Flourishing with Unrelenting Commitment and Compassion, Offering Opportunity
/by Donna Berman
I am standing on the dance floor in the sanctuary of the Charter Oak Cultural Center. On this floor, almost 20 years ago, a group of 18 children stood. They arrived by van that frigid February morning. Little did we know that those 18 children would, eventually, turn into 1,000 children who would attend our Youth Arts Institute and receive a free, high quality arts education.
But on that day, their teacher, Oliva Davis, addressed her new students as they formed a circle around her. She asked them to turn to each other and find a way to acknowledge the spark of the Divine that each of them possessed. They could curtsey or bow or, with permission, hug their partner, or kiss their hand.
The children did as instructed, as sleepy bodies awakened, as forms holding firm against the cold softened, as their eyes and faces flashed with curiosity and the stirrings of joy. Dancing, wild dancing, ensued and we were all awakened —participants and witnesses alike — to the power of the arts to bring us all into a place of deeper and richer life.
I have recently begun to think of that day as encapsulating all that Charter Oak is, thinking of that day as the thesis statement from which everything else has flowed for the past 20 years.
“There is a spark of the Divine in every single person, in all living things. From that starting point, it follows that we have a responsibility to protect and respect and love and treat with dignity each other and the earth. It’s that simple.”
There is a spark of the Divine in every single person, in all living things. From that starting point, it follows that we have a responsibility to protect and respect and love and treat with dignity each other and the earth. It’s that simple. From that starting point the behaviors and policies that are demanded us become clear. We have a map. We know the path to take. We know what is right.
But we, as a society, have lost our way. As money and power are given priority over life itself, people are turned into competitors and the earth into a commodity. We have backslid into a place where incivility and cruelty are commonplace, where compassion and care are in short supply.
But Charter Oak has remained constant. It has never lost sight of what’s important. It is and always has been a bastion of creativity, a beacon of hope, a taste of how the world could and should be — a haven, a safe place, a place where the deliciousness of the arts is shared and basked in, feeding the soul, serving as a balm to heal even the deepest of wounds, soothing the most broken of hearts, fueling the flourishing for which we all long, for which we are all poised, divine creatures that we are, if we are merely given the chance.
Work will begin this spring on creating a Charter Oak campus that includes additional space supplied by the historic building next door we recently acquired. This space will enable us to care for and educate more young people, to support more people in the homeless community, more people in need, to fulfill the desires of those who yearn for arts that reflect, celebrate and teach about the lived experience of people of various cultures.
This is our year for expanding our footprint, expanding our reach, expanding the number of lives we can touch. It is all very exciting. But Charter Oak is more than the sum of its programs, as wonderful as they are. Its essence is the heart that beats beneath all we do, the heart that is nourished by you, our friends and supporters, by our staff and board and volunteers, our students and families, our teachers.
“...we, as a society, have lost our way. We have backslid into a place where incivility and cruelty are commonplace, where compassion and care are in short supply.”
Robin Wall Kimmerer, who writes about science and indigenous knowledge, tells us “There is no hurt that can’t be healed by love.” And that is what Charter Oak offers to all of us blessed to be a part of it. It is the energy that fills this sanctuary, that pours out into the world, that ripples forth from this place: Love. Love to bind our wounds. Love to bind us together. Love to remind us of what is truly important. Love that reminds us to see the divine spark in each other.
We gather tonight in the light of that love. We gather tonight to celebrate all that Charter Oak stands for—to celebrate its resilience in the midst of the pandemic, it’s fortitude in this time of unrest and polarization, its steadfastness in its commitment to racial and social justice for the past 20 years.
May we all feel held in that light, in that love, wherever we are. May Charter Oak’s message bring us renewed hope and renewed commitment to working for justice and equity, to making sure that the spark of the divine that those children saw in each other 20 years ago as they stood on this very dance floor, is nurtured and fanned into brilliance in every human being, in all of creation. That is the sacred work we do together here at Charter Oak. That is the sacred work we are called to continue doing. It is more essential than ever.
This is excerpted from remarks recently delivered by Rabbi Donna Berman, Executive Director of Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford, at the non-profit organization’s annual gala (held simultaneously in-person and virtually) .
Charter Oak Cultural Center is a vibrant non-profit multi-cultural arts center, doing the work of social justice through the arts. Located in a landmark historic building which once served as a house of worship, Charter Oak presents multi-cultural arts programming that is accessible for free or at a very low cost, provides completely free classes in the arts to 1,000 underserved Hartford young people, works extensively with the homeless community and presents performances and exhibits that bring to light the burning issues of our day.
