From the Print – Page 4 – Save Antioch College

Twenty-two tales of kindness

By many measures, Yellow Springs is a kind place. We make time for each other; we make eye contact and small talk on the street. When help is needed, help usually comes. An act of kindness can be small; indeed, it often seems so from the outside. But not to its recipient.

The News asked readers to offer their stories of kindness given, received or witnessed in the village over the past year. These stories, spoken and written, illuminate “a year of kindness” in Yellow Springs. They’re a reminder that heartfelt acknowledgement is itself a kind act.

Jumping in to help
Not long ago Al Schlueter came to our office and said his neighbor, an older man, needs home repairs but doesn’t have the money to pay someone. He asked me if I had any ideas of ways to help. I knew that the Greene County Department of Development has some funds, so I passed that information along.
Recently I saw Al and asked how things were going for his neighbor. He said he had just driven the man down to Xenia to apply for the funds and everything was working out.

I’ll bet Al does at least 50 things like that a year to help people. I don’t think his neighbor asked for help, Al just jumped in to help like he does. He’s meant a lot to our organization and I’m sure he means a lot to many people in the village.
—Chris Hall, program director
Home, Inc.

Wallet lost, kindness found
This fall a person found my wallet outside our drugstore and turned it in at the store. Employees at the drugstore called the police. The police picked it up and brought the wallet to my residence. I was just leaving to retrace my steps when the squad car pulled up. This all happened within 10 minutes. Kindness abounded all around town. My deep gratitude to all.
—Suzanne Patterson

Meals for mailbox mice
We have a long, deep mail box. Many generations of field mice have built their delicate nests of thistle down inside of it. Carla Markley, our rural mail carrier, never complains about them. Now and then I’ll open the mailbox and see that she has left part of a dog biscuit there with the mail. Just this week she left the mice a wee biscuit for their holiday treat. Carla’s kindness to these innocent creatures always warms my heart.
—Vick Mickunas

Perfect seat for Santa
This year the Chamber collaborated with Jennifer Dunn and Liz Robertson and the Mills Lawn PTO to bring Santa to the Gingerbread Festival during Holiday Fest on Dec. 12. That itself is a wonderful story as these two women, with the help of parents, the schools and sponsors, pulled together a spectacular and successful first-time fundraising event. Special appreciation goes to the Oddfellows Lodge and specifically David Robinow and Richard Zopf who answered my call for a chair befitting the stature of Santa. Not only did they allow us to use their large, heavy wooden lodge chair, but they delivered it and picked it up from Mills Lawn. They definitely saved the day and provided the perfect seat for Santa.
—Karen Wintrow, executive director
Yellow Springs Chamber

Many acts of kindness
I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge John Gudgel. John being the person he is, I cannot believe that he hasn’t performed many random acts of kindness throughout the year. He is consistently thinking of someone other than himself, whether it be that this child needs a coat, this family needs a meal or help with a bill or someone just needs an ear to listen for a while. He is always there. Thank you, John!
—Patti Bates,
Village manager

In this new place called home
When we moved here we discovered that Yellow Springs was a village of kindness as strangers welcomed us in a variety of ways. We grew accustomed to our new home and found that older people are treated like family, kids are allowed to be kids, diversity is honored, creativity abounds, sports are competitive but inclusive and fun, activists enjoy a respected platform, animal friends are loved and cared for and roaming deer grace us with their beauty and feel safe because they are a part of us. We felt a sense of kindness in this new place we called home.
—Pat Stempfly

‘The Force’ is strong
One act of kindness revolved around the most anticipated movie of the year. A coworker surprised me with a ticket to an opening day showing of “Star Wars Episode VII.” My coworker knew it would be fun to go to the premiere with fellow fanatics, so when she bought tickets early online, she bought one specifically for me. The Force is strong among friends at the Emporium.
—Sharri Phillips

In good company
Storeowners in Yellow Springs form a good community that helps each other out a lot, from helping to hang a fellow business’s sign to one donating a mini-fridge to the kitchen of another. They also help the community in magnanimous and unique ways, such as donating a bunch of stoles and old-style hats to a tea party at the Senior Center.
—Flower, owner
Heaven on Earth Emporium

