Common ground and cultural blender

I'VE HEARD neighborhood activists many times talk about their community work as a search for "common ground." Recently, I read an essay which takes that idea one step further, suggesting that community-building requires not only seeking, but also "cultivating" common ground.

Gardening is a wonderful metaphor for working together. In a garden, there is a kind of equality among participants. And there is a great sense of collaboration when all are planting and weeding together.

That collaboration reaches its peak at harvest. That's the time when gardeners share their produce, trading tomatoes and jalapenos, cantaloupe and kohlrabi. You might think of this trading as a giant cultural blender.

Gardens are just one place where this blender is whirring. If you look closely, you can find this find the mixing and remixing going on all over the place.

In Minneapolis, I lived next to a Middle Eastern restaurant which specialized in gyros. But the restaurant also offered bratwurst. Down the street a Chinese restaurant proudly displayed a sign reading: Se Habla Espanol.

The recent emergence of Day of the Dead celebrations around the Midwest offers a very great example of this cultural blending. The event itself is a blend of influences which have been mixing for centuries. The festival has been a tradition in Mexico and parts of the southwest US for years. Now, it's also celebrated in cities all over the US, including Minneapolis and Iowa City.

One part of the festival is building ofrendas, small memorial altars which pay tribute to those who have died. In the past, these ofrendas have usually been tributes to family members. But in Minneapolis, I saw a public display of ofrendas which included not only family members, but also shrines to Tupac, Martin Luther King and Princess Diana.

Iowa City's Day of the Dead celebration shows another way this cultural blending is at work. In that city, it is a very multicultural group which has shaped Day of the Dead into a major celebration each November.

There is a liveliness in the mixing. New traditions are shaped by this blender.

But there are times where there is strong resistance to this blending. Columbus Day festivals are one example. In a number of communities, these have become defiant tributes to a past that never was.

Many colleges and universities have had a hard time responding to this diversity. They have been quite willing to allow this cultural blender to operate around the edges, in such events as Diversity Day and Black History Month commemorations.

But have been less willing to allow the blender to broaden and strengthen the range of voices within academic departments. The best example of this has been the ongoing struggle to add African-American, Chicano and Native American voices to university departments. Women's voices, too, are often left out.

This is not a new problem, of course. Jane Addams wrote about this a century ago. She said universities have too often disconnected themselves from the real world outside the academy.

Hull House, the settlement she and others founded in 1889, was in part a response to this disconnection. Then, as now, many voices were excluded from the universities and museums. One response of Addams was to invite a broad range of people to speak and teach at Hull House. It was an early example of college extension classes. Another example: Major museums excluded the art and culture of many immigrant groups. So Hull House opened a museum to give those artists a place.

These and other Hull House initiatives are great examples of cultivating common ground and encouraging the work of the cultural blender. They are also models we can adapt for our time.

Ideas for building community

DOWN THE hall from a classroom where I am teaching this semester is a poster which lists 100 ideas under the heading "How to build community." Seeing that poster has gotten me thinking about additional ways to sustain and renew the communities in which we live. I came up with seven ideas:

1. Walk around your block.
A long time ago, I had a neighbor who would walk around the block almost every
evening around 10 pm. She and her husband -- and their two dogs -- would circle
the block. That's how they got to know the comings and goings of everyone. We
called her "the mayor" of the block because of this accumulated knowledge. Now,
as the weather starts to warm up, is a great time to start doing this on your
block.

2. Shop at locally-owned stores. These are the businesses which add stability and personality to our community. All over town there are delightful businesses waiting to be discovered. Take an afternoon to explore what's out there.

3. Do something with your block. It could be as simple as planning a similar seasonal decoration for every door. Or it could be as elaborate as organizing a progressive dinner.

4. Introduce yourself to a new neighbor. Invite them over to see you or take them out for coffee. You might even
consider reviving the almost lost art of welcoming them with a hot dish or dessert.

5. Ride the bus. If you drive your car all the time, you're missing a slice of our town. A bus ride -- even on a free downtown shuttle -- will introduce you to people you would otherwise never meet. Don't have bus service in your community? Consider taking on the assignment to change that.

6. Acknowledge young people. When I talk with young people, they often ask me why adults move away from them at street corners and bus stops. There's a gap there which you can help bridge. Young people want to be recognized, so take a moment to say hi the next time you pass a teenager.

7. Go to the park. There's nothing like a stroll through one of the city parks to restore one's sanity. Every community has at least one. Many have several -- one for whatever mood you might be in.

I'm sure you have many other ideas for building community. Send them along.

Coffeeshop is part of legacy of Jane Addams

Customers of Wild Bill's and other community coffeeshops are often surprised to
learn that Jane Addams imagined places like these as social work settings.
Actually, it was one of her earliest innovations at Hull House.

