History 21 The Podcast - 2.06 Ben Mchie and the McWatt Fellowship

Since stories remain the heart of history, ACHS consistently looks for new avenues of gathering and preserving those that live in Anoka County. In this episode of History 21: The Podcast, you can hear the conversation between Rebecca Desens and Ben Mchie, one of two fellows hired though Legacy funds this spring. Ben underscores the importance of intergenerational storytelling, how strategic conversations can help bring understanding to a community, and the magic of his program called Street Teams.

Hosts Sara Given, ACHS Volunteer Coordinator and Rebecca Ebnet-Desens, ACHS Executive Director.

Ben Mchie

Benjamin Mchie is an educational consultant, historian and founder of African American Registry® (AAREG). Mchie holds a B.A. in Speech Communications from Long Beach State University and is a Roy Wilkins Center for Social Change Fellow at the University of Minnesota (UMN). Mchie is the creator African American Registry’s Teacher’s Forum® subscription service. This online curriculum reform portal is working with E12 teacher’s and post-secondary schools of education teaching programs. Also, AAREG works in the community through its Street Team Youth Programs.

In 2017, Mr. Mchie was Minnesota Governor Dayton’s Martin Luther King Day Lifetime Achievement Award winner and in 2018, he spoke with the UMN Humphrey Institute at the 5th World Conference on Remedies to Racial & Ethnic Economic Inequality in Vitoria, Brazil. In 2019, he compiled tribal traditions for preservation in Mali, Africa. In September 2020 he received the Richard Olden Beard award from the University of Minnesota.

African-American Registry

McWatt Fellowship

The Ramsey County Historical Society, Anoka County Historical Society, Dakota County Historical Society and Hennepin History Museum have partnered to establish the Arthur C. McWatt Fellowship Program.

Arthur C. McWatt (1926-2012) was an African American researcher, writer and educator who taught history and social studies for 33 years. He wrote “Crusaders for Justice” celebrating heroes of the Civil Rights Movement in Minnesota as well several articles for Ramsey County History and Minnesota History magazines.

The partner organizations hired seven fellows to expand their work with African American communities and advance the preservation and presentation of African American history in Minnesota.

Anoka County Library Minute

While the title might suggest this is a book about finding the fountain of youth, it’s actually a compelling argument that all generations would benefit from being more integrated into each other’s lives. The book provides numerous examples of programs that make use of older adults providing assistance to the lives of younger people and vice versa.

Building Communities From the Inside Out: a path toward finding and mobilizing a community’s assets by John Kretzmann and John McKnight (307 KRE)

A practical how-to guide for strengthening communities by utilizing a community’s assets – whether they be individual, institutional, or organizational. From an individual perspective, youth and seniors are defined as potential assets who can be mobilized to worth intergenerationally to create social change.

Get Together: how to build a community with your people by Bailey Richardson, Kevin Huynh, and Kai Elmer Sotto (307 RIC)

The three authors of this book comprise People & Company, an agency that helps organizations build community. Their book is a guide for anyone wanting to build community around something they care about. They stress working with people, not for them. Each chapter closes with short worksheets to help define and meet your own goals.

Minnesota’s Black Community in the 21st Century by Anthony Scott (977.6 MIN)

Published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press, this book features a “who’s who” of influential black figures in the state of Minnesota. These leaders and their contributions span many fields, including entrepreneurship, medicine, education, arts, and more.

Collective Wisdom: lessons, inspiration, and advice from women over 50 by Grace Bonney (305.262 BON)

This is a book highlighting the stories of women who are over the age of 50 and come from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Some stories are individual, while others are intergenerational. The editor highlights the importance of intergenerational community in the first few pages by devoting a full page to a Gloria Steinem quote: “We need to remember across generations that there is as much to learn as there is to teach.”

We Are Each Other’s Harvest: celebrating African American farmers, land, and legacy by Natalie Baszile (630 BAS)

This book is a compilation of many different types of content – essays, poems, photographs, quotes, first-person stories, etc. – that all lend themselves to telling the story of African American farmers throughout history. While the book doesn’t shy away from difficult issues related to racism, it also reflects on the love of land and community, as well as the positive effects of getting to pass down farms (and legacies) to new generations.

This Long Thread: women of color on craft, community, and connection by Jen Hewett (305.488 HEW)

This is a book of interviews from women of color in the crafting community. These interviews explore techniques and materials, belonging, identity, pride of place, cultural misappropriation, privilege, the value (or undervaluing) of craft, community support structures, recognition or exclusion, intergenerational dialogue, and much more.

Tell Me Who You Are: sharing our stories of race, culture, and identity by Winona Guo (305.8 SOW)

In Tell Me Who You Are, the authors present the results of their year-long, cross-country travels asking people from all walks of life to tell them about who they are – about how race, culture, or intersectionality had impacted their lives. The stories and photos of over 150 Americans grace the pages of this book, giving readers an incredibly nuanced look at these issues in the lives of real people.

I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You: a letter to my daughter by David Chariandy (921 CHA)

In a similar vein as Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me, this book is a letter from a father to a child. After experiencing a public display of bigotry while out with his three-year-old, the author decides to write a letter to his now 13-year-old. Taking into account both his personal and ancestral history, he shares his story in the hopes that she will cultivate both a sense of identity and responsibility.

Kanopy:

Available to Anoka County Library cardholders, Kanopy offers a collection of over 30,000 films that you can stream anytime, anywhere on your preferred devices.

“Stages” (1hr 22 mins)

In New York City's oldest community center, a group of older Puerto Rican women and inner-city youth come together to create an original play out of the stories of their lives. Weaving together themes of immigration, identity, aging and coming of age, Stages offers an intimate portrait of an unlikely ensemble, transformed by the liberating power of their own stories-- first as they are spoken across generations, and later when they are performed for a sold-out show.