[Chelli Keshavan]: Um, so yeah, I mean, if folks are okay, maybe Diane, do you want the floor to kind of just begin sharing?
[Amanda Centrella]: That's great. So I think I'll start where we all you know, we left off with the Martin Luther King Day event. And then we attended the the West Medford Community Centers event, which was actually just joyful and wonderful and just what an extraordinary community they have over there. And so, and Royal House and Slave Quarters was co-sponsor and here with the keynote, Keira Singleton. And so at the end of the event, Terry Carter announced that they would be hosting a Black History Month event for entrepreneurs. He mentioned February 11th, And so, but I know that the date is now a different date and I'm so excited you're you're part of it, Kelly. I will be there. So here and I had a moment at the end of the event. And we both looked at each other and thought, oh my goodness, you know, we just confirmed February 11 for our Human Rights Commission Black History Month event. We do not want to be in conflict with the West Medford Community Center. And so here I looked at the calendar. and they're available on February 25th. So we worked with Frances to reschedule. So I know that she put a little bit of marketing out about it, even though we hadn't quite firmed up the title. So we have some decisions to make on the title. And then because here singleton is such a big stakeholder via royal house and slave quarters I met with her early this week to just get her thoughts on the title as well. And she shared that, you know, and I'm gonna share my screen because I did like type a bunch of stuff up in the document as well as it, and everything is draft for all of you to really react to, but we have four options available, you know, ready for the title. And we, the six of us just need to decide on that. And then I put together a draft program flow and I just want to get all of your feedback on that during our meeting. So I'm going to share my screen. And then I'm going to open this Word document. So potential titles. And I will start with the theme for Black History Month this year 2023. by the Association for the Study of African and African American life and history is black resisted here pointed that out. So the four titles, we have commemorating Belinda an examination of her 1783 petition, so the crux of our. of our program will be a reading of her petition, which is incredibly powerful. It invokes rhetoric from the Declaration of Independence. It just speaks to human rights across the board. Two, a commemoration of Belinda examining her 1783 petition. Three, remembering Belinda Sutton resistance and activism in her 1783 petition. And then four, advocating for reparations, which was successful. Belinda Sutton and her petition.
[Steve Schnapp]: Yes, I'm on. I had the same problem. I think you were talking to someone else.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah. Yeah. So reactions, anything speaking to you of the four?
[Munir Jirmanus]: I like number three, but that's one vote.
[MCM00001269_SPEAKER_08]: I had the same reaction as well.
[Kelly Cunha]: Same. Yeah, I liked three and four, so I'll go with three.
[Chelli Keshavan]: I'm always annoying, so I wondered if there might be a way to combine the words resistance and reparations. I saw a keynote speaker a couple weekends ago. He did an incredible job of a historian who moved in every sentence from past, present to future. Yeah. And I also realized, like, you've already discussed probably titles ad nauseum, so it's likely not helpful, but out of these, I appreciate three.
[Amanda Centrella]: Okay, I totally agree. So I'll go back, and that was my favorite as well. I will go back to Kiera, and I think the title could really work, Remembering Belinda Sutton, Resistance, HAB-Charlotte Pitts, she-her, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-hers, she-
[Kelly Cunha]: Yeah, what's that thing alliteration?
[Amanda Centrella]: Yeah, I like the alliteration as well. Okay, so I will go back to Tiara. And, and then I'll just email everyone as a whole all together. And I think that, you know, will be totally fine, right? Perfect.
[Munir Jirmanus]: Well, this is okay. This business of Yeah, I mean, the thing is that If you email everybody, that may violate this silly rule. OK.
[Amanda Centrella]: So I will email.
[Munir Jirmanus]: But you can, supposedly, we can get around that by emailing it to Frances and ask her to forward it to everybody. I think you can do that. I'm not 100% sure.
[Amanda Centrella]: Okay, I'll work with Francis on that. But it's, it's great that we're unanimous about three. And we will, I will work with care to get reparations into that to bring, you know, a little bit of four into it. And then think about me, you know, alliteration and seeing if we're going to drop the 1783 petition or keep it so we'll all be back in touch.
[Steve Schnapp]: Hi, Eileen, I sent it, you should you should receive it.