The settlement house opened its doors on Halsted Street in Chicago in 1889. The coffeehouse opened a few years later. It was to be a community gathering place, Addams said, where all would be welcome. The coffeehouse was both an informal drop-in place as well as the sponsor of a host of programs, including theater, music, lectures and debates.

By 1895, the coffeehouse experience was in print. It was included in one of the chapters which make up Hull House Maps and Papers. In 1910, Addams included the coffeehouse in her best-known book, Hull House Maps and Papers.

The coffeehouse idea was just one of a host of remarkable ideasfrom Addams and the women of Hull House. They also started a day care center for working mothers, a health clinic, a branch library and a public playground. All of these were innovations when they began a century ago -- new institutions which responded to specific community needs.

Addams and the women of Hull House were also involved in forming a host of community organizations. Among the best-known: NAACP, NASW, PTA, AAUW, American Civil Liberties Union and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. They also helped organize labor unions and cooperatives.

RESEARCH IS PART OF THE LEGACY OF ADDAMS, TOO

Little-known today is that all this activity was supported by an extraordinary amount of research. From the earliest days of Hull House, Addams and her colleagues were conducting research. Their first book, Hull House Maps and Papers, is a detailed study of their neighborhood including both quantitative and qualitative research. There were many other published studies by Addams and her sister social researchers, from Safeguards for City Youths (1914) to Tenements of Chicago (1936). All of this "left a legacy that formed a basis for sociology as a way of thinking, an area of study and a methodological approach to data collecting," writes Lawrence Neuman in a new edition of a textbook called Social Research methods published last year.

But Neuman's acknowledgement of the legacy of research by Addams and the other women of Hull House is one of the few one will find in academic circles. Whether one looks in social work, sociology or urban studies, one will find little about these feminist scholars.

David Sibley confirms this in an academic essay: "Virtually all texts in urban geography and urban sociology...present the same history of the subject. In this conventional account, urban studies began in Chicago in the school of sociology about 1910...In fact, there were other authors...analyzing urban problems at the same time and in the same place...These largely forgotten authors were nearly all women."

SEXISM HAS KEPT THIS LEGACY OUT OF HIGHER EDUCATION

Why haven't Addams and other women scholars of Hull House received credit for their research? Blatant sexism is the most important factor, according to a number of writers.

Mary Jo Deegan reaches this conclusion in her book called Jane Addams and the Men of the Chicago School. "Despite her [Addams] vision and contributions...her authorship ...has been obliterated from the annals of the discipline and many of her ideas were only selectively used and distorted."

David Sibley agrees, offering two quotes from male social scientists to illustrate their sexists attitudes. One referred to the women of Hull House as "the old maids downtown who were wet-nursing social reformers." A second claimed that "the greatest damage done to the city of Chicago was not the product of corrupt politicians or criminals but the women reformers."

Neuman, writing in the research text, says Addams was the target of gender bias on the part of higher education and as a result was "unable to secure regular work in universities."

Dispatch from Bill's

Czarina Gregorio, a high school student at the University of Iowa for a journalism workshop, was inspired to write an essay about Bill's Coffeeshop. Here's an excerpt:

Wild Bill's Coffeeshop is approaching its 30th year and has lost neither its original spirit nor legendary ambiance.

Nestled into a quiet corner of North Hall sits the coffee shop where antiques are lined up against the wall for sale. On top of the tables reside Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head. The freezer, christened Al, offers frozen foods to distract from the summer heat.

A makeshift clothesline dominates the space between two walls where decorated CDs are hung as pieces of artwork, done by random visitors who pop in and out of the shop. Coloring paraphernalia in the form of markers, crayons, and even the occasional bottle of nail polish litter the tabletops. Random neckties are showcased above the booths, hung by a piece of string suspended on two walls. Various knickknacks are displayed for sale in shelves lining the walls of the shop....

Have you been to the Hard Times Cafe?

WILD BILL'S Coffeeshop in Iowa City may be the only coffee shop inside a school of socialwork. But it's not the only place which mixes coffee and social work in the same place. If you travel around the US, you can find other oases like this one in a number of cities.

In Minneapolis, the Hard Times Cafe is such a place. This worker-owned restaurant has combined coffee and social work since 1992.

Larry Hartigan was a founder of the cafe, which is owned collectively by 12 people, most in their 20s. In fact, the Hard Times takes its name from Hartigan -- who was known by the nickname Hard Times.

Larry will eagerly tell you stories of the cafe and its evolution into a community and social service center. He sounds like one of social work's pioneers as he explains that the Hard Times has been envisioned from the beginning as a place where all are welcome and safe.

Larry describes a process of discovery for employees as they have tried to shape a cafe open to all -- including individuals who are "in crisis." As he talks, one is reminded of Jane Addams describing her work in Twenty Years at Hull House.

Direct social work at the Hard Times now includes:

***Leftover food is distributed to hungry people in the neighborhood. (A nearby bakery and other restaurants help supply this service.)

