From the Farmhouse Table: August 2023
Open the Door Wider
I’ve been thinking a lot about my father lately.
He was a corporate executive, a gardener, a hobbyist photographer, and a philanthropist. After he died in 2010, my sister sent me his collection of 40-odd photo albums. For 13 years, I wasn’t ready to look inside. I cracked a few of the albums open this week -- and was surprised and delighted. There were images I have long treasured and ones I didn’t recognize, pictures of places familiar and long forgotten, and snapshots of generations of family members and family friends at meals and celebrations and on holidays and vacations.
There was a reason I’ve begun to tackle the long-delayed chore of reducing 10 boxes of photo albums to something more manageable. My dad was one of the first Black salesmen at IBM. When he retired, he started a nonprofit foundation to give C+ students a shot at higher education. He believed that once inside any formerly closed door, we were obliged to build community and open the door wider for those to follow. He’s been on my mind because I did something recently that I think would have made him smile: In June, I invited three executive directors of literary organizations -- all Black women, all new to the role since 2021 -- to spend a few days at Hedgebrook. Together, Samiya Bashir, of Lambda Literary, Arleta Little of The Loft Literary Center and Lisa Willis of Cave Canem, and I, connected, learned and grew.
Ours was a long overdue introduction and a chance to put heads together, share meals and stories and joys. The mini retreat centered around Tricia Hersey’s manifesto, Rest as Resistance and it was a timely focus, indeed. Each of us has been working hard to put our organizations on solid ground amid uncertainties caused and revealed by the pandemic. We shared common woes of sleep deprivation and the oppression of Grind Culture and the pressure to succeed. And the need to be centered in Black liberation. It was something of a literary quilting bee: Our challenges were met with attentive listeners, loving solutions and practical, tangible, planful offers of support. There were tears and embraces, gales of laughter and a feeling of sisterhood. We came together hungry for something each of us was missing. We parted with full cups.
I think my dad would have approved. He was such a force. I realize that he was modeling this lesson all along. And we -- Lisa, Arleta and Samiya, are forces, now, too.
-Kimberly A.C. Wilson, Executive Director, Hedgebrook