Help with a new dog
I got a dog from the shelter and he is a handful. He is a combination terrier and German shepherd, meaning that he has high energy and can jump like the dickens. He can just run and run and run. My neighbor saw the dog pulling me around and was reminded of a solution he came up with when he had a wild dog like that. He rigged up a leash that wrapped around the dog like a belt, so the dog wouldn’t hurt its neck when it took off running and strained on the leash. My neighbor saw my leash wasn’t long enough, so he went inside and came back out with his old leash. He helped me add it to my leash to make a more comfortable harness for my dog.
—Krista Magaw

$10 goes far
One of the first requests to [what became] the $10 Club was a family who needed $200 to keep their electric on. I posted the request to my Facebook page and to the Yellow Springs Bulletin Board and Yellow Springs Area pages. Someone messaged me within an hour. They said they would provide the whole $200 on one condition: that I never tell anyone where it came from. So I got the whole $200 on the spot. But meanwhile other people had given $10 so we were able to help out with other things.

That was last winter, and it’s continued from there. People are so supportive. Only once have we not been able to help [with the full amount]. We’ve done this maybe 14–15 times. At least 50–60 people in the village have chipped in. It’s a really special way to help people. A lot of people can’t afford to give a lot, but they can give $10. That’s why I call it the $10 Club. It’s all anonymous, but I put in a little bit of detail about the people needing help.

The other day I was contacted by a family we’d helped with a utility bill in the past who needed help with Christmas gifts for their kids. I put out the word and people began bringing Christmas gifts over to my house. A couple in town that chooses a family to help at Christmas each year made this their family. So the family went from no Christmas presents for four children to plenty of presents. It’s amazing.
—Chrissy Cruz

Fresh-roasted chestnuts
Kindness? Our neighbors John and Barbara Geri immediately come to mind. When we first moved in we thought they weren’t going to be friendly, because they travel a lot and are gone for part of the year. We were wrong! Now John will just pop over. One time he said, “Mandy!” Really gruff. “Open your hand and close your eyes. Just do it.” I did, and felt this warm, soft feeling in my hand, and the feeling of a lot of something. That something was fresh-roasted chestnuts. There was a chill in the air, and it was wonderful to have those chestnuts in my hand. John and Barbara had gotten them on their travels, and they roasted them at home.

They are continually kind; it’s amazing how kind they are. Barbara is the same way. They go above and beyond and don’t expect anything in return. I said to John when he volunteered his carpentry skills for a mural I’m working on, “What can I do?” And he said, “No, no, I’m going to stop being nice! That’s not why we do this.” They’re that way with a lot of people.

When Theresa and I lived in New York we didn’t get neighborly with anyone. People were tense and afraid of each other. Here, it’s more neighborly, but it’s not like we know all our neighbors. It’s just very different with John and Barbara. We have a lot of back and forth with them. They’ve made me more of a kind person, I think — not that I was mean, but I’m introverted. I’ve become more open and friendly because of them. They’re just good people.
—Mandy Knaul

‘Leaf fairy’ revealed
On a sunny autumn afternoon it feels great to be outside raking all those fragrant leaves. But 80 stuffed bags and two months later the chore gets old. Thankfully, Yellow Springs is full of organic gardeners who carry away our leaves and relieve us of that last job. But there was a mystery. Who was returning our used bags folded and carefully placed in a secure spot in the yard? Then one day I came around the corner to spot Mark [DeLozier] with a load of leaves in the back of his truck — and stacks of folded bags on the seat beside him. How kind!
—Amanda Wallace

Five kind villagers
Five names float to the top this year. Let me use my space to acknowledge these deserving villagers who spread good deeds in different ways.

YS School Based Mental Health Therapist Laura Taylor deserves a public nod for her ongoing behind-the-scenes generosity and support to local students in need of help. The long hours and personal contributions she devotes in service to her students make positive differences in their lives.

The same can be said for YSHS Intervention Specialist Donna Haller. When a holiday call was put forth recently to solicit items for needy students, she was first on the phone to respond with donations.
And while we’re on the subject of YS Schools, let’s be reminded of the quiet work of John Gudgel. Few people have earned the amount of respect from students and parents alike over the last almost-40 years as this talented educator.

Did you know villager Katie Egart is an ordained Buddhist chaplain, volunteering at two (soon to be three) women’s prisons in the area, in addition to serving on the board at the YS Dharma Center? Her good work centering on social justice abounds.

