The beginning is always today.--Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly

January 2022

Directors Note:

The DC Community Engagement Fellows are a Davis Center-trained, peer-to-peer diversity education, and mentoring group. Trained extensively by The Davis Center team, Community Engagement Fellows are part of The Davis Center’s effort to provide education for the campus on issues of identity, power, and privilege in order to build a more inclusive community. Community Engagement Fellows co-facilitate workshops, hold office hours, form partnerships across the campus, and work on independent capstone projects. Each month we will highlight a couple of the amazing CEF's that the DC has been fortunate enough to get to work with.

Dear Davis Center Times Readership,

My name is Aseel Abulhab, and I'm the Assistant Director of the DC. Welcome to Williams Signs, and Happy New Year! Each newsletter, I will share something related to sign language and/or D/deaf culture. Happy signing!

This month, learn about Marlee Matlin, a Deaf Academy Award and Golden Globe Award winner. She has starred in "Children of a Lesser God," which was the first movie since the silent film era to feature a D/deaf actor as a lead character. She has been in "Switched at Birth" and most recently, the film "CODA." She also supported the National Association of the Deaf advocate closed captioning for all streaming services, which are now required to provide captions! Check out her amazing work!

Greetings, Ephs! I’m Aly, the Associate Director of the Davis Center. Each month I write a little about issues of identity and power in U.S. Musical Culture.

Next week, we celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We can expect many elected officials to make announcements purporting to celebrate Dr. King’s legacy, even as some of them actively work against the principles of equity that Dr. King organized toward. In moments like this, when I know I’m about to be faced with a set of news cycles that frustrate me, I try to find the right song to listen to. Well, this month is going to be a lot of Stevie Wonder in my headphones and on my speakers. As part of the campaign to make Dr. King’s birthday a national holiday, Wonder wrote and recorded “Happy Birthday.” For more on the history of the song, and a wonderful video of Stevie Wonder performing it with Diana Ross check out this Rolling Stone article. Unfortunately, these videos do not have captions, so you can check out the lyrics to Happy Birthday on Genius.

Friends, I need to admit something to you: I have not been doing a very good job of "getting out" the last few months. I could cite the news of subzero temperatures and ice storms or that I have been exceptionally busy-- these facts are true. But they're not why I haven't been getting out enough: I haven't been getting out enough because I just haven't felt like it.

I've done plenty of appreciating the world from my window, but have I been going OUT this winter? No. It'd be wrong of me to coach YOU to go outside while I sit watching folk walk by. Besides, I have to work with my transient roommate, "Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)" and right now it's making the act of getting out tough. I've learned the strategies to move through the world dragging ol' SAD around-- getting outside to spite myself, nifty lights on my desk that stimulate the light of the sun, and adding some vitamin D to my diet--but SAD is a bit of a bully and wins a lot of arguments.

So instead, for this month, I'm getting WAY out of my comfort zone and sharing a song I wrote, performed, and produced a long while back. The whole thing took about an hour to produce and it is super NOT perfect, the lyrics were stream-I gave myself no notes on how to replicate it. The last time I was in a formal singing group, George Bush Sr. was the president. I produce music for myself and have never really shared it. It's about SAD and why you have to work to not let SAD get the best of you.

The sun will shine warmer and the days will get longer, bulbs will bloom and Williamstown will once again buzz with life: but today, in mid-January-a day after an ice storm and a day before subzero temps-- you need to do what you can to Beat that SAD.

Many highlight that self-care has become a capitalist industry trying to get the masses to purchase books, specialized journals, and other items….and they are right. But, self-care doesn’t have to cost a thing! Let’s remind ourselves that all we need is ourselves as we engage in ways to ensure our own wellness. Take a walk, engage in a mindful cup of tea, listen to music. Let the free be freeing!

Want to go deeper? Spread the word! Dispel the idea that self-care has to be coupled with finances by sharing with others what you are doing to engage in free self-care.

Want to learn more? Here is a list of free self-care!

Want to talk about it?  I’d be happy to chat! Here’s the office hour calendar for The DC Team! Also consider creating your own self-care check in group.

Be Well,

Eden-Reneé

Students from any major are eligible to apply for a Udall Scholarship which identifies and supports sophomores and juniors who are committed to a career working on issues related to Native American nations or to the environment.   The Williams campus deadline will be February 4. To find out more, and to gain access to the online application system, contact Lynn Chick, Assistant Director of Fellowships. The most recent Udall Scholar from Williams is Mohammed Memfis '21!!!

About "ALONE TOGETHER:" A drop-in group open to students on campus who are in isolation or quarantining, or just feeling isolated during COVID. We will meet remotely for lunch to talk about whatever is on your mind or just be together. Come to connect with others and engage as little or as much as is comfortable. 

Facilitators: Sara Mugridge, Corinna Rosendahl, Susana Gomez and Morgan Jasewicz

About "SURVIVING ISOLATION:" Stuck in isolation due to COVID? Claustrophobic? Bored? Lonely? Depressed?

We're here to offer support, perspective, and potential insights into the experience of uncertainty that characterize this difficult time. The group will offer the opportunity for discussion, as well as introducing ideas or resources that may prove useful in navigating isolation, per se, as well as the pandemic more broadly.

Dro- in on Thursdays at 2pm

Facilitator: Dr. Susan Mahler

The Davis Center at Williams College

10 Jenness Drive

Williamstown, MA 01267

davs-center.williams.edu