***Individuals who are unable to pay for a meal may work a "shift" in exchange for food.

***A free "clothes closet" is maintained in a corner of the dining room

***Street Works, an organization which work with homeless youth, holds regular hours at the Hard Times.

***Several people who work at the Hard Times also volunteer at community agencies like Project Offstreets.

The Hard Times also offers an oasis for those seeking basic human relationships, Its doors are open nearly 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The cafe's welcome includes everyone -- including those who are at society's edges and have few other places to go. This, too, is part of social work.

In a talk to social workers, Ernesto Galarza, Chicano scholar and activist, called on the social work profession to play a bigger role in cultivating places where people can experience a sense of community. Every person, even individuals with mental illness, chronic illness or otherwise "severely damaged" should have a chance to "take part in some type of social relationships." he said.

The Hard Times offers a good example of how this could be done. Each time I go back to Minneapolis, it is one of the places I stop to be re-inspired about the potential for serving coffee and social work together.

If you're ever in Minneapolis, drop by 1821 Riverside (near the University of Minnesota) and see this remarkable example of social work practice. Introduce yourself and tell them OT told you about the place. (OT is for Other Tom -- to distinguish me from my son Tom.)

Wisdom of the coffeeshop

Wild Bill's Coffeeshop is based on an idea as old as social work. Theprofession began a century ago -- largely around the idea that "all livesare connected to other lives" (Konopka, 1991, p. 29)

Jane Addams, one of social works founding mothers, called for an
integrated practice which acted out this principle of connection. She said social work should be committed to strengthening neighborhoods as well as strengthening individuals.

Addams and Florence Kelley started Hull House as a model to do this. Their idea was based on social work as "having a holistic rather than specialization approach, advocating for social reform while giving
services, bridging groups and classes of people," writes Rolland F. Smith.
It also included "having an orientation to family and neighborhood strengths rather than to individual pathologies" (1995, p. 2130).

Addams idea of social work was a fairly radical notion when Hull House opened in 1889. It's at least as radical today in a society which is based on many ways around an exaggerated notion of individualism. Modern American society has been built around segmenting the lives of people.

First, there is the separation between work and home. This is heightened by the increasing distances between one and the other.

Then there is the separation at work, where many jobs have become very specialized. From construction to social work, from education to manufacturing, jobs have been shifting away from generalist and towards specialist for at least the last century (Cox, 1965).

Finally, there is the growing separation of neighborhoods by income. The growth of the suburbs (and the urban renewal of the cities) during the
last 50 years has fueled this, resulting in isolation by income for so
many families and individuals (Powell, 1998).

Even at the beginning of the 20th century, Addams saw this separation among people and neighborhoods. "The social organism has broken down through large districts of our great cities," she wrote (1965, p. 31).

Addams and the other women of Hull House tested many ideas for overcoming this separation and breakdown. The coffeehouse was among them, along with co-ops, labor unions, and community theater. These were approaches which, in the words of Cindy St. George, "accommodate individual and communityinterests under one common framework" (1997, p. 6).

Jane Addams envisioned the coffeehouse as a place where people could experience a sense of belonging and a sense of community. Everyone needs this, Ernesto Galarza said in a talk about social work education. Every person, even individuals with mental illness, chronic alcoholism or
otherwise "severely damaged" should have the chance to "take part in some
type of social relationships" (1993, p. 17).

-------------

Addams, Jane (1965) In Social Thought of Jane Addams. Edited by Christopher Lasch Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co.

Cox, Harvey (1965). Secular City. New York: Macmillan.

Galarza, Ernesto (1993). Social work education and the Chicano experience.
San Jose Studies, 23 (Winter), 9-18.

Konopka, Gisela (1991). All lives are connected to other lives: The meaning of social group work. In Theory and Practice in Group Work. New York: Haworth Press.

Powell, John A (1998). Overcoming the social engineering of the suburbs,
Works: The Journal of the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (University of Minnesota, Twin Cities). 1 (2), 29-30.

St. George, Cindy (1997). Mission of social work revisited. St. Paul, Minnesota: School of Social Work, College of St. Catherine/University of St. Thomas.

Smith, Rolland F (1995). Settlement houses and neighborhood centers. In Encyclopedia of Social Work. Washington, DC: NASW Press.

Spirit and wisdom guide coffeeshop now

It's this wisdom -- and the spirit of Bill -- which has guided Wild Bill's Coffeeshop in Iowa City for more than 30 years. Two recent volunteers reflected on how well the coffeeshop does this in papers they wrote. "Wild Bill's is a great place to spend an afternoon doing homework, meeting a friend, stopping by to talk to one of the regulars, sharing a conversation or joke and replenishing your soul," wrote Lauren Harris. "Everyone who walked in was treated with the same respect and courtesy," wrote Ana Ramos.