And lastly, my Good Neighbor Award goes to Joel Goldberg, for years of sharing his beloved New Yorker magazines with me, depositing them at the side door through rain and shine. Thanks, Joel!
—Pam Conine

Low-key kindness
John [Harruf] lives on Park Place and is always walking down Pleasant Street. He’s very quiet. Maybe he’s shy. We’ve never said much. One day on Pleasant Street, I was training a dog, Lacey, and took a chance. I was teaching recall, but Lacey ran off and wasn’t coming back to me. As a dog trainer, I felt pretty vulnerable. John was walking by and grabbed the dog and held her until I got there. He did it in a very kind way. He captured my loose dog as if it were totally matter of fact! What struck me was that he did it in the way he always does things — just like “ah, no problem,” and then he kept on walking by. It meant so much to me.
—Neil Silvert

‘Good on service’
One cold day, on my way home, I stopped into the BP to get a soda. After I got back out, I paused to get my gloves back on. I was carrying my drink in one hand and trying to get my glove back on with my teeth. In the meantime I was tipping my drink and getting my other glove and coat wet. At this not very brilliant moment, I noticed a man walking straight at me. He stood in front of me and silently put out his hand in cup-holder position. I gave him my cup and gratefully pulled on my glove, then said, “Yellow Springs is good on service.” He smiled and went on.
—Nancy Mellon

Love and justice
According to Cathy Roma, “Love is what justice looks like in public.” Cathy does so much to put that love into the world — directing three prison choirs, commissioning original pieces, serving as fearless leader of the World House Choir and being part of the core leadership for a recent Black Lives Matter Community Sing. I also have it on good authority that Cathy has discreetly paid other people’s tabs at the Antioch College Olive Kettering Library. Sometimes the smallest acts say the most. What a beautiful soul.
—Emily Seibel

Thanks, Nanny Annie
We couldn’t do it without Nanny Annie (aka Annalee Byers). She picked up two of our children, Quinn and Audrey, from Mills Lawn and took care of them after school for all of 2015. Plus, Juliette joined the mix at her house after preschool, raising the stakes to three children. More than watching them, Nanny Annie helps them with their homework, teaches them how to ride bicycles, plays legos, dolls and Wii, bakes treats — and that’s just the beginning of all she does as their grandma. What an amazing, generous person. Thank you, Nanny Annie (and Papa D, too) for all of your acts of kindness.
—Sean Creighton

Kindness full circle
As some folks here in town may know, John Fleming’s Uncle David came to the village 10 years ago after being left homeless by the breaking of the levees in New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. For most of these 10 years, David has been a volunteer at the Senior Center and also at Friends Care Center (he calls it Friends Who Care).

David was recently admitted to Friends Care after a fall. He has been visited by many people who know him from his various activities as well as a group of loyal friends who come and play cards with him in the evenings. Andrée Bognar has been the ringleader of much kindness towards David (as well as towards many others in the village). In addition to Andrée, Judy, Barbara, Nancy, Centis, Doris, Ellis, Ann and others have stopped in to bring him good cheer on a regular basis. Friends Care has been a welcoming and loving space for him these days. David’s kindness to others has come around and we are deeply grateful for this community of friends who care.
—Louise Smith

Blessed to be a neighbor
I have been blessed to have been Sue Clauser’s neighbor for several years. I have witnessed her kindness and dedication to the causes and organizations she appreciates, and the many ways that she has directly or indirectly touched the lives of so many and has contributed so much to the well-being of our community.
—Patti Dallas

Quiet but powerful
We don’t have much, we Presbyterians, that doesn’t revolve around our building. It eats our budget; it dominates our attention; it determines our future.

But this congregation I am blessed to lead does powerful things. Surprising things. Important things. Each Advent, our beloved congregation collects monies to give to a local family. Quietly, without ostentation, they present a gift card without strings. Groceries, presents; whatever is needed. They would probably not want me to write this, but I’m proud and inspired. It takes a village.
—Rev. Aaron Maurice Saari

Loving kindness big and small
It’s not a single act, but many acts of loving kindness that bonds my heart to this village. Where else would I be blessed with friends who volunteer to drive me to and from the Cleveland Clinic every week for months or to the James Cancer Center every day for weeks on end? Where else would I have friends who lovingly feed and nurture my cat, put out the trash and collect the mail when I’m away, or routinely provide healthy, delicious meals or offer private film viewings at the Little Art Theatre? Where else would I receive complimentary massages and acupuncture or come home to a stocked refrigerator? Where else would I enjoy songs left on the answering machine or flowers, books, hats, hoodies, CDs and symbols of hope delivered to my door?

