Carlton Mackey attends ROOTS Fest 2011

Carlton Mackey, the Chair of the Ethics & the Arts Initiative at the Emory Center for Ethics, recently returned from Art, Culture & Creativity: a National Learning Exchange as part of Roots Fest 2011 hosted by Alternate ROOTS in Baltimore, MD. Alternate Roots is a 35 year old, artist-driven, 14-state-and-Washington, DC, regional arts service organization based in Atlanta. 

Mural in West Baltimore along side Highway to Nowhere

As stated on the website, the National Learning Exchange is a holistic and ‘community-oriented’ process in developing a ‘shared road map’ of creating resilient local and national communities. This year's Learning Exchange was followed by an arts festival featuring dozens of performances including internationally recognized performers such as Talib Kweli, Anthony David, and Chuck Brown.  The festival covered fifty-two acres of the ‘Highway to Nowhere’ in West Baltimore, "a governmental highway construction project that displaced 19000 people before coming to a dead end after 1.5 miles".  Construction of the highway was halted due to public protest in the 70’s. The abandoned highway also put a halt to progress in the surrounding neighborhoods. 

Cultureworks, the co-facilitator for the exchange, represents the local grassroots work in Baltimore bridging communities torn apart by the highway through art and creative projects. The Roots Fest inspires ‘everyday people’ to cultivate the types of values needed to create healthy communities nationally through the exploration of art, dialogue and culture.

 

Performance of Last House Standing by Sheila Gaskins

The National Learning Exchange brought together several hundred artists, administrators and activists for a series of presentations, workshops, and performances. The approach was holistic as the days were themed ‘healing,’ ‘intergenerational leadership,’ and ‘sustainability,’ respectively. It was a forum for generating dialogue, sharing ideas and collaborating locally and nationally. 

Carlton began with a bus tour of the area guided by Denise Johnson of CultureWorks. As Carlton got to know the neighborhood and returned to the Exchange, convening at a local high school, the impact of the location became apparent. Carlton comments that the purpose of the Exchange wasn’t to “solve anything, but to learn about the history, needs, challenges, and problems of specific communities.” Alternative ROOTS, in turn re-invigorates the national conversation about the responsibility that artists have towards building community and addressing social justice issues. Art is therefore a vehicle for positive social change.  Carlton joins the conversation in his reflection that, “It was the people, and what they were doing that mattered.” He now has, “new ideas and ways to make the Ethics in the Arts Initiative better, more concretely routed in the ongoing work of social justice with a pool of people to carry it out.” West Baltimore proves that clearly there is a need for creative ways to address social justice issues across the country. Alternative Roots asks who will address that need if not the arts community?

 
The President's Commission on Race and Ethnicity (PCORE) awarded Carlton a grant to assist with the cost of attending this conference.  The President's Commission on Race and Ethnicity (PCORE) and the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs (EOP) assist professional staff and junior faculty of color with career development by providing grants to help cover the costs to attend professional conferences or training. The Professional Development Fund (PDF) began in 1982 as the Minority Faculty Conference.

-Contributed by Cate Powel

Join the conversation:
1. What is it about art that allows for innovative responses to social justice issues?

Edward Queen Responds to Controversy Facing Local Atlanta Missing Children's Charity

Dr. Edward Queen, Director of the Ethics and Servant Leadership Program and Undergraduate Studies at the Emory Center for Ethics, was recently interviewed in the Chanel 2 Action News investigative report:  Local Missing Kids Charity Spends Little to Find Kids by Aaron Diamant. The report uncovered the tax return and financial information of the Committee for Missing Children  based out of Lawrenceville, GA. Their taxes showed that only 14% of donations were used for programs, while the rest was used for fundraising through telemarketing. Another financial controversy that arose was that although the organization was losing money, the salaries of the directors has remained high. The response of David Thelen, the director of the organization, was that he felt guilty for using most of the donation dollars to generate more donations. He also claims that it is the only option that will keep the organization alive.

This investigation can serve as an effective case study in thinking about the broader issues that it points to. Non-profit organizations are faced with a cycle of searching for donation dollars and struggling to keep their organizations alive. When faced with economic downturns, for profit and non-profit organizations alike are forced to be resourceful with marketing and sustainability.  Dr. Queen suggests that donors would be "appalled" to hear the truth about the allocation of their dollars.  Although Committee for Missing Children has been relatively successful in rescuing around 1,200 missing children, their success is marred by their sketchy financial records and dependency on telemarketing. The score they have been granted by Charity Navigator, a non-profit watch dog and evaluation system, is zero.

Join the Conversation:
What are some better/more transparent options for fund-raising available to Committee for Missing Children?
Can the means of spending so much on telemarketing to raise funds justify the ends of 1,200 children saved?

-Contributed by Cate Powell

The Second Emory Conference on Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding 2011

"Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding 2007 Summit with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Interfaith Panel, Emory University

“Local Peacebuilding and Religion: Context, Practices, and Models.”

  June 17-19th, 2011
Emory Conference Center Hotel
1615 Clifton Road
Atlanta, GA 30329


For Conference details, schedule, and registration, visit:
www.ircp.emory.edu/2011 

This year’s Conference will build upon the more theoretical tone of the 2007 Summit with the Dalai Lama, to focus more concretely upon application and praxis within specific local and global contexts.  We are pleased to host international as well as presenters from the United States, and welcome you to register for a timely, necessary, and dynamic weekend.

