Center Church encourages students to engage with the local South Hadley community. Photo by Xinran Li '23.
By Norah Tafuri ’25
Staff Writer
Center Church believes that a community can be strengthened when it knows its roots, and its congregates aim to put this into action by spotlighting lesser-known histories. With the research, insight and curative expertise of Curator Janine Fondon, Exhibit Scholar Dr. Demetria Shabazz and Exhibit Scholar and Researcher Dr. Lucie K. Lewis, the exhibition “Voices of Resilience: The Intersection of Women on the Move” spotlights the “hidden figures” who have given shape to Western Massachusetts.
The exhibition is a multimedia presentation accompanied by additions from local artisans and “wood sculptures, batik prints, an oil painting and fabric, all made by local young artists and artisans of Accra, Sekondi, Takoradi and Cape Coast, Ghana,” as described by a press release.
It is an engaging historical and contemporary narrative designed to portray the critical and underrepresented role of women of color in the stories that have laid the building blocks of these communities. Likewise, the exhibition is meant to pose as a celebration to commemorate the impact of one generation onto the next and provoke a more informed historical perspective in its observers.
As is further described in promotional materials, “The women profiled in the exhibit include historical figures such as Elizabeth Freeman of Stockbridge, the first enslaved African American to sue and win her freedom in Massachusetts in 1781; and Lucy Stone, abolitionist and suffragette who worked to pass the 13th Amendment and end slavery.”
Such panels will also discuss the lives of the curators’ ancestors in order to punctuate the value of understanding familial bonds and recollecting forgotten histories. One story shared at the event is that of Fondon’s own grandmother and trailblazer, Miriam Kirkaldy, who came to America via Ellis Island in 1917 from Jamaica, West Indies. This was a fact unbeknown to her descendents “until the Ellis Island folks came knocking on the door,” Fondon said in an interview with Mount Holyoke News.
The display will be open until Oct. 15, and visitors are welcome Saturday 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and Wednesday 4-7 p.m. or by appointment, free of charge. Group visits are encouraged, and inquiries and reservations can be made at voicescenterchurch@gmail.com.
This will be the first event of its kind held in Center Church. One member of the congregation, Anita Sarro, explained that “faith isn’t something that happens for an hour on Sunday. And then you leave it behind and you go on in your life. You know, those values that you profess to have, really [have] to inform what else you do as an individual and as a faith community.”
She remarked that George Floyd’s murder was the turning point in their community. “Nationwide there were vigils in support of him and mourning his death and calling for accountability,” Sarro said. She recalled thinking, “‘This is really good, but this can’t stop.’ So that led to weekly vigils for racial justice [at Center Church].”
14 years ago, Mount Holyoke alum Reverend Lori Souder ’80 felt a calling to return to South Hadley. “I wanted to be a positive influence in the town for the children and for the adults, so that we can expand and not … be as insular,” Souder said.
As a leader of the congregation, she supports the ongoing effort to open their doors more widely and utilize their space more actively in order to seek justice and provide protection for community members. “[Our role is to reach] out into the community and [listen] to their needs … [and see] how we could meet their needs.”
Over time, some members of the congregation began to reflect on what further action they could take and assess the physical resources in their possession that could be temporarily devoted to their cause. “I’m leaning toward art and music, to lead us to truth,” Souder said. In keeping with that investment, Souder and Sarro began planning to hold Black, Indigenous and people of color’s stories and art in the open space in their church. This decision began the search which eventually carried them to the curative work of Fondon.
In a profile by Unbound Visual Arts, Fondon was described to have been “Nationally … referenced in top business publications such as Forbes, Black Enterprise, Entrepreneur Magazine, Boston Business Journal and The Boston Globe. On a regional level, she has been featured in several area publications such as the Worcester Business Journal, BusinessWest, MassLive and The Republican.”
As an entrepreneur, she has engaged in various endeavors, but her central passion is communication. “For me, there’s nothing more powerful than the art of storytelling. There’s nothing more impactful than research that has not come to the surface,” Fondon said. “So when you mix those two things, this project really becomes magical, because we are able to see things we might not have known ever existed.”
Fondon believes it’s important to understand the history of where people have come from. She noted that to be an astute student of history, a person must not only recognize whose shoulders they are standing on, but anticipate who might be standing on theirs.
“We must learn what's beneath our feet and above our shoulders, and if we can do that, we will find the heart of the matters that drive inclusion.” Fondon explained that history and space are not stagnant, and to be fully informed participants, people need to pay respect to those who occupied the places they call home and to honor their direct ancestors who came before.
“We hope that anyone who really goes through and looks at it will begin to see us and see the women and see their communities differently,” Fondon said. “There are women with stories from their own community, some that look like them, and some that don’t, and most people will probably say, ‘I didn’t know.’ I want people to get to know there are a lot of women who have made a lot of [sacrifices] sitting in their own community.”
While this is the first event of its kind at Center Church, it will not be the last. Sarro and Souder hope that this is the beginning of a deeper relationship with advocacy work. Additionally, they hope that there may be more collaboration between the College and the church moving forward.
“I know that college experience can be very insular … but a college exists within a community. … I think students and faculty can look to Center Church as a resource [and] as a partner,” Sarro said. “To be around people who are actively in the learning process [is] fun. … I think there’s a potential for synergy. … That would be a shame to continue to ignore.” Therein, Sarro described a desire to seek to resolve the gap between Mount Holyoke students and the community of South Hadley.
Souder reflected back on her own days at Mount Holyoke. “I used to run three to five miles a day … around the back roads, but I still felt I was living in the country of Mount Holyoke and South Hadley was far away. It was so easy to become isolated, so easy to get wrapped up in the ivory tower, and [it wasn’t] until I returned to South Hadley as an adult that I realized there's a lot of people here hurting, they need the College, the College needs them. There [are] ways we could interact with great compassion.”
In recognition of this hurt that she sees in South Hadley, Souder wonders how to draw more students in to be an active participant in the community, to understand their expectations of the faith community and encourage them to use their own resources in the people’s cause as Center Church has.
In assessment of the powerful women on display and understanding yourself as you move through history, Fondon advised, “Be your own voice and respect the [voices] of others. It’s so important. … Everybody will have a role to play.”
In the hope to achieve unity of understanding and action, Souder and Sarro are eager for Mount Holyoke students to visit “Voices of Resilience: The Intersection of Women on the Move” as they await their answer to the church’s call for grit and meaningful engagement in South Hadley. After all, it’s only down the road.