A Humanities New York Reading & Discussion Program
February 22 to March 15, 2023 – Four Wednesdays– 6:00 to 8:00pm
Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center and C.S.1 Curatorial Projects are organizing their fifth Humanities New York Reading & Discussion Program entitled “Justice Talking: What Does Literature, Philosophy, and Religion Have To Say About Serving Our Community?” for four sessions from February 22 to March 15, 2020, on Wednesday evenings from 6:00 to 8:00pm at various locations. Sharon Holley, esteemed community leader, storyteller, owner of Zawadi Books, and President of the Michigan Street Preservation Corp, and Stacy Hubbard, UB English Professor, will be co-facilitating this discussion.
Why and how do we choose to serve others? What is the nature of the relationship between those who serve and those who are served? If we serve, what sustains and renews us? How does our service impact our communities? The readings in this series — drawn from literature, philosophy, and religion — invite reflection on these and other questions.
Readings will include selections from:
The Civically Engaged Reader: A Diverse Collection of Short Provocative Readings on Civic Activity Edited by Adam Davis and Elizabeth Lynn
This anthology includes more than forty short readings that invite reflection on all kinds of civic-minded activities–from giving and serving to leading and associating–and on the vital connections between thought and service. Authors range from Aristotle to Kafka, Langston Hughes to Jane Addams, Andrew Carnegie to Pablo Neruda.
This group grows out of four previous HNY discussion groups held in Buffalo in 2019 & 2020 on: James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, American Politics and Community Today/Ralph Ellison, and Lucille Clifton and Black Buffalo Writers.
To give a better sense of what will be involved, Claire Schneider, President, C.S.1 Curatorial Projects spoke with co-facilitator Stacy Hubbard.
Claire Schneider: I’m excited that you both will be co-facilitating this reading and discussion group, our fifth. You have both been participants. What compelled you to join in the past and what did you most enjoy about the groups?
Stacy Hubbard: I joined initially because I was concerned about the rise in uncivil discourse in American society and looking for ways to engage in genuine discussion across differences of race, class, belief, and experience. I’m a strong believer in the role that public humanities can play in opening up greater understanding between members of a community and in promoting the thoughtful and productive exchange of ideas. The HNY groups I’ve participated in during the past few years have taught me a lot about both the divisions and connections within the Buffalo community, and I’ve really appreciated the generosity, openness, and depth of conversation among the participants. Plus, I’ve made new friends!
Claire: What made them stand out in your mind vs. other spaces that you are engaged in? Stacy, you teach literature in the university setting. Sharon, you have run other reading groups and own Zawadi books. Another way to answer might be – why did you each want to co-lead this group about this topic?
Stacy: While I enjoy teaching young people in the university, there is something special about a community-based reading group that includes people of various ages, occupations, backgrounds, and purposes. Nobody is there to get credit or credential themselves for a job. People come because they want to read, learn, discuss, debate, and meet new people. It’s really an ideal setting for engaging with texts and ideas and for expanding one’s conversational circle.
Buffalo is the “city of good neighbors”; it’s also one of the most segregated cities in the nation. This past year Buffalo has experienced the tragedies of a racially-motivated mass shooting and a deadly blizzard, on top of more ongoing and systemic forms of inequality and injustice. Buffalonians know we need to work on making Buffalo better—more equal, more just, more sustainable. But these are difficult things to discuss. In a reading group, everyone has to get outside their own immediate experience and belief system in order to engage with an author’s words and ideas, and that can be a great first step towards really hearing the ideas of others around the table. It’s an opportunity to listen, respond, consider alternative perspectives, and find, if not common ground, then at least a basis for engaging and challenging one another with openness and respect.
Claire: Normally “serving your community,” volunteering at a food bank, donating money to a cause, or being on a board of directors is not something that one reads literature, philosophy and religion before engaging in. Why do you think these readings are important?
Stacy: That’s such a good question. People who are involved actively in serving the community—whether as organizers, volunteers, teachers, or activists–are by necessity doers. This reading and discussion group offers those people an opportunity to step back and reflect on the motivations and methods of community engagement and the impact of what they do by serving, giving, leading. It’s a chance to explore different ideas about what the individual can contribute to the community as these have been expressed in different time periods and by different kinds of writers—religious thinkers, fiction writers, poets, philosophers, and social reformers. We hope the discussions will enrich the work that people are already doing, and inspire those who may be looking to take on more active roles.
