LEVERETT — Issues of race and class will be at the forefront of discussions taking place when a group of Pioneer Valley residents arrives in South Carolina this week.
Bridge4Unity is the name of the interracial dialogue and cultural exchange project in which 18 residents, from Leverett, Amherst, Holyoke, Springfield, Shelburne Falls and other area communities, travel to Beaufort County, South Carolina.
Sharon Dunn, of Leverett, said the project is modeled after Hands Across the Hills, which began after the 2016 presidential election as a way to heal rifts and better understand the political divide. Hands Across the Hills started when a group of mostly Leverett residents met with 11 people who drove 15 hours from Letcher County in southeastern Kentucky,
A member of Hands Across the Hills, Dunn said participants in Bridge4Unity will participate in dialogues facilitated by Paula Green of Leverett, who is white and the founder of Karuna Center for Peacebuilding in Amherst, and Gloria Graves Holmes, an African-American and professor of social justice based in South Carolina.
“There we will listen to questions of class and race,” Dunn said.
These facilitated dialogues, expected to run three hours on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the trip, will feature the 18 Pioneer Valley residents, about 15 people from South Carolina and an additional four from Letcher County.
The local group is comprised of roughly an equal number of black and white residents, along with two indigenous North Americans, Dunn said. Assembled last fall, these individuals have been meeting in dialogue circles and over potluck meals monthly to plan for the trip.
In additition to the discussions of race, which Green has said may be even more challenging to talk about than politics, the trip will include a tour of Beaufort, a visit to and lunch on an historic plantation, dinner with Beaufort’s Jewish mayor and other cultural sharing, storytelling, poetry and music.
Dunn said one of the highlights will be a visit to the Penn Center on Saint Helena Island, where traditional African roots and folkways have long been preserved. Civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King Jr. got his 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech ready for oration at the Penn Center.
Some of the participants from South Carolina are Gullah, people who are descended from an African-American community, that, by living on isolated barrier islands, managed to maintain some of their traditional African roots and folkways.
In June, the Pioneer Valley group will play host to the South Carolina people and visitors from Kentucky for a similar weekend of dialogue and cultural exchange, including an event that the public will be invited to attend.
Entrepreneur Deborah Snow of Sunderland’s Blue Heron restaurant is co-directing the project with Green.
People can get updates on Bridge4Unity at https://www.facebook.com/B4UProject
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