It’s not an exaggeration to say that I could not continue to fight cancer without the loving acts of kindness, both big and small, from the following villagers: Linda and Don Mates, Mary and Rick Donahoe, Anna Bellisari, Sue Neff, Jennifer Rosengarten and Chad Runyon, Desiree Nickell and Ellis Jacobs, Jenny Cowperthwaite, Kipra and Barry Heermann, Ken and Margo Bode, Jen and Barry Reich, Kristen Andreae, Danielle Tucker, Susan Conner, Maria Bakari, Marybeth Wolf, Patricia Schneider, Anne Randolph, Theresa Sapunar, Kelli Zaytoun, Ruth Jordon, Neenah Ellis, Jayne Monat, Carla Steiger, Hee Young Shin and Jung Yeon Suh, Sirisha Naidu and Taki Manolakos, Dinah Anderson, Linda Griffith, Amy Achor, Silvia Carter Denny, Joan Ackerman and other members of the Threshold Choir. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.
—Paulette Olson

Beyond the village
And finally, one villager said she was buoyed by the news that Norway was considering giving a mountain to Finland to mark the centenary of that country’s independence from Russia.
I thought this act of kindness in today’s political world was good — it cheered my heart.
—Pat Brown

Antioch College names new president

Thomas Manley, current president of the Pacific Northwest College of Art, has been named the new president of Antioch College. (Submitted photo by Matthew Miller)

Thomas Manley, the current president of the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, has been chosen the new president of Antioch College. Dr. Manley will be the second president at the revived Antioch, following Mark Roosevelt, who is leaving the job at the end of his five-year contract on Dec. 31.

Manley will start his new position in March, 2016. Current Antioch College Vice President for Finance and Operations Andi Adkins will serve as interim president between December and March.

“Reading the search description, I was impressed again and again with the boldness of what was being imagined,” Manley stated in a college press statement released Wednesday, Nov. 18. “Here was a vision for transformational education that was value-based and pragmatic, intellectually demanding and experientially grounded. How could I not raise my hand to join in its success?”

Manley brings to the job more than 35 years of experience in education. At Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, where he’s been president since 2003, he is credited with leading a turnaround for that college into “Portland’s most well-rounded, diverse and most established arts institution,” according to the press release. The turnaround also included a campus expansion and the cultivation of the largest gift to an arts organization in Oregon’s history.

Before coming to PNCA, Manley spent 22 years at the Claremont Colleges in southern California, mainly at Pitzer, a small liberal arts college with an emphasis on social justice and social responsibility. There, he was a member of the faculty and also held several administrative positions.

A specialist in Japan, he has a bachelors degree in East Asian history and education from Towson University, a masters in Asian studies and a doctorate in education from the Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, Calif.

More than 200 applicants applied for the job, according to the press release, and Manley was selected by a 21-member search committee composed of college trustees, staff, students and alumni. The committee was headed by Malte von Matthiessen of Yellow Springs.

“I am thrilled — but not surprised — that we were able to attract Dr. Tom Manley as our next president,” Von Matthiessen said in the press release. “He is compatible with Antioch College values and traditions and I am convinced he is the right person to lead Antioch into a new era.”

Manley was impressed with not only the college’s historic traditions and values, but its path since reopening in 2009. He described that path as “distinctive and brave.”

“American higher education — which has long been a beacon in the world — must seek its reinvention and I am among those who believe Antioch is doing just that. By embracing entrepreneurial opportunities and innovative strategies in its own redesign, the college is stepping forward to lead once again,” he said in the press release.

Manley is married to Susanne Hashim and they have a young daughter, Chedin. He also has a son, Dashiell; a stepdaughter, Karina; and a stepson, Johan.

A longer story on Manley will be in next week’s paper, along with an interview with Mark Roosevelt, the outgoing president of the college.

Dorothy L. Scott

(Photo by Axel Bahnsen)

Dorothy (“Dot”) Loveland Scott was born on Nov. 21, 1917, in Randolph, Vt., and raised in Burlington, Vt. Dorothy died peacefully on Nov. 4, 2015, after a short illness. She was just shy of her 98th birthday.

