Inspiring a better Springfield through Theater

Rumors of a New Day, playing on September 13, 2010

Social change requires passion, creativity and dedication. It should then be no surprise that the arts often play a pivotal role in transforming neighborhoods or whole cities around. For example, Cleveland has recently invested in its Gordon Square Arts District as a path to economic development. Richard Florida, Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute and Professor at the University of Toronto has even highlighted artists as part of the “creative class” of people who are essential to the future economy.

But ticket sales are not the sole source of the art’s impact on cities, it’s also its ability to provoke the emotion, inspiration, intuition and vision that can transform whole communities.  In the words of Hashima Moja, Musical Director of Teatro V!da:

[art has the] ability to open up the hearts and souls of people and allow us to look inside ourselves and feel, so that we can create a truly rounded and whole society full of emotional intelligence and not just intellect and power.

In that context, Teatro V!da will be presenting “Rumors of a New Day”, a play that invites the audience to believe in themselves and leave their own “bubble”. The show promises to be a joyous celebration of Springfield and the Arts, don’t miss it!

To purchase tickets, contact the City Stage box office.

Communities Press City Council on Biomass Incinerator

On Wednesday, August 11, 2010, community groups from Springfield, Massachusetts came together to ask the City Council to revoke the siting permit for Palmer Renewable Energy, which would use demolition waste streams as an energy source. As previously showcased by The Springfield Institute, neighborhoods in the City have two primary concerns about using this technology:

1. That the incineration process will decrease, increase harmful particulate matter, reduce air quality and lead to adverse health effects for the community like asthma and other problems.
2. That demolition waste is not a clean, renewable energy source which State and Local governments should be promoting.

For more information about community organizing around this issue, visit Springfield Incinerator.info.

El Sol Latino – August 2010: Assessing Latino Influence

Cover of El Sol Latino for August 2010

This month’s issue of El Sol Latino highlights the outcome of the Hispanic Family Festival (Festival de la Familia Hispana) celebrated last month in Holyoke. And although the images evidence the good times had, the paper’s editorial offers a biting critique of the tepid reception that Latino cultural events typically receive in the City by non-Latino’s. As an illustrative example, the editorial compares the Irish Day Parade with the Hispanic Family Festival:

There are […] important characteristics that seem to define the Irish parade […] (one of them being) the “Latinization” that the Irish parade has experienced over the last  years. As the parade moves from the K-Mart Plaza to the downtown, the number of Latino spectators increases, wanting to partake of the celebration.

In contrast, the reaction of the non-Latino community of the area towards Latino celebrations is quite different. The participation of a significant part of non-Latinos in the Hispanic Family Festival and its activities is a “shy” one. The business sector does not provide an economic support that can be considered significant, enthusiastic or consistent, even though they benefi t from the growing buying power of the Latino population.

Natalia Muñoz from La Prensa of Western Massachusetts

Taking a broader view of cultural parades, community blogger Natalia Muñoz adds a spanish-written op-ed piece titled “Enough of Parades that End in Nothing”, where she challenges the Latino community to use its cultural activities as a proactive forum for political organizing:

The Puerto Rican parade that was celebrated in Holyoke in July was more illustrative of what we aren’t instead of what we are. Yes, we are boricuas, and with pride. But we are not a political force, and that is why our culture is dwindling amongst flags and empanadas.

[…]

Puerto Rican parades should include a keynote speaker that infuses, inspires and organizes the boricua community. They should include kiosks with voter registration forms, information about political candidates and the issues that are at stake at the ballot. There should be kiosks with information about community organizations, not to see what they have to offer us, but what we can do to help the organizations, like serving as a volunteer at the library, at schools or the program that helps people with diabetes.

[…]

We are much more than what they think. We are artists, chefs, mechanics, teachers, entrepreneurs, students, a whole gamut of different people. They will never know that until we go out, not to celebrate, but to vote. Not even we know that yet.

In that spirit of political organization, page 6 describes the upcoming Latino Public Policy Conference on September 17th in Worcester, sponsored by the Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy. Titled “Securing the Dream: Power, Progress and Prosperity”, the conference will feature the results of the Institute’s year-long listening tour through Latino communities in Massachusetts, including Springfield, Holyoke, Worcester, Southbridge, Lawrence, Boston and Dartmouth.

Rounding out the the articles assessing Latino influence, the latest edition of El Sol Latino includes a piece about a national poll of young Latino voters. As Jorge Mursuli, President of Democracia USA states, “This study offers incredible insight into the worlds that young Hispanics straddle as they grow up and develop a cultural, political and social identity in this country”.

You can see the complete results of the poll and all other articles from August’s El Sol Latino by going to the paper’s website here, or by downloading the PDF version here.

