Civic Engagement
My internship focuses on the social concepts associated with the properties of space and time. Space affords society as does time but time allows for history and is more frequently focused on for social issues than space. This is the reason community awareness and education are important in cities such as Birmingham where development comes largely with a cost of minority displacement. One cause for community dispersement is political actions such as redlining and gentrification, the church for which I interned is located very centrally in Avondale and is more or less at the mercy of the neighborhood. Beloved is focused on all issues surrounding community and justice including religion, ability, and race. Getting to maybe overall taught me what to expect, which is nothing. This strategy allows the depressive realism to ground us in reality while our ideals guide us to a future we could maybe get to. I allowed many solutions to come to me passively through research and then also waited to compound opportunity and intention (i.e. always listening for non-profits that could be good partners, and then following up later). This month has informed me that there is such a need for brain power in these underfunded nonprofits and that is something I would love to contribute to whatever community I may one day invest in.