Dorothy came to Antioch College in 1935 where she met her future husband, Douglas Scott. She graduated in 1940 and they were married in 1941, just before Doug was drafted into the army. During the war they lived in Fort Knox, Ky., where they started their family.

In 1952 they moved back to Yellow Springs with their children, Sherraid, Margie, David and Andy. Dorothy began working at Antioch College in 1961 in the extramural (co-op) department, where she spent more than 20 years before retiring. In 1962–64, she returned to school and received a master’s degree in personal counseling from Miami University at Oxford, Ohio.

After retiring from Antioch College, Dorothy earned a certificate to teach English as a second language and embarked on a post-retirement career as a teacher of ESL in Fairborn and Yellow Springs.

Dorothy had a knack for taking interest in others and developed long-lasting friendships with many students she worked with through the years. She enjoyed visits from Antioch alums returning to Yellow Springs and served as an advocate and supporter for many of the Vietnamese and Cambodian families whom she met through ESL teaching.

Dorothy was an avid reader and tennis player. She began playing tennis at age 10 and enjoyed playing until she was 75 years old. In 1959, the Scotts bought a house on Allen Street that had a lot large enough to build a tennis court, which they did in 1961. The court was used by the entire community for weekend doubles with all ages and skill levels participating.

Dorothy was very active in the community, teaching tennis and swimming. She was also active in local and regional organizations and was a member of the Glen Helen Association, American Civil Liberties Union, Cooperative Education Association, Antioch Environmental Studies Center, the YS Community Children’s Center Board and the Outdoor Adventure Girls.

She and Doug liked to travel to visit their far flung children in Florida, Oregon, North Carolina, Minnesota, Hawaii and Japan. She also traveled with friends and family to Japan, China, Wales, Scotland and Italy. Dorothy’s last trip to Hawaii was in 2013 at age 95 when she went to Hanalei, Kauai. She and Doug had spent many winters there, staying at Mahamoku, the historic vacation house owned by the Grove Farm Museum. After Doug passed in 2008, Dorothy continued to live independently at the house on Allen Street until last May, when she moved into Friends Care Community.
In addition to her children, Dorothy leaves her “honorary daughter” Kim Rohmann; her sister, Marian; three grandchildren; five great-grandchildren and many other relatives and longtime friends who loved her and will miss her.

There is no memorial service planned at this time. Donations to Antioch College or YS Library Association in her name would be appreciated.

Seeding a food revolution

Here in the heart of industrial agriculture, a quiet revolution has begun. It’s small-scale, and plans to stay that way. Its dimensions are measured not in acres, but millimeters. Some of the revolution’s most diminutive members are smaller than the period at the end of this sentence.

The revolution is seeds.

Seeds are a powerful “under the radar” aspect of the local food movement, according to Beth Bridgeman, instructor of cooperative education at Antioch College. This fall, she is leading an effort to raise area residents’ seed consciousness. In collaboration with the Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance, Bridgeman is organizing “Seed School,” a six-day introduction to growing, saving and sharing seeds geared to gardeners, farmers, chefs, students, activists, local policymakers and anyone at any skill level with an interest in local food and sustainable agriculture.

“We’re hoping people come from across the Miami Valley and beyond,” said Bridgeman in a recent interview. Seed School will take place Sept. 29–Oct. 4 at the Vernet Ecological Center in Glen Helen. Seeds used in the school will be harvested from the Antioch Farm across the street.

Why seeds?

“It’s where food begins,” said Bridgeman. Consider a locally grown tomato. It could be grown from seed ordered from a seed catalogue — or it could be grown from seed that has dozens or even hundreds of years of history in Miami Valley soil. In the latter case, said Bridgeman, the tomato would be well-adapted to local conditions. And it would carry what she calls “seed stories,” the histories of the people who’ve grown and saved that variety’s seeds through the years.

“There are lots of seed stories in the Miami Valley,” said Bridgeman, who previously worked as an educator in Greene County’s OSU Extension. “This is particularly true in immigrant communities. People who arrive from elsewhere want to eat their own food. They may have brought seeds from their native countries, or they may source and save seeds from plants that resemble their native foods.”

