Lessons Learned…
Collaboration 2
How
does it look to hug a city? How should it look? It seems somehow that despair
is derived from a place of painful loss, and from this perspective, our city
has suffered tremendous economic hardship in the loss of jobs due to the loss
of large anchor corporations in fairly recent years. In our economic loss, we
have suffered a severe identity crisis and a crushing blow to our historically defining
independent spirit. Floundering in this place of loss, where violence easily
erupts, we have been swept to our corners in fear. A hug. In brainstorming “a
hug” for this city, we determined it could resemble an identity reaffirmation
through a retelling of our city’s story, our shared story, and a reminder of
the strong common ground upon which we all stand right now. Together. United. A shared story depicting our strong, proud past
for all to hear, remember and claim would be the starting place around which we
would invite neighbors to bring their creativities, ideas, and passions to help
build our large city-wide celebratory hug. We would research and write an
original musical about our city’s story, rehearse it with our students, and
then engage many others in the community to lend their gifts to strengthen our
hug. We had to start somewhere and we determined to start here. To be continued…
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