We Have a New Blog -- FINAL POST!

Hello Museum Supporters,

We are excited to announce we have a new website! It was a long process but we are happy with the results. With the new website comes a new blog. Check out our New South Dialogue blog and share your thoughts about the new site on our Facebook, Twitter or Instagram pages.

Sincerely,

Levine Museum

Who's in the Room?

While interning for the Education Department at Levine Museum of the New South this summer, I've heard community members time and again comment, “Now, the Levine Museum does history the right way.”  Over the course of this summer, I've increasingly understood what it means to “do history” the “right way.”  

Growing up in small-town North Carolina, I had a very limited understanding of history—especially when it came to the history of the South.  Like many other Southern children, I was taught to believe and accept that Stonewall Jackson was a great leader and that the Confederate flag was an acceptable symbol of Southern identity.  It was not until I started studying Anthropology in college that I started to ask myself questions about how history is made, published and taught.  

Traditionally, history has been fabricated based on limited perspectives and the loudest voices in the room.  In other words, power plays a major role in the shaping of history.  Just as the accumulation of power has depended on socially constructed factors-- race, skin color, displays of wealth—the ability to write and tell history has been centralized along similar constructs.  As a result, what we know of events, people, culture and places are really objects of partial histories and partial truths.  These are problematic in that they are only a sliver of the many perspectives that actually exist. 

Levine Museum has sought to break away from the classical museum model by employing a bottom-up approach.  It seeks to allow community members to speak for themselves and tell their own stories.  Ranging from the use of listening sessions to collect community input on exhibit design to programming pop-up sessions to collect oral stories, Levine Museum is inclusive of narratives across the spectrum of race, socioeconomic class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion and more.  Emphasis is placed on self-representation and the multiplicity of voices and perspectives.  

Last spring the Museum hosted Out of the Shadows: Undocumented and Unafraid, an artfully crafted exhibit from artist Annabel Manning and curator Carla Hanzal, which featured names, photos and narratives of undocumented students around North Carolina.  The exhibit was particularly exemplary of the museum’s approach as it empowered and gave voice to a population of students who have been systematically disfranchised and disempowered.  In July, the Museum opened LGBTQ: Perspectives on Equality which also took on the approach of having visitors and community members tell their stories and influence what direction the exhibits and programming should take. 

Such exhibits not only make what we do authentic so that it resonates with visitors and their thinking we did the history “right;” but more importantly, they serve as community safe space where stories are validated and appreciated as threads of a richer community fabric.  

~Yeeva Cheng, Education Intern

What other stories would you like to see told? 

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Ask an Activist: Carla Fuller, Help the Refugees

With National Welcoming Week this week (Sept. 13-21), Levine Museum is reaching out to the Greater Carolina community and asking how we can create a more welcoming environment for all newcomers. 

As part of our Welcoming Week events, Levine Museum spoke with Carla Fuller, who works with Burmese refugees and is making a difference in her own backyard. 

Carla became involved with the refugee community about 6 years ago after four Karen (an ethnic group from Burma) girls moved in with a family from her church. She soon met their friends in Charlotte and continues to visit them frequently. Since she lives a few hours away, the community invites her into their homes to stay with them.  She has come to love their culture, food and most especially their children. 

Although they may not always be able to communicate in English and she has yet to be able to fluently learn their language, communication seems easy. In addition to her new friends, she has been honored to meet the men and women of Charlotte who are dedicated to the refugee community.  Says Carla, “there is a great network of folks who work together to help refugees and I am proud to have come to know them.” Of course, there is always a need for more people and she is always encouraged when she sees someone new get involved. 

Unfortunately, there are people hostile to newcomers and changing demographics. How can we combat this? 

I think as others get to know the refugees personally, they will understand that they are just like us. They have the same wants, needs and concerns.  

When someone first gets involved, it can be hard to find common interests, especially with the language barrier. The refugees understand that it is difficult for us to reach to them and are just thankful we try.