Local seeds have benefits beyond the cultural. “Here in the Miami Valley, we’re zone 5B/6A,” said Bridgeman, referencing the USDA’s regional Hardiness Zones — and noting that the shift in zones is underway because of global warming. “That’s the same zone as Denver!” Plants growing in our region will experience conditions very different from those of dry, mile-high Denver, despite the common zone designation, and seeds harvested year after year from locally grown plants will adapt, over time, to our particular climate. That means greater hardiness and potentially better natural defenses against pests.

To Bridgeman, another compelling reason to plant and replant from local seeds is food security. “I’m learning that you can’t have food security unless you have seed security,” she said. A food security committee she serves on in Dayton has been talking recently about the idea of “disruption” in food systems. “When food is coming from 500 miles away and there’s a breakdown in the grid or transportation system, that’s a problem,” she said. “The closer you grow to home, the better.”

Seeds themselves are under threat. “Ninety-seven percent of seed varieties have been lost since 1900,” said Bridgeman. This is a consequence of market dynamics, she added. “As seed companies have gotten larger and agrichemical companies have taken them over, research has increasingly focused on just a few varieties.” Rather than hundreds of tomatoes, many consumers have access to just half a dozen on grocery shelves. Currently, the six biggest agricultural companies own 85 percent of seed companies, she noted.

These companies are patenting seeds and — even more controversially — individual seed traits, such as drought resistance in corn. “Think about that,” said Bridgeman. “A company owns the idea of drought resistance in corn!”

Many traits are now introduced through genetic modification, she added. Different from the hybridization that happens in nature, and the breeding for specific traits that people have undertaken for centuries, genetic modification involves the insertion of genes from one variety or species (sometimes even crosses between plant and animal) into another. Seeds of genetically modified plants carry the new genome, representing a life form “unseen in nature,” said Bridgeman.

Saving and planting local seeds is one way — at a fundamental level, the way — to restore regional biodiversity and take back control of seeds from corporate producers. “I’m a big proponent of seed sovereignty and agricultural democracy,” Bridgeman noted.

This summer, she and five Antioch students, all of whom work on the Antioch Farm, attended the Seed Savers Exchange conference in Decorah, Iowa. Seed Savers Exchange is one of the largest nongovernmental seed banks in the United States, and the annual conference helps collect and disseminate thousands of heirloom varieties for preservation, scientific study and gardeners’ use.

“I learned how important it is to teach other people — how you need to grow gardeners as much as you need to grow gardens,” said Elaine Bell, ’16. “I’m interested in any opportunity to help change the direction of how we grow our food.”

Anthea Van Geloven, ’17, said she was amazed to realize how much the plant and animal breeds we rely upon for food have been manipulated by humans. “Nothing is anywhere close to what you would find in the wild,” she said.

Both students came back enthusiastic about seed saving, which is the heart, or germ, of Seed School. “We’ll teach people about winnowing, pollination, and harvesting. There will be accessible learning about seed genetics,” said Bridgeman. Her goal is to grow a seed-saving community — one that will flourish well beyond the course.

Seed saving is an art and science that’s as old as agriculture itself. Before seed catalogues and their online counterparts, people saved seeds from one planting season to the next, and shared them with their neighbors. In recent times, such informal seed-saving communities have been augmented by more organized efforts. Some public libraries are creating “seed libraries,” said Bridgeman, using old card catalogues to hold seed packets and information gathered about seeds’ origins. “Open drawer B, and you’ll find Detroit Red Beets.”

Seed banks, such as Seed Savers Exchange and others around the world (the USDA maintains a massive one), are the broadest and most formalized seed-saving communities. Two seed savers from Cleveland, whom Bridgeman met at the Seed Savers Exchange conference, are launching the Cleveland Seed Bank, the only such effort in Ohio.

But all it takes to start a seed-saving community is a few people — knowledgeably — swapping seeds. “Seeds should be available to everyone,” said Bridgeman. At Seed School, and in the communities it sows, the power of these tiny revolutionaries will be.

-To register for Seed School, visit: http://www.rockymountainseeds.org/attend/seed-school/144-antioch. For more information, contact Belle Starr at belle@rockymountainseeds.org or

Beth Bridgeman at bbridgeman@antiochcollege.org. Early-bird registration (before September 1) is $600, which includes all classes and meals. Partial scholarships are available.

Antioch College historian eyes race, community

When most historians have written about Harlem, they’ve focused on the hostility of early white residents when blacks began moving into their upper Manhattan neighborhood, and the area’s evolution into an African-American ghetto known for its violence and dysfunction.

