November 2024 Dear ²ÊÃñ±¦µä Community & Supporters of the CHA, Last week the CHA was honored to host a delegation from Germany, who were visiting Boulder through the US State Department. They asked to meet with the CHA through the Boulder Council for International Visitors () after hearing about our work on .
For over two hours, we discussed political extremism, democracy around the world, especially in the United States, and the power of the humanities and arts in creating space to have conversations with people who may not always agree or see eye to eye on controversial subjects. When asked by a German visitor about what I would do if democracy were to fail in the United States, I paused and then shared that I would hope to stay naïve. I explained that as cynical as I often am about the myriad social and political problems we are faced with, I hope that I stay naïve about the ability to talk to others across different divides as a means of centering and staying focused on our shared humanity.
When we forget that we’re speaking to another human being—when we deny the humanity of those we disagree with—it is easy to demonize them and to see them not as a fully enfranchised being but as someone to be exterminated.
It’s not lost on me that we are sending out this newsletter on Monday, November 4. I know there is so much to feel anxious about in the world. But to paraphrase one of our external Community Board Members, , if you can’t talk about a problem, then you can’t fix it.
The CHA has not shied away from delving into topical issues that may be controversial or provocative. To that end, we are hosting a book club where we will gather people to read professor and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates’ ( 2024), a three-chapter book addressed to his writing students at Howard University about a trip he makes to Senegal (Chapter One), visiting a teacher in South Carolina who is being challenged by school board members for teaching his book Between the World and Me (Chapter Two), and his ruminations on Palestine and Israel after participating in the 2023 Palestine Festival of Literature Ìý(Chapter Three). We are finalizing our list of co-sponsors and collaborators, but we have that members of the ²ÊÃñ±¦µä community can fill out if they want to receive a free copy of the book and join in a discussion of Coates’s , which we believe is a necessary read to address pressing issues of race, place, and belonging, in the US and abroad [NOTE: you will need to to access ]. We are also considering creating a google form for non-²ÊÃñ±¦µä community members to join us in conversation about The Message—so stay tuned for an update in the December newsletter. And if you are interested in being a discussion leader, please write to us at CU-CHA@colorado.edu.
Finally, because I suspect many of you, like me, may be feeling out of sorts right now, I’ll share that breathing and looking at nature helps me. So does this video by a guy called Matt where he went around the world . I think I watched this on repeat in early November 2016.
Sincerely,
Ìý
Jennifer Ho
Director, Center for Humanities & the Arts
PS. Two other highlights in this newsletter: We are so happy to welcome our temporary program manager, Adele Potter—you can see her interview below. And we are once again conducting a for graduate students working in arts and humanities – please with any graduate students you know working in arts and humanities at ²ÊÃñ±¦µä. |
