
          Creative Collagorations: Latina and Black
  Women in Knoxville
          
            
              StaffStaff
            
          
          Vol. 23, No. 3-4, 2001
pp. 27-28
          
          In 1992, very few Latinos lived in Knoxville, a city of 173,890
nestled in the mountains of East Tennessee. Tne Latina women connected
with the University of Tennessee in Knoxville organized HOLA in order
to overcome the sense of isolation from Latino culture that they
felt. Today HOLA has abaout one hundered members and a strong history
of provideing a voice for the Latina community in East Tennessee where
Latinos now make up 1.6 percent of the Knoxville population,
according to the 2000 Census.
          Also in Knoxville, the Carpetbag Theatre has supported, for more
than thirty years, the professional development of young artists
while collaborating with other groups to create new performance works
addressing issues and aspirations of people silenced by racism,
classism, sexism, or ageism. It is one of the few tenured
African-American professional theatre companies in the South.
          These two community organizations are working together now,
sharing their individual histories, culture, and common strategies
for struggle, both with each other and in their broader
communities. "We are collectively coming to the realization of some
of the things the African-American communities and the Latino
communities share, and we're trying to explore the ways we connect
there," explains Linda Parris-Bailey, the executive and artistic
director of Carpetbag Theatre. With African_Americans currently
comprising, according to the 2000 Census, 16.2 percent of the
Knoxville population and Tennessee's Latino population growth
expanding rapidly, a partnership between the two groups has the
potential to wield great influence.
          Witnessing the steady growth in Knoxville's Latino population, the
members of Carpetbag Theatre decided to begin structured outreach to
that community. At first, this involved identifying service provider
institutions that served the Latino community, but when Parris-Bailey
invited a Latino cultural arts group from California to come perform
and lead workshops, several members of HOLA also attended. When some
of the same Latina and African-American women who had met at those
performances saw each other again at workshops led by the Knoxville
Legal Services affiliate, those beginning relationsips were
reinforced. HOLA began inviting Carpetbag members to HOLA meetings and
Carpetbag Theatre invited HOLA members to be a partner in their
American Festival Project work. The dialogue had begun.
          For the past two years, HOLA has organized a Hispanic Festival,
showcasing Latina culture. The 2001 festival, held in October, was a
collaborative effort of HOLA and Carpetbag Theatre to reach across
and beyond traditional racial boundaries and included a film
festival, speaker presentations, and a Blessing of the Flags
ceremony. With guidance, assistance, and reehearsal space provided by
Carpetbag Theatre, HOLA also prepared a dramatic reading, telling the
stories of HOLA members' migration to East Tennessee. The members fo
Carpetbag Theatre worked to encourage a large African-American turnout
for the performance and the theatre was full for the performances.
          "The Latino community is in much the same situation that the
African-American community was during the 1950s and 1960s," says Loida
Velasquez, HOLA vice president for social action. "So Latinos have a
lot to learn form African_Americans about how to struggle for
recognition and civil_rights and teh importance of building cultural
ties in order to later build political understanding." Velasquez and
other HOLA members have begun planning leadership meet-ings where African-American community leaders can share what
theyhave learned about community organizing and creating change
through activism. HOLA members hope to build on the civil_rights
tradition of the African-American community and to create a new sense
of power anong Knoxville's minority groups.
          with experiences working with large minority populations in other
cities, Parris-Bailey knows that tensions frequently emerge between
minority groups, particularly over issues like job competition. Her
hope for Knoxville is that, by nurturing these early relationships
across racial and ethnic lines, "we can counter the basic mythologies
about the other communities...and create come linkages before it gets
to the point that we can be manipulated."
          As HOLA members develop deeper relationships with African_American
community leaders and as African_American women continue to attend
HOLA meetings, discussions about race_relations and racism have
begun. Race and ethnicity are directly addressed with HOLA
participation as attendees discuss issues of law enforcement and
minority business development. "This dialogue between Latinos and the
African_American community is ongoing. It is happening at many
different levels and different settings throughout our communities
and will form a strong foundation of trust for later work together."
          The next step in HOLA and Carpetbag Theatre's work together will
be deciding how to continue sharing the dramatic reading
performances beyond its initial opening at the October festival,
particularly how it can be performed in the African-American
community to stimulate discussion. Members of the two groups are also
seeking to continue and deepen the relationship between the two
groups. "I think the people involved in the partnerships are listing
to each other," says Parris-Bailey. "We need to spread the
opportunities for listening out."
          
            Gwen Robinson, Jessie Bond,
and Sarah Torian contributed to the article. for more information
about Carpetbag Theater visit: www.korrnet.org/carpetbg/.
          
        