But Kevin McGruder, assistant professor of history at Antioch College, has a different, more nuanced story to tell about the neighborhood he came to love as a resident, churchgoer, business owner and historian. Specifically, he tells the story of early white Harlem residents who appeared to hold diverse views of their African-American neighbors. And he believes that Harlem was originally a place of aspiration for the blacks who moved there, who created churches, neighborhood organizations and other components of community.

“The ghetto emphasis focuses on disarray,” McGruder said in an interview last week. “I’m not saying that didn’t happen, but there hasn’t been enough emphasis on community formation. What was the goal of people moving there?”

For the past several years, McGruder has studied old newspapers and historical documents to find answers to that question. And the result of that research, Race and Real Estate: Conflict and Cooperation in Harlem, 1890 to 1920, was published last month by the Columbia University Press.

McGruder will discuss and sign copies of his recently published book Tuesday, Aug. 4 at 7 p.m. at McGregor 113 on the Antioch College campus. The book is an extension of his doctoral dissertation.

The dissertation grew out of McGruder’s longtime interests in real estate, Harlem and African-American history, he said in a recent interview. Before getting his Ph.D. from the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, he had worked in community development nonprofits in Cleveland and New York City, along with serving as director of real estate of the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, of which he’s a member. He was also co-author of a previous book, Witness: Two Hundred Years of African-American Faith and Practice in the Abyssinian Baptist Church.

Research for Race and Real Estate involved combing through many historical documents in the City Registry in New York, supplemented by stories in newspapers of the time, which he found on microfilm in the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of the New York Public Library, where he was scholar in residence during 2011–2012. Not surprisingly, as a historian, having access to so many original documents “was paradise,” McGruder said.

What McGruder found in his research was that Harlem at the turn of the century was a place of some fluidity for blacks, many of whom moved there from other African-American enclaves, such as Greenwich Village and the district now known as Chelsea, formerly the Tenderloin. Harlem was at the time on the edge of developed Manhattan and was surrounded by fields, so that the neighborhood provided a more expansive, country-like atmosphere compared to the inner city.

While the conventional history of the African-American migration to Harlem is that whites responded with hostility, McGruder was surprised to find that, while there was hostility, there was also evidence of cooperation between the races. For instance, bank loans were largely unavailable to blacks, so that those seeking to buy homes depended on getting loans from the white property sellers, who apparently didn’t resist selling to blacks. The evidence of fluidity and cooperation between blacks and whites indicates a time when race relations were considerably better than they became later in the 20th century, McGruder believes.

This complex relationship between the races at that time seems to belie the assumption that difficult social problems such as race relations inevitably get better with time, McGruder said. Rather, his book shows that progress in race relations ebbs and flows over time, with more mutual understanding and cooperation evident in some periods than others.

“The notion that things get better just because time has passed — there’s no evidence of that,” he said.

In Race and Real Estate, the story of how blacks and whites interacted as neighbors and business associates in Harlem is told through the perspectives of four actual individuals. There was white businessman Henry Koch, retired white policeman John Taylor, African-American Pastor Hutchins Bishop and Phillip Payton, an African American who became a leading real estate agent catering to black families.

Telling the story through the perspectives of these actual individuals “makes the story more real,” McGruder said.

Around the time McGruder finished the book, he was hired by Antioch College. Coming to Yellow Springs, he took to heart the stories of those early African-American families establishing community in a new location. McGruder, too, sought membership in a church community, the Central Chapel A.M.E. Church, and also became a member of the World House Choir, to deepen the connection to his new home.

While McGruder is sinking roots into his new home, he will always have a soft spot for Harlem, where he maintains a membership in the Abyssinian Church. And it’s likely he’ll return often, as his next project is a biography of Phillip Payton, the realtor who made a difference to many African-American families when he helped them find homes in turn-of-the-century Harlem.

Antioch College attracts generations

Bo Waite has fond memories of visiting his grandparents’ house on West North College Street when he was a small child in the 1950s. There was a pasture with cows grazing behind the property, a garden tended by his grandfather, also the Antioch College maintenance supervisor, and the 1830s home cared for by his grandmother, a first-grade teacher at Mills Lawn.

A few years ago, some 50 years after his grandparents sold the house, Waite purchased it, and moved in last summer.