Claire: Can you describe how the four sessions will unfold? We will be using The Civically Engaged Reader: A Diverse Collection of Short Provocative Readings on Civic Activity, which is divided into four sections: associating, serving, giving, and leading. These are related but different ideas. How do they build on each other?
Stacy: Well, the question of how those things—associating, serving, giving, and leading—relate to one another is really what we want to explore together. Sharon and I aren’t starting out with all the answers—we’re inviting participants to explore these questions and others through reading and discussion and to see where these conversations take us. How it all unfolds and where we get to remains to be seen! (Join us to find out.)
Claire: Stacy, you started to describe a series of readings around associating that begins with a unique aspect of the US, our love of founding non-government groups and volunteering, unlike some countries, as well as W.E.B. Du Bois’ selection from The Souls of Black Folk. Could you use this as an example of how things might unfold.
Stacy: One of the early readings we’ll do is a selection from Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America from 1840 in which he famously argues that American society is characterized by a tendency to voluntarily “associate” in order to improve our communities. That idea has persisted in American culture for both good and ill; it has sometimes been used to argue against the role of government in providing infrastructure and a social safety net, and it obviously has great relevance to our interest in “serving.” However, if we read a very different view of American character such as W.E.B. DuBois’s The Souls of Black Folk from 1903, we see something that cuts across de Tocqueville’s idealistic view: racial inequality and segregation. DuBois argues that “only a union of intelligence and sympathy across the color line”—a commitment to a different kind of “association,” one not historically rooted in American culture–will enable American society to progress. Reading these texts together, we might discuss where they intersect and diverge, what they say about their own historical moments, and how they relate to our present moment. Throughout the four weeks of readings, we hope to put diverse readings into conversation in this way in order to highlight different perspectives and open up a wide range of interpretations and responses. What comes of these combinations really depends on the participants, however—the sessions will be genuine discussions, not lectures.
Claire: Can you discuss any readings that have stuck out in your planning and why they will be compelling to possible participants who are active in serving their communities or want to?
Stacy: Well, the anthology we are using is full of wonderful selections, so that’s difficult to answer! One selection that stands out for me is Jane Addams’s “The Subjective Necessity of Social Settlements” from 1892. In it, she discusses the way that social service—in her case, helping new immigrants to acclimate to the United States—helps the one serving as much as the one served. She addresses a problem that informs many meditations on service: who has power in a serving/served relationship? What does the served community bring to the equation? Where does respect and understanding—or the lack of these qualities—enter into these relations? Gwendolyn Brooks’s scathing poem, “The Lovers of the Poor,” takes up this question from a different angle, indicting those who disdain contact with the objects of their charity. These are difficult questions, but important ones for people interested in service, giving, and leading to explore.
Claire: Why would a Buffalo Rising reader what to attend one of these sessions?
Stacy: If you like to read, think, learn, talk, and meet new people and want to broaden or deepen your engagement with the Buffalo community, please join us. Participants of all ages, backgrounds, educational levels, neighborhoods, affiliations, etc. are welcome.
Stacy Hubbard is Associate Professor of English at the University of Buffalo. Her research and teaching focus on American literature and culture, women’s writing, and reform writing. She is a recipient of the Florence Howe Award for Feminist Scholarship and a SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. She has participated in a number of previous Humanities New York Reading and Discussion Groups in Buffalo and run workshops and reading groups at Just Buffalo Literary Center.
Justice Talking:
What Does Literature, Philosophy, and Religion Have To Say About Serving Our Community?
Wednesdays from 6:00 pm to 8:00pm
Feb. 15 – Merriweather Library, 1324 Jefferson Ave., Buffalo, NY 14208
Mar. 1 – TBD – service organization
Mar. 8 – TBD – service organization
Mar. 15 – Hallwalls – 341 Delaware Ave, Buffalo, NY 14202
The group is purposely meet in different Buffalo locations / neighborhoods as a means to know the city better.
The program is FREE and emailed reading materials will be provided. Organizers can also help facilitate rides as needed.
Funded by Humanities New York this program encourages friends, colleagues, and strangers to “make time for thinking deeply about a single idea from a variety of perspectives, allowing texts to become catalysts for civic engagement, cultural understanding, and personal reflection.”
This group grows out of four previous HNY discussion groups held in Buffalo in 2019 & 2020 on: James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, American Politics and Community Today/Ralph Ellison, and Lucille Clifton and Black Buffalo Writers.
For more information on Humanities New York’s Reading & Discussion Groups.
More information on Hallwalls: here & C.S.1 Curatorial Projects: here.
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