Posted on by Caitlin Pontrella

Weekly Round-up | Environmental Conservation, Catalytic Mechanisms, Othering, History, and More

May 30 – June 6
Every week I create a round-up of my favorite reads and listens over the last 7 days. Some links go directly to articles and books, others go to my post with notes.

Monday: The Real Origins of Memorial Day

With this past week kicking off with Memorial Day, I ended up diving into history after reading a news article about the American Legion that silenced a veteran from sharing about the black origins of the day. It’s crazy to me that I was never taught this in all of my years of schooling.

Tuesday: Environmental Conservation and Equity

On Tuesday, I had an interview with an organization that had a focus on environmental conservation and education. Typically ahead of interviews I try to prepare by deepening my knowledge of the organizations issue area.

Wednesday: Othering, Group Identity, and Collective Liberation

I stumbled upon The Othering and Belonging Institute on Wednesday. ‘Othering’ is a critical concept to understand when trying to bridge and heal communities. It has come up again and again as I’ve worked to use liberatory-based language and practices and looked for ways to understand and share an understanding of a collective liberation that connects your freedom to mine, and vise versa.

  • Article: The Problem of Othering: Towards Inclusiveness and Belonging By Powell and Menendian→
    This is a long read, but well worth the time.
    “The problem of the twenty-first century is the problem of “othering.” In a world beset by seemingly intractable and overwhelming challenges, virtually every global, national, and regional conflict is wrapped within or organized around one or more dimension of group-based difference. Othering undergirds territorial disputes, sectarian violence, military conflict, the spread of disease, hunger and food insecurity, and even climate change.”
  • Article: Us vs. Them: The process of othering By Clint Curle | Candian Museum for Human Rights→
    “People are different. We can use our differences as an opportunity to share and learn or we can use our differences as an excuse to build walls between us. When we highlight differences between groups of people to increase suspicion of them, to insult them or to exclude them, we are going down a path known as “othering.”
  • Video: Let them Drown – The Violence of Othering in a Warming World, Naomi Klein→
  • Podcast: White v White | Invisibilia Podcast→
    “A city council candidate says he’s black. But his opponent accuses him of being a white man pretending to be black. If race is simply a social construct and not a biological reality, how do we determine someone’s race? And who gets to decide? We tell the story of a man whose racial identity was fiercely contested… and the consequences this had on an entire city.”

Thursday: Big Hairy Audacious Goals and Catalytic Mechanisms

The highlight of Thursday was working with members of the Board of Directors of Parkour Visions to prepare and conduct an annual evaluation. In this conversation we discussed what it meant to measure success, and mused on the potential future of the organization. After our meeting, one board member, Jason, sent me a book that he had found useful over the years–which, turns out, was from the same author of From Good to Great. It was a nice reminder as well to revisit the BHAGs I have for my organizations and personal life.

Friday Night: History of New York City Night-Life

Friday night was focused on fun. I accidentally dove down a rabbit hole of NYC nightlife history. Truly, the 70s, 80s, 90s were a fascinating time to live in the city and these stories captured the life and death of a cultural movement that had far reaching impact.

Weekend Reads: History and Mutual Aid

I finally picked up the next set of books on my list, which include Hood Feminism, Stamped from the Beginning, and The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee, as well as the two I plowed through below. I’ve always had a keen interest and passion for history, especially works that challenge and dismantle the white, western-centric stories I was told as a kid.

So much of our understanding of reality, and our interactions with other people, is shaped by our known version of history.

Still in Progress…

I’ve been slowly making progress on these below, and will log them with my notes once I finish (Hopefully this week?)