Waite, also an Antioch College graduate and the fifth person in his family to attend Antioch, is thrilled to be back in the village that informed his early life, he said in a recent interview.

“I’m still rediscovering it,” Waite of Yellow Springs, citing some draws: “The peacefulness, the quiet, the natural beauty of the Glen, the opportunity to be part of a community.”

As for the appeal of coming back to live near his alma mater, from which he graduated in 1972, it’s universal among his classmates.

“We’re all such radical romantics for Antioch,” he said.

Completing the Antioch circle, Waite moved to the house with his partner, Angie Bogner, a longtime health and fitness expert who is now a pilates instructor and personal trainer at the Antioch Wellness Center.

Bogner, originally from Cincinnati, moved to town after nearly 30 years in San Francisco, and finds the change refreshing.

“My nerves were just frazzled after 29 years of living in an urban environment,” Bogner said. Yellow Springs, meanwhile, is beautiful and serene with people who are “tolerant but polite” with “a total lack of aggressive rudeness.”

“It’s refreshing to say ‘hi’ on the street and see people who are not looking at their phones,” Bogner added.

Together, Waite, a psychiatrist still practicing in Cincinnati, and Bogner are reviving Waite’s grandfather’s garden.

“My grandfather was a horticulturist — he grew asparagus, concord grapes, roses,” Waite said. The same garden area, was also cultivated for decades by the late Anna Gregor when she lived there, and was equally “amazing,” Waite said.

Waite’s grandfather, Henry Chester Waite II, and his wife Genevieve, moved to Yellow Springs from St. Cloud, Minn. in the 1920s to follow the “town hero” Arthur Morgan, an engineer who flood-proofed Dayton before jumpstarting Antioch as its president, Waite explained. They originally lived in the house that is now the Yellow Springs Dharma Center.

“[Morgan] was the town boy done good,” Waite said. “So my grandfather came to go to the college the town hero had saved.”

The Morgan connection goes back even further; Morgan was a paperboy who delivered to Waite’s great-great-grandfather in the late 1800s. While Waite was at Antioch, he visited the aging Morgan, who remembered Waite’s great-great grandfather, recalling that he was “the only lawyer I knew who actually read books,” according to Waite.

Despite being the fifth member of his family to attend Antioch, Waite was the first who actually graduated. His grandfather dropped out during an economic recession to work to support his family with a job at a Xenia broom factory. His father, who was born in St. Cloud, but grew up in Yellow Springs and who died this spring, left Antioch to join the Navy before going on to medical school. Waite’s aunt attended in the 1950s but transferred to Ohio State. And his sister dropped out of Antioch after marrying an upperclassman.

Waite’s Antioch experience was during the tumultuous late 60s and early 70s, with frequent protests and student strikes. Half of his graduating class dressed up in the bizarre style of the Merry Pranksters, he said. But Antioch was seminal for him, especially his year abroad in Kenya that led to an interest in medicine. After Antioch he went to medical school at Louisiana State University and has spent his career practicing and teaching psychiatry. The 65-year-old still runs a private practice and teaches out of the University of Cincinnati Medical College, where his approach is influenced by a mindfulness practice and talking to people about their experience, not just prescribing medication.

“I was interested in people’s minds and psychiatry seemed like applied medical philosophy,” Waite recalled of his career decision.

Bogner, 51, was a trainer for nearly three decades at various gyms and health clubs in San Francisco, spending 10 of those years working as a trainer at an assisted living center. With a focus on core strength and balance training and a specialty in senior fitness, Bogner is quickly developing a clientele at the Antioch Wellness Center, where she hopes to add new classes in pilates.

Bogner is also working to become certified in TRE, or Tension, Stress and Trauma Release Exercises. Founded by Dr. David Berceli, the practice “activates a natural reflex mechanism of shaking or vibrating that releases muscular tension, calming down the nervous system,” and returning the body to a state of balance, according to the TRE website.

Bogner will soon be the only certified TRE practitioner in the state of Ohio, she said. The exercises are popular with returning veterans, but can also be used for anyone that suffers from regular stress and are based upon the idea that trauma is held in the body, Bogner added.

“[Berceli] realized early on working in war-torn countries that in the case of trauma it’s a physiological event,” Bogner said. “Everyday stress can also become an unconscious muscular pattern that will feel a lot like trauma.”

Contact: mbachman@ysnews.com