Community Orientation Focuses on Restorative Practices

In lieu of a traditional convocation, Hampshire has in recent years held community orientations to kick off the fall semester. On August 30, the day before classes started, the first of three Community Education Days was held for this purpose.
 
For the event, the College invited back Jasmyn Story, who was a Common Good Practitioner-Scholar on campus last year. Story joined nearly 200 students, staff, and faculty members in the Robert Crown Center for a conversation about restorative justice and community building with the theme of “Hope and Homing.”
 
Using homing pigeons as a symbol for always returning home, Story discussed finding “benchmarks” for going back to a sense of self, encouraging participants to consider the smells, stories, songs, TV shows, and the like that remind them of their homes, figuratively or literally. Story recalled their personal history growing up in the South in a culture of call and response and adopted that method throughout their presentation with the pigeon character front and center, asking the full gym to “coo, coo, coo” when prompted. 
 
They addressed the fact that students were in a new place, the College, and encouraged finding ways to bring a sense of home into this new place—creating a home away from home—while allowing the new place to surprise them. Lastly, Story looked ahead, asking the group to consider a future send of home—an aspirational one, in which they have something to give, and hope to find a home for it.
 
“I’m looking for ways to be an aspirational pigeon,” Story concluded to laughter from the crowd. They illustrated ways they do this through restorative justice, which they defined as implementing intentional community practices driven by storytelling, centering healing, celebrating collaboration, and fostering accountability.
 
Their talk was followed by attendees applying what they learned in small groups. These Community Building Circles were facilitated by students, staff, and faculty.
 
Jasmyn Elise Story (they/them) is an international restorative justice facilitator, doula, and the founder of Honeycomb Justice and Freedom Farm Azul. Story was named one of Vice's “31 Women Making History by Creating a Better Future.” As the former deputy director of social justice and racial equity for the office of the mayor of Birmingham, Story co-led the launch of Alabama's first government-sustained women's initiative.

 
This event was sponsored by the Office of the President, the Office of Justice, Equity and Anti-Racism, the Office of the Dean of Faculty, Community Commons, CAPES, and the Eqbal Ahmad Lecture Fund.