17: Cultural Organizing in Appalachia: Building Trust, Equity, and Economic Resilience – Part 1

CSCW EP 17: Ben Fink – A Communist Jew from the Northeast – Chapter 1 Threshold Questions and Delicious QuotesWhat defines the work of Appalshop and Performing our Future?The work is creating the conditions, for people in communities to tell their own stories, build their own power, and create their own wealth, and doing it really intensely locally rooted in local traditions and local valuesWhat is the difference between community engagement and working with your neighbor?...What I'll usually say, I come in, I'm supposed to talk to a group about community engagement. First thing you got to know, fuck community engagement. And then they say, oh, what do you mean? Ben now, how do you describe your work if you don't talk about community engagement? I said, "I work with my neighbors". Sometimes my neighbors are across the street. Sometimes my neighbors are across the country. We are neighbors. We are living together and we're going to work together. Does that mean we're all the same? Hell no. What community is composed of all people that are the same.How can working with your neighbor help change a community's story?...that act of making things together and owning what we make. It's so central to the work, because when you make something together, then you are changing that story, because you now have a story of, "we built this we have added to our world in a way that is deeply meaningful of both of us." From that foundation. It is really hard to dehumanize someone.TranscriptSo, where do I start. I think I start by asking your help. by joining in a little song. This may seem crazy on a podcast – but here is the lyric:  We who believe in freedom cannot rest.Before we sing it, please take a moment to ponder what these words mean to YOU, in your life, or in your work, OK here we go. Here is the beat ………and the melody.We who believe in freedom cannot rest. Now you: We who believe in freedom cannot rest.  Again: We who believe in freedom cannot rest.If you actually did sing while listening here … Give yourself a hand.  So, what have we just done: In a little over a minute we have manifested the three human behaviors that many believe have most contributed to survival and proliferation of the human species. They also happen to be three of the THINGS, that artists are particularly good at making happen in the world. So, what are they? First, if we were in a group, what we just did would have captured and focused the attention of those folks. If you are not alone, you may have had that experience just now. Of course, this singing thing is not new. In fact, our singing here, was a reprise of one of the first strategies that our early ancestors used maybe 100,000 years ago to capture and focus the attention of the tribe to support what we now call ----building community, Now next Beyond focusing attention, our singing together also provided a very simple and direct way of connecting our heads and our hearts — inside, individually, and with each other. This visceral, bodily connecting, is no small thing This is because we humans need nudges like these to begin forging the bonds, the trust we all need to join with others outside of our families and kinship circles to work together. There are no cultures that do not sing. Music…. A Wayfaring StrangerAnd finally our singing connected OUR STORIES: if we were singing these words together at the same place and time with others, like the members of the

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