Invited Speakers:

• Dr. Karin Bedi (Keynote) – World Renowned Indian Justice Reform Activist
• Madame Betty Bigombe – Peace Negotiator and Former Parliament Member of Uganda  
• Dr. Yehuda Stolov – Executive Director, Interfaith Encounter Association, Jerusalem, Israel
• Madam Malinda B. Joss. – Executive Director of the Women and Children Development Association of Liberia
• Madam Moma Tumeh Sieh  – Leader of Traditional Women for Peace and Carter Center Affiliate in Liberia
• Rev. Dr. Bernard Lafayette Jr. – Distinguished Senior Scholar in Residence, Emory University, Renowned Civil Rights Activist and authority / practitioner / trainer in Kingian Nonviolent Social Change
• Mr. Douglas Shipman – Chief Executive Officer for the Center for Civil and Human Rights, Atlanta, GA 

Kiran Bedi was India’s first and highest (woman) ranking officer who joined the Indian Police Service in 1972.

Mama Tumeh, leader of the country-wide Traditional Women for Peace TWUP – a Carter Center partner –is regarded as the spiritual leader of women throughout Liberia.

  

Co-Sponsor: The Institute for Developing Nations (IDN), Emory University

 

Reflections on the Paideia School 8th Grade Class Homelessness Immersion Experience

Above: 8th Grade Students from The Paideia School in Freedom Park - Atlanta, GA.  Below: Still from the documentary film, 17 Degrees Ain't Nothing by Carlton Mackey and Dane Jefferson.  Images by Carlton Mackey.

Contributing writer Cate Powell has completed study programs in Religion, Conflict Resolution, and International Affairs, traveled to 28 countries, and worked with a number of non-profit organizations. She will contributing to various projects for the Emory Center for Ethics this summer.

            Last week, a group of eighth grade students from the Paideia School in Atlanta spent five days on the streets. The project, initiated and led by science teacher Elizabeth Hearn, was meant to have students learn via real life experience. Students were given $4 and a blanket. They spent their nights sleeping in various parks and days walking up to twelve miles volunteering at homeless shelters and interviewing homeless people. Carlton Mackey of the Emory Center for Ethics was invited by Ms. Hearn to help facilitate their learning experience.

            The project has been featured by Fox Five news in a report by Tacoma Perry as well as in an Atlanta Business Chronicle blog post by Jack Hardin. These publications highlight some of the difficulties the students faced, including sore feet and lack of sleep. They also represent some of the students’ voices in describing how they better understood the unique situation of each homeless individual. The students reported that they are now more inclined to engage in social work because they feel that it can be effective. Carlton of the Center for Ethics was called upon to bridge various issues. He accomplished this by having students contemplate the emotional affects of their experience.

            

Students Experience Plight of Homeless: MyFoxATLANTA.com

Carlton met with the students last Wednesday morning while they were just waking up in Freedom Park as well as this past Monday at Paideia School after the program was over. On both occasions, he led thought provoking exercises that invoked the students’ emotions, memories, and expression. To create this type of learning environment, he posed ethical questions to the students. On Wednesday, he charged the students to think about their support networks, the home they would return to, and how they would most likely never have the same experiences of many homeless people. On Monday, he asked the students to meditate on memory triggers. Their reflections were expressed as poems, narrative descriptions, as well as sketches. Creating art was a bridge that connected their experiences to their feelings and ability to communicate. Building upon the concept that all art requires courage, this exercise reflected the courage that it took to sleep on the street and the courage that it takes to transform emotions into calls to action. Through art, Carlton was cultivating the power of emotion, memory and expression as a “vehicle for social change.”

            A project that addresses homelessness and involves adolescents putting themselves in potential danger is bound to be controversial. The dialogue, though heated at times, has been going strong on the previously mentioned blogs. The controversy is productive, however, in that it sheds light on some very critical issues that relate homelessness to our everyday lives, ethics, and community engagement. 

Join the Conversation

Is it the role of education to instill a sense of moral action in the student?

Is it possible that our stereotypes about homeless people perpetuate homelessness itself?

Assisted suicide advocate - Kevorkian's death marks end of an era

AP - Feb. 6: 1991: Physician assisted-suicide advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian poses with his 'suicide machine' in Michigan

Today’s announcement of the death of Jack Kevorkian marks the end of an era. Don’t get me wrong; I do not agree with Kevorkian’s tactics, and think that many of his actions over the years were simply self-aggrandizing, rather than altruistic attempts to further his cause. But Kevorkian’s antics were helpful in terms of consciousness-raising about the issues of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in America. In a deliberate way, Kevorkian challenged the public to consider what constitutes a life worth living and how we ought to die well. He challenged us to consider not just the abstract notion of suffering, but also the daily struggles experienced by many with debilitating, progressive, degenerative illness. Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that there is strong public support for individual choice about the “right to die,” including the moral right to end one’s own life in some circumstances. Yet for many years, public policy did not reflect the will of the people. Not until 1994  -- five years before Kevorkian’s conviction for second degree murder in the death of Thomas Youk, which he videotaped and showed on the CBS News Program 60 Minutes -- was the first ballot referendum successful in Oregon (and it was another 4 years before its implementation, thanks to a requirement to reaffirm the public’s commitment to this policy). Washington legalized physician-assisted suicide in 2009,  and similar bills have been introduced in at least 10 other states (Death with Dignity).

Kevorkian’s persistent attention to the issue of human suffering challenged the American public to consider the values that ground our approach to health care and the policies that support them. Certainly, we cannot credit Kevorkian with all of this work, but he clearly served as the catalyst for the national discussion about the issue of physician-assisted suicide. Rest in peace, Dr. Kevorkian.

  
 Toby L. Schonfeld, Ph.D., is the Director of the Master of Bioethics Program at the Center for Ethics.  Dr. Schonfeld is also Associate Professor of Medicine at the Emory University School of Medicine.