For me, it was taking a family to explore downtown and eat ice cream for the first time that helped us bond.  Six years later, this family has just purchased their first house and they are doing very well.  It is such a joy to have been a part of their lives and share in their journey. Sometimes I forget that in the beginning we couldn't even speak to each other without an interpreter, but now we can have great conversations!

If there is someone wanting to get to know a newcomer, but not sure where to start, I would recommend contacting one of the local organizations. They can put you in touch with a family or individual who would welcome your concern for them.
  
How can we work to combat immigrant stereotypes?

The same as above.  Get to know them and see that they hard working people coming to America to escape oppression and war. They must learn a new language, a new culture, new health care system and so many other things. They have the same love for their families and are just like us in so many ways.

How can we strengthen the voices of communities that otherwise go unheard?

Reaching out to the community leaders of the various ethnic groups will help make the connection.  Going to meet them in their own communities will give them a level of comfort that otherwise they would not have.  They are still very shy and intimidated by Americans.

How can we teach self-advocacy to those within the immigrant community? 

Working with community leaders to find out what they specifically need and having programs around their schedules would be beneficial.  Drivers’ training is one of the most necessary components to self-sufficiency. There isn't much funding for it, so they are teaching themselves with deadly consequences.  

Ten years from now, how do you envision a more welcoming Charlotte and a reinvented New South?

I would hope there would be many more Americans reaching out to the community.  So many folks go overseas on mission and humanitarian trips when they are here in our own backyards. 

I asked one man why the refugees in the camps are always so excited to see the Americans visit and he said because that is how they think all Americans will be when they come to America.  It gives them hope.  But, then they come here and often they don’t find the kind hearts of the missionaries and humanitarians.  Instead, they are often preyed upon by unethical people.

What does your organization do to celebrate and welcome newcomers to Charlotte? 

When we learn of new arrivals, we put the word out to other refugees.  They know firsthand the struggles that the newcomers face.  They take them food, welcome them and then continue to check in on them and assist in however they can.  In addition, the other Americans who are volunteering in the community will try to bring them clothes, food and other items they may need.  Unfortunately, there are not enough people to call upon and many are stretched thin. 

For more information about Carla and the work that she does, visit her website, HelpTheRefugees.com

Join the conversation: 
Levine Museum is hosting a Tweetchat on Wednesday, Sept. 17, from noon-1 p.m. on Creating A Welcoming Charlotte.

Follow and participate on Twitter at @LevineMuseum and use the hashtags #WelcomingCLT  #welcomingweek

Guest Blogger: Patricia Atilano Co-organizer of The Changing South: Women in Poetry & local writer

Being a women in any part of the world, is a passionate challenge that transforms with supreme beauty in her environment.  Woman is beauty, and beauty is woman.

The Changing South: Women in Poetry, is an event by Levine Museum of the New South to celebrate all women. These six amazing women will speak in Libertad from different parts of the earth. They will unite to share with us their experiences, their stories, and their battles. They make a symbolic relay to exorcise their natural fears, from their powerful identity and inspire us with their creative capacity through one of their manifestations of the arts; Poetry.


Let’s surround these women with attitude that celebrate their femininity, their strength, and life itself!

Ser mujer en cualquier parte del mundo, en cualquier sociedad es un reto apasionante que transforma con suprema belleza su entorno.  Mujer sinónimo de belleza, y belleza sinónimo de mujer.  

The Changing South: Women in Poetry, es un evento del Museo Levine del Nuevo Sur (Levine Museum of the New South) para celebrar a todas las mujeres.

Estas seis mujeres luchadoras que conversan en libertad, de diferentes partes del mundo, se unen para compartir con todos nosotros, sus experiencias, sus historias, y sus luchas.

Hacen un simbólico relevo, un ejercicio de exorcismo de su medio natural, de su ponderosa identidad, y que nos inspiran con su capacidad creadora, a través de una manifestación de las artes; la poesía.

Contagiémonos de la actitud de estas mujeres, que celebran su feminidad, su fuerza y la vida misma.

by Patricia Atilano

Co-organizer of The Changing South: Women in Poetry & local writer

Join us this evening for a special poetry presentation at 5:30p.m.  

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