Wednesday Ride #5 Postponed

The Springfield Institute is resting its bikes this week

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the fifth installment of our “Wednesday Rides” will be postponed until next week on August 25th. Therefore, we will not be meeting in front of the YMCA tomorrow as usual.

Stay tuned details of the next Wednesday Ride coming soon. Meanwhile, you can see videos from our previous rides here:

Ride 1: Springfield’s Bike Path

Ride 2: North End neighborhoods and Gerena School.

Ride 3: Mason Square & McKnight neighborhoods

We’re not alone: News from across the Rust Belt

Aproximate area of US "Rust Belt" cities in orange

As reviewed in an article from few weeks ago, our communities in Springfield and Holyoke can take advantage of regional and national resources intended to serve post-industrial cities across the United States. One such useful resource is Rustwire.com, which describes itself as:

a site intended to consolidate thoughtful, constructive stories about post-industrial cities across the Rust Belt. It was developed by two former newspaper reporters with ties to five Rust Belt cities, and it is maintained with help from half a dozen others from across the region

Similar to the springfield institute, they provide multi-author, multi-media rich perspectives on the struggles and successes that will transform our cities moving forward. We salute the entrepreneurship of the site’s contributors and recommend it to our readers.

El Sol Latino – July 2010: Celebration of Latino Culture

July 2010 Cover

This month’s issue of El Sol Latino highlights El Festival de la Familia Hispana (the Hispanic Family Festival), which will take place from July 15 to July 18 in Springdale Park, and promotes the Western Massachusetts Puerto Rican Day Parade on July 18 in Holyoke. Every year the festival recognizes Puerto Rican and other Latino individuals who contribute to the well being of the community, while the parade celebrates the Puerto Rican culture and heritage in the State.

The periodical features a recent study by the Carsey Institute, which indicates that almost half of US newborns were people of color, as compared to aproximately 40% in the year 2000. This ESL edition also showcases notable achievements by Latino individuals like Wilma Ortiz (Massachusetts Teacher of the Year) and several helpful sections like Robert O’Leary legal column.

Pick up a copy of July’s El Sol Latino or browse through its pages by clicking here.

MOCHA Launched to promote leadership for health [video]

High energy turn-out for the MOCHA initiative launch on June 11, 2010.

On Friday, June 11th the Men of Color Health Awareness (MOCHA) launched their campaign to reduce the health risks that afflict Springfield’s men of color. Chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and asthma disproportionally affect the City’s communities of color and has significantly reduced the life expectancy of men in those communities. The initiative will rely heavily on community participation and developing the mentoring relationships that will educate peers in methods of waging a healthier lifestyle.

See The Springfield Institute’s coverage of the event, plus interviews with James Morton and Jeff Markham in the video below:

El Sol Latino – June 2010: Immigration and Education are big topics

El Sol Latino, June 2010

This month’s issue of El Sol Latino (ESL) features the backlash generated from the new Arizona immigration policy, which has been rejected by civil rights groups across the Nation. SB 1070 has won the Grand Canyon State a boycott from Los Angeles and other cities have considered similar measures, including Springfield.

The dangers of the new Arizona immigration policy, which directs police to determine the immigration status of a person “where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien”, are exemplified through a recent story presented by NBC in Chicago last week, and covered on the Huffington Post. The article spotlights Eduardo Caraballo, a Puerto Rican and US citizen who was detained for three days by federal officials on suspicion of residing in the US illegally, despite providing adequate identification. As Congressman Luis Gutierrez says in the interview “In Arizona, they want everybody to be able to prove they’re legally in the country. They want everybody to prove that they’re an American citizen. Here we had an American citizen, that the federal government – not state authorities – but the Federal government, with all their technology and all the information capacity they had… could not determine, for more than three days, his status as an American citizen. It’s very, very, very dangerous ground to tread.”

This edition of ESL also shares three recent studies related to the Latino immigrant community. The first, by the Pew Hispanic Center profiles the latest Hispanic Demography in the US, where Latino’s are accounted for by Nationality and insightful statistics are provided regarding their language, educational attainment, income level and regional dispersion. A second study, also by Pew finds that Hispanics in the US reach the lowest attainment of General Education Degrees (GED) amongst High School dropouts, when compared to Whites and Blacks. The last of these articles suggest that parenting practices amongst Latino communities plays a favorable role in their children’s success. This stems from a study by the American Psychological Association (APA) that found Latino children displayed skills “at levels equal to those of white non-Latino children, despite vast differences in family income between the groups”.

In news from the Caribbean, ESL includes Economic news from the Dominican Republic, and prominently summarizes the University of Puerto Rico student strike, which has had 10 of its 11 campuses paralyzed for 41 days after the University Governing Board undertook drastic measures which would increase the cost of higher education in the system.

Pick up a copy of El Sol Latino or access the latest version here.