[Amanda Centrella]: Uh, so right now it's just an in-person program. I know resources are a little lean for royal house and slave quarters to fully manage it as a zoom event. And I understand from Francis that it's not, um, on offer from the city right now. So I don't know if there's a, if there's a possibility for one of us to volunteer to try to, you know, I did ask, I think Francis is very busy, so I did ask Francis if there was a possibility for one of us to volunteer to just manage the Zoom, if we have, if one of us has the skills while we're at the event, or we just simply go with, you know, an in-person event. So just making you all aware of that. And I apologize for my dog and and so. I'm just gonna get into my draft of the program that I put together for all of us. I think this is a tremendous opportunity to get some visibility of who we are and the work that we do. And so I would love to see the two of you, Shelly and Kelly, really kick it off and welcome everybody as the chair and the vice chair of the Human Rights Commission, if you're agreeable to that. Um, and obviously some of these little talking points that I put in are all up for what you're comfortable talking about, but I put in there, you know, an overview of our work. Um, you know, point out the work of Francis for the city who will be there with us, maybe point out the rest of us who are sitting in the audience as well. I'll be serving as your timekeeper, um, importance of black history month and then, and then, we introduce Ciara to kind of situate us. Any thoughts on that?
[Kelly Cunha]: My only thought is just as a white person, personally, I like to usually leave the like talking. I mean, I'm happy to like do it if no one else wants to with with Shelly or I don't know. I always like question my whole like, being the speaker for anything where, especially considering it's Black History Month, we're at Belinda Sutton. I don't know, I'm just wondering about the optics of that. I like, you know, I know for MLK, I really wanted to just, the event that I was a part of, I wanted to just be in the behind the scenes and like, you know, doing work in the background. But I, you know, I open that up to anyone else and your thoughts, but I just want to be like aware of that. And I don't know, it feels a little weird for me.
[Steve Schnapp]: Can I just interject here for a minute? Eileen Lerna, I believe, is trying to get in this meeting. She's in. She's in. Great. Great. Thank you. Thank you.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Eileen, welcome. I'm so glad you're here. Hi, Eileen.
[Ilene Lerner]: Hi there. Thank you. Good to see you all.
[Chelli Keshavan]: I'm so glad you're here. My sort of gut reaction, like, A, I understand where Kelly's coming from, but also B, Kelly's super dope and super brilliant. And I would be happy to sort of co-speak. I think my kind of pet project might be in the name of resistance to kind of use the opportunity to talk about the structure of the HRC and why we can't be as effective as we want to be because of the structure, not because of lack of buy-in or like intrinsic like drive or whatever it might be. So it might be an opportunity to kind of raise the profile of a couple of the boundaries that we're sort of facing and why we are having trouble getting things off the ground. I just, I would want to use it to say something real if we were going to speak for a significant amount of time.
[Amanda Centrella]: So yeah, I think it's just an introduction to the work and maybe, you know, an opportunity to try to recruit more people to the committee or get feedback from the community. I mean, I'm still learning. So I think I would be learning from you because I don't even feel fully filled in about what exactly
[Chelli Keshavan]: Sure. I think others are okay. I would love to see us, um, acknowledge Neil and the patients and work that he's given this commission for God knows how long. Um, and we could celebrate sort of Francis's new role, but also to say like Neil's been in it for a minute and I don't know how he does it or did it. So, um, that piece too.
[Munir Jirmanus]: Yeah, I, I, I agree with that and I appreciate Carrie's comments. Uh, but, uh, I mean, the reality is that. our HRC does not fully represent, you know, the various, shall we say, groups in the city of Medford. So that said, I mean, I think Kelly should say a few words, at least become part of this. And at least, because we're talking about HRC, we're not talking about the, in a sense, the event itself, or even that can be mentioned. But I mean, I think Kelly should be part of it.
[Kelly Cunha]: I mean, I could all, I think, like, speaking to your point, Shelly, I'm open, you know, how I like to, we both, all of us like to say the thing, can talk about like, naming it, like, you know, the fact that I'm, you know, a white person speaking here, part of that is because this is an unpaid position with volunteer work that we don't feel entirely comfortable asking for labor from people. So we can if we can get a little, you know, Shelly Kelly on it, I'm okay with that.
[Chelli Keshavan]: So I'm with that. I'm totally with them. And also, I wonder if Hendrick Gideon's name has come up. He did a good amount of work around Belinda Sutton. And he wrote a couple of stanzas, sort of imagining wherever Belinda's rhetoric meets the current moment in Medford. And I'm not saying that to say that he is available or like should be included. But I, I wonder if it would feel like best practice to share with him that this conversation is happening and create some space for him to participate if he wanted to.
[Amanda Centrella]: Okay. So yeah, let's keep stepping through the agenda. And I just noted his name. I haven't met him yet. But I'm still like, that is my homework for the year ahead is I just want to go out and meet people and shake hands. And because you just know, everybody, you're so well connected, all of you. And so I'm trying to get up to your speed, everyone. especially you, Shelly.
[Chelli Keshavan]: You're just like... No, I'm sorry. It's also super overwhelming when you just name drop like that. I'm sorry. I get it. Yeah. Great.
[Amanda Centrella]: So then I was thinking, Shelly, you can introduce Kiera, you know, after you and Kelly give your opening remarks to everyone. And then Kiera will, you know, situate us with where we are, bringing like, you know, bringing the history to the presence, the importance of Belinda and her petition right now. And I know that Frances is working on recruiting musicians. And I was thinking then after that, we move into a musical piece for- Was she inviting Bakari and Dominic? I had no idea. She said that she had reached out to a talent agency. So what she's waiting on from us after today's meeting is the final confirmation of what we're doing. She's waiting for us to sign off on this. So I put a musical piece into two sections here and let me just see if we can get it. This is like now the full thing if anyone wants to read ahead. So you introduce Kiaris, she situates us, we move into a musical piece. And then another piece of art, I mean, Terry Carter gave such a moving poem at the MLK event and then also the State of the City. Do we reach out to him again? Kiera did ask that we, the city, also include West Medford Community Center kind of as a co-sponsor because they're just so, such an inherent part of Medford in this space. And then, and Francis shared that she always includes West Medford Community Center in this type of work and outreach. So I guess I think their name, their name will already be included. So we I wanted to get your thoughts on should we reach out to Terry Carter? Or is this space where we should reach out to Hendrick Gideon? Or maybe we try to slot Henry Gideon in a little later. So maybe we hold that thought, but any, what are your thoughts on inviting Terry Carter, especially because he had invited Kiera to be the keynote. It would, you know, I just kind of feel like it'd be nice to bring Terry Carter on board if he's available.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Yeah, I mean, my sense is ask for his availability and then sure. My also sense is it could be great to see if there are any youth who are, who happen to be local poets. Terry is super amazing, but he also, I would love to see him mentor some younger folks. And I know that he absolutely has the capacity to do that. Okay, great.
[Amanda Centrella]: I'm happy to do the outreach to Terry if that's okay with everyone. Okay, amazing. Thank you.
[Kelly Cunha]: Um, would it be helpful for I could also reach out to the high school to see if they have any poets because Shelly and I are working on a committee right now and have some really good connections that we're making there. And we could totally ask about if there, as anyone that, you know, sometimes people just know, oh, this kid is great, like, blah, blah, blah. Would you like us to do that as well? I feel like having some buy-in from the youth would be nice.
[Amanda Centrella]: Oh, yeah. I mean, it is so vital that we get the youth voice, you know, and to join us in this work. It is so critical. Um, I love that idea. So I'll, I'll prioritize outreach to Terry and then get, I'll do some high school outreach. Okay.
[Chelli Keshavan]: If it's helpful, I can text, um, Hendrick. Um, I, he, I imagine he has a similar perspective as Kelly and maybe his materials could be offered as like, like a non addendum, but like a resource or something, or just like here, think about this for a little bit. Um, but yeah, I could reach out. Okay.
[Munir Jirmanus]: I think also the idea of reaching out to somebody from the high school is great. And I might add that he doesn't, he or she do not have to be a poet. They can read somebody's work.
[Amanda Centrella]: Yeah, something meaningful in honor of Black History Month. Okay, that's great. So we'll work on that in the week ahead and then I'll figure out how we can all share our information and be above water in our commission work.
[Munir Jirmanus]: So is there, is a part of the presentation going to include anything about reparations, do you think?
[Amanda Centrella]: Oh, well, I mean, that's what Belinda's petition is really all about. She's seeking a lifetime pension from the Isaac Royal Estate and it's awarded to her. So if you look at Ta-Nehisi Coates Atlantic article, the case for reparations, he invokes Belinda right in the first couple of paragraphs. So yes, absolutely Maneer.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Would there be a way for us to highlight some of the ways that preparations can be made now and sort of use Belinda's kind of achievement as a blueprint in conversation maybe?
[Amanda Centrella]: Yeah, I think that there will absolutely be opportunity for that. Hold on, I am going to give you all the link to Belinda's February 14th 1783 petition to just save to read a little later.
[Munir Jirmanus]: But yeah, what I said up, excuse me.
[Chelli Keshavan]: What was that? No. Thank you, man.
[Steve Schnapp]: Sure. I don't want to derail this where this is going. I just want folks to think at 135, there's the reading of the petition. And then there's the one opportunity in this event for folks to actually talk together. I think I'm just asking that people prepare a couple of questions. Think about how that interaction should go. whether there's room for small groups, because then more voices are heard, just pay attention to that part of the program.
[Amanda Centrella]: Yeah, so I would like to say, so this space, Kiera is going to lead and she is so expert at leading these discussions and making them relevant to racism and reparations today that she has, she already has some questions. I'm happy to ask her for them and share them with all of us if you would like. But that, but the goal of this, you know, from 135 to 215 is we do a public reading of Belinda's petition and Kira is going to work on recruiting Mary McNeil. She's a professor at Tufts and also a member of our board and Penny Outlaw, who's a, she's vice president of our board of directors and also a resident of West Medford. They're incredible. And so then, and then Kiera, she'll lead discussion that I think will really take us where we want it to go. She is so on point in making this history very relevant for everybody to really understand what it all means with regards to Belinda reparations and where we go from here. I think it's going to be very informative for all of us. So that will run through 2.15. We'll get another musical piece in place. And then at 2.25, that will be the closing of the formal program. And Shelly and Kelly, I think that's your opportunity I'll show you my administrative section down below the program, but I was thinking, we need to get feedback from our residents who are attending the event. And so is it you're telling them to go to Instagram to post their thoughts and reflections? Do we wanna have a comment box with old-fashioned pieces of paper? And because Francis is ordering the city of Medford Human Rights Commission pens, have people just jot down notes you know, add their names. You know, you can sum up the program, you know, I'm sure we're going to be having a lot of ideas and thoughts on the fly of where we want to go from here. But, but have have the two of you as our leaders, you know, close it out. And then we spend from 230 to three, you know, from 2.30 to 3.30 will be a reception, you know, with the food and refreshment that Francis is ordering. And then I'm happy, you know, from three o'clock to 3.30 to also just take everybody on a courtesy tour. And, you know, we'll probably recruit a couple other tour guides to join me if we have, you know, so capacity seating at Royal House and Slave Quarters will be 50. And I, you know, and so, you know, I've been also thinking about how this will all work. So this is kind of a packed agenda. And I know when we met back in January, we had talked about kind of the card exercise and the stickers. And part of me is wondering, do we have time for that still? Should we still be doing that? Or should we be trying to move people to feedback? And I saw you raise your hand, Manir.
[Munir Jirmanus]: No, sorry, I was just waving at Kelly.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Diane, has there, did you and Kiera get into any possible discussion of leaving folks with a call to action at the end or information around small pieces that they can do? And I feel like people like something that they can tangibly do, because it's hard to be told, go do something, but what?
[Amanda Centrella]: Right, right. Oh, believe me, I'm always looking for a call to action. And I think that's for for us to decide together. I know that we talked about, you know, we want it, we want to know who's in the room with us. And we want to get their information. So I'm going to go to administrative and it's, you know, You know we want to have a sign in sheet to track who's coming and get their email address, what's our opportunity to. to also reach out to them to give them a post event survey, because I know that we have a shared, we have the shared goal, right? Because, you know, these residents, they really care. I mean, do we have an opportunity to build the Human Rights Commission pipeline? You know, I mean, we have this captive audience that, you know, is stepping forward for us How do we step forward together into more work? Because it's still, it's only the second month of the year. And, you know, so I would love to see us put together a post-event survey too, to really just dig in and get more information from these folks and see what they want to possibly do with us. And so is there anyone who would like to help volunteer on crafting the questions for the survey.
[Kelly Cunha]: I wanted to go back just to the whole question about if we were going to still do the like letter writing sticker thing, because I'm, I guess what I want to do is like define who the event is for because I think that'll help. Is this, are we gearing towards families? Are we trying to get adults? I think we need to also figure out who is this geared towards? And then if we're saying, oh, this is for families, then think, what do we have for adults? What do we have for kids? Or if it's for young adults and adults, what is, you know what I mean? Because I think that will also help us with how we're gonna narrow down the, sorry, my kids are just playing next to me. Can you be a little more quiet, Hannah? How we're gonna draft our, questionnaire and then like what we're offering, like I'm thinking like, oh, you know, it'd be cool having a QR code that people could just scan and like, yeah, they follow HRC on Instagram. But like, again, what's our audience here? So I guess, yeah, what are your all of your thoughts on that? I would love it.
[Chelli Keshavan]: I thought is going to the hashtag rollout or HRC pen. Like, literally, that's my thought.
[Munir Jirmanus]: Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I personally am not able to attend the event because of our protocols, our extended family protocols, but I'm not sure how such an event can get to be family oriented. My suspicion is that it will be mostly adults who will be there. And one thing for sure is that we can certainly use this as an opportunity to ask for more people to join the HRC because somehow I'm not sure what's happening here and why we're still not contacting people or potential applicants. That was another question I was going to raise with Francis. So, but I think we should take every opportunity to get to see if people are interested in volunteering for the Human Rights Commission, other than, of course, taking action as well.
[Chelli Keshavan]: This is so nicely organized. I'm wondering if in live, in real time, it might feel a little bit tight. And I'm wondering if there are pieces that feel potentially expendable if the day starts to have a like, feel crunched or to Steve's point, maybe instead of two instrumentals, is there space to add like a quick 15 minute breakout debrief or something? I don't know.
[Amanda Centrella]: So for maybe the 215 musical piece,
[Chelli Keshavan]: Possibly, I just, I'm not, I'm wondering if it won't encompass the learning that folks are hoping it will, if it feels like it's a bulleted, all right, seven minutes now, nine minutes now. Yeah.
[Amanda Centrella]: So small group breakout?
[Chelli Keshavan]: Possibly, or maybe like a shorter sitting program, knowing that when folks are munching together, like there's going to be a natural kind of, oh, Stephen's, go ahead.
[Steve Schnapp]: Yeah, I was going to say, what if the, where it says reception and light refreshments, but the action piece was flipped towards the end, after the musical piece, after the reflection, then is the time to do action. You know what I mean? There's been a little bit of a mental shift to hear some music. And then the program closes with a reflection. And that's great, but I would prefer it closed with an action, which is already there. Folks can do something. I don't know if that's the best thing to do, but it's something that people can actually do. And that's when I would also invite people to sign up for the HRC and so on and so forth. Because that's an action as well.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Maybe we also find out if there are roles at the Royal House and or WMCC that have vacancies that folks would want lifted in a public forum like this.
[Amanda Centrella]: Yeah. Well, we definitely have some openings for tour guides. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I think because we leave ourselves an hour for the reception that there, you know, there's wiggle room. And I think the reading of the actual petition, it's not super long. And I would say this is largely internal to us. So if we're having to squeeze time here and there, I think folks attending aren't going to know.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Will the full text be made available to attendees ahead of time? I think it would be really good if folks had access to language so that they're not potentially hearing it for the very first time when Kiara shares.
[Amanda Centrella]: Yeah, so I think so, because Francis said that as soon as we finalize this, then she's sending it to design so that a flyer can be created and distributed. And so I think we can put the link to Belinda's petition in the flyer as well.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Or in the post caption, maybe, live links. Yeah, oh, definitely.
[Amanda Centrella]: Cool, yeah. I mean, I'll put together a pared down version of this for the public, but we've got the full, this is the full with our talking points and our thoughts and ideas. So back to the call to action, what do we want the call to action to be?
[MCM00001269_SPEAKER_08]: I think you may have been onto something with the, solicitations for added volunteers, not only for the HRC, but for the Royal House and Slave Quarters. I'm sure there's other similar organizations throughout the city that have active vacancies or positions that they're trying to fill or just rolling volunteer positions. I think that that's a really both specific and concise way to say, if you're interested in taking action in the community, these are some of the organizations in the area that are looking for support You can donate your time. We can put together a list and have that available as well. I'm happy to do some research around other similar organizations that might have volunteer positions as well, if that doesn't exist already.
[Munir Jirmanus]: Was there not a, or is there not a state effort to, for, you know, for the resolution for reparations? Why did I remember seeing something? No, go ahead, Jelly.
[Chelli Keshavan]: No, I'm sorry. I think maybe both. I think there were both state and national efforts that have been moving through discussion.
[Amanda Centrella]: Yeah. And the city of Boston, I think just Mayor Wu just pulled together a big reparations committee, I remember, just in the last couple of days. It was making news headlines.
[Chelli Keshavan]: And I'm so sorry, Zeyan, can you share the date one more time? I think there've been a couple of dates mentioned.
[Amanda Centrella]: It's February 25th. Got it.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Thank you.
[Amanda Centrella]: So.
[Munir Jirmanus]: So perhaps even, is it too ambitious to ask for a city of Medford? effort for resolution for reparations like Boston? Is that too ambitious?
[Chelli Keshavan]: Maybe that's the call to action, Diane. Maybe that's the message that folks get left with. Yeah.
[MCM00001269_SPEAKER_08]: This seems like quite an appropriate venue to make that call for the first time.
[Amanda Centrella]: Yeah, yeah. And we can, I mean, we can use Mayor Wu's example in Boston. And maybe that's also saying to everyone, Shelly and Kelly, join us, because everybody's there. Join us in identifying how to move this forward for the city of Medford.
[Kelly Cunha]: I see Eileen's hand raised, but I just wanted to. Thank you for your patience, Eileen.
[Ilene Lerner]: I wanted to tell you all that February 25th is not going to work because Terry's daughter is in a play in Roxbury, and a lot of us from the Center are going to be going to that play in the afternoon of February 25th. Got it.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Okay. Thank you, Eileen. Welcome. Thank you, Eileen.
[Chelli Keshavan]: I'm sorry, that's hard. That's a hard piece to receive.
[Kelly Cunha]: So that would mean Terry meaning like a lot of the WMCC people. Is that what you mean, Eileen?
[Ilene Lerner]: Yes, I would think so. I know that a large group from the seniors are going and Terry's going, and I think there may be other people in the community going. OK.
[Chelli Keshavan]: So maybe that really like feeds into this like discussion of, hey, Terry, like share with us some of your incredible mentees. It might feel hard to disrupt the amount of planning that's gone into this over.
[Amanda Centrella]: Yeah.
[Chelli Keshavan]: He's amazing, but also folks are amazing. So, you know.
[Amanda Centrella]: Yeah, I know. You know, we had moved away from February 11th to try to avoid the conflict. So I, you know, maybe it's just having a stronger partnership with WMCC as well to just know ahead of time what their calendar is.
[Chelli Keshavan]: And also at this point, if Kara will be speaking to a certain extent, it looks like Kelly and I have words to get on paper. There's already pieces in motion to get organized. It might be hard to, come to consensus on a date, a fully new date that still isn't February at this time.
[Ilene Lerner]: Yeah, I'm wondering if- I'd like to interrupt and say that I really think, yes, you ought to be talking to the center because, you know, what I've heard there is that people feel that white people are too fixated on slavery, that all they want to talk about is slavery, you know? And so it might be good to really talk to people at the center about what they would like to see.
[Kelly Cunha]: Yeah. And just so you know, Eileen, this is not about slavery. This is about Black resistance. This is about like, yeah.
[Ilene Lerner]: But Melinda, I mean, maybe we should be talking about more. I don't know. But I think basically what I want to say is we should be working together with them. Yeah. Fully agree.
[Munir Jirmanus]: yeah that's that I mean I lean that's that's that's what Diane said she was going to contact them and say see if they would go sponsor this event so so that's that's.
[Ilene Lerner]: No, no that's not working with and that's asking them to sign on to what you're doing that's different.
[Amanda Centrella]: Oh, so Eileen, I'm new to the Human Rights Commission and I'm just still learning and meeting folks in the community. And I had the privilege of attending the MLK event there, which was just pure joy. And so I definitely, the West Medford Community Center is just, you know, I was saying to Kiara when I met with her this week that, you know, that is the heart of Medford. Royal House Enslaved Quarters is the soul. And I mean, when we think about the activism work that Belinda did, we just really wanna lift that up. But I have, as a new member, I have every intention of doing the work and making new partnerships and really getting to know everyone in the community, starting with the West Medford Community Center. There's so much vitality there. And I just, again, it was just, such an exceptional experience for me when I attended the MLK event last month.
[Kelly Cunha]: Yeah, I mean, my instinct is like, there's probably going to be when when it's this close, right, we're in February, we're in week two. Now, there's going to be a conflict, probably with any date, we already had to change the date once we don't want to leave Kiera like- You want Terry to read a poem. How can he read a poem if he's at a- It doesn't have to be Terry. He won't read a poem. We'll find someone else to do it. Okay. That's just, that would be nice. We would love to have him, but if not, we'll reach out to the high school. What I'm saying is at this point in the game, we can't change the date for a third time. I just don't think that that's feasible. It would be different if we were talking about this months ahead of it, but now it's weeks away. So the only alternative would be to do the 17th, the 18th or the 19th. And that gives us like a week. And I don't think any of us can pull this together in that amount of time as we might be. So I think everyone has a different event on the 18th. So yeah. So my thought is as it's, it stinks. What a, you know, sad thing to hear and. we'll have to like, you know, add this to this learning piece of, you know, when we, when we try to do another event in the future, start earlier, contact WMCC earlier and like, whatever. But I think in terms of where we are now, we just have to go forward with this.
[Chelli Keshavan]: And also like view it as a pipeline building asset. It's not necessarily the best to lean into the same five names to populate every event every time. It's, it's perfectly fine to build out from that. So this could be a way to start. I think you're muted Steve.
[Steve Schnapp]: Thank you, Kelly. My two cents is that I agree with this decision you got to go forward, just as no, there's no room here. But I also agree with Eileen's point. relationship building takes time and showing up is probably the best way to demonstrate that you really want to have a real relationship. I think Diane and others showing up at the event that West Medford Community Center held is important and should continue. So I really agree that's a long term project to establish better relationships with partners and seek new partners. And I think everyone's committed to doing that. So I appreciate where Eileen is coming from. The other thing is, you know what, I'm going to hold that because I've said enough. That's good. That's my point.
[Kelly Cunha]: One other thing I just wanted to say is, um, I think we have other things that we need to get to too, but I'm wondering, we should probably, we can probably do this via email. I think just decide who's doing what, like we, do we need to make, um, materials to distribute? Like I'm thinking too, like one of the things, if we're going to advertise this, I think a big thing is talking about the tour. I have never been on a tour of, of, you know, and shame on me, but I, Like I know like if I wasn't even involved, if I saw that, that would be a real thing to get me there if I wasn't already interested in the other piece. So I'm thinking that's like a nice way to get people there. Cause I feel like once they're there, they're a captive audience and we can really talk about Belinda and black resistance and reparations, but like getting them in the room, we want to really kind of make it sound good. So if that, for the marketing materials, and all the to-dos, we should decide who's doing what.
[Amanda Centrella]: Right. And that's where I have like an administrative list. So I believe from Frances that once we finalize the schedule, then she's going to hand it over and the flyers and the design work is going to get done for the marketing. I believe Shelly and Kelly, you manage the Instagram account, maybe, maybe you can, you know, like, are we going to try to pump stuff out on Instagram? You know, name tags and Sharpies at the event, maybe that's Francis, you know, a sign in sheet and just, you know, making sure that's set up at the gift shop desk when people enter the quarters.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Diane, will you run free ticketing through Eventbrite? I mean, it's, I've been that person at the desk with an onslaught of folks I don't know, like being intense about finding their seat and Eventbrite just kind of spits out contact information that's collated for you.
[Amanda Centrella]: And you can- I don't know if we used Eventbrite before.
[Chelli Keshavan]: