared to initiate dialogue with each other. The group encouraged the creation of this book as an advocacy tool to promote conversation in all communities. It would not have been possible without Anna Forsman’s meticulous notetaking in real time, as the conversations took place. From the material here, you can glean recommendations and lessons that we learned as a community. We shared an open invitation to the general public to show up each Thursday at 3pm for facilitated conversations. We didn’t know what to expect. Could we get people with different points of view to participate in respectful conversation about equity and justice?

We can all make a difference if we use our skillset to speak out. Envisioning A Memorial Field, planning events that expand its reach, and organizing nine facilitated conversations has been my honor and privilege. Each conversation continues to give us hope for the future. My sincere thanks to all of the participants who engaged and shared, a courageous act of the heart.

Support from New York Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation; Dr. Alice P. Green’s Center for Law and Justice; John Brown Lives!; NYSCA; and Creatives Rebuild New York Artist Employment Project (AEP) heightened my sense of purpose and focus. We’d like to acknowledge that the John Brown Farm is located on the traditional homelands stolen from the Mohawk Nation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, also known as the Six Nations of the Iroquois.