What is a Community Gathering, and why is it such an important part of the HECUA semester?
Although HECUA’s domestic off-campus study programs share a home base in the Twin Cities (with the notable exception of Race in America, which travels across four southern states), the classes have limited overlap over the course of the semester. They may come together for a session or two, or enjoy a joint field visit to a site of mutual interest, but for the most part the divergent subject matter keeps HECUA students well occupied in their own classrooms. That separation is one of the reasons why our twice-yearly Community Gathering feels so special. It’s a chance for students to come together and give their HECUA-enrolled peers a peek into the topics, readings, field visits, and internship sites that have consumed their attention for the past three to four months. It’s icing on the cake that community members, partners, supervisors and staff get to sit in on the knowledge exchange!
This semester’s Community Gathering was proof positive that HECUA students have more in common than they might know. As each group presented to the assembled crowd, we saw common themes and threads abounding, all centered on powerful nouns like, “justice,” “equity,” “testimony,” and “transformation.”
Making Media, Making Change students shared a number of short films created in partnership with local non-profits Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, Spark-Y, and Take Action MN, sites that (not so coincidentally) have hosted internships for HECUA students in Inequality and America and Environmental Sustainability. You can find those films on the SPNN youtube channel: here, here, and here.
A still from a Making Media, Making Change student video, created for Take Action MN.
The Art for Social Change class shared their own “family” video – a slideshow of photos from their semester, that included field visit highlights, collaborative art pieces, and was accompanied by a little baggie of community building shared snacks.
Sharing the Art for Social Change "love of food."
Fittingly, Agriculture and Justice students followed, presenting their take away facts and findings from a semester dedicated to food justice. They shared field visits photos, described the after effects of a three day long farm stay, and made important connections between the environmental justice movement and the intersecting oppressions that it opposes.
Agriculture and Justice students Annalesa and Hallie at York Farm, where they planted thousands of strawberries over the course of their three week farm stay. Photo credit: Annalesa Johnson.
HECUA’s Inequality in America class gave the final presentation, taking audience members on a virtual tour of a “Museum of Inequality.” Fittingly, the intersectionality reference by A + J was masterfully and (if you can believe it) humorously unpacked in this presentation, with three students playing the roles of racism, sexism and classism in a short skit.
Inequality in America student Quincy, representing "sexism." Photo credit: Southside Family School.
Thanks to everyone who attended this semester’s community gathering, and a special thanks to all of the HECUA students who participated. For more information about any of the programs mentioned above, please email us at hecua<@>hecua.org! For more information, including photos and links to videos and stories, please click through to the storify version of the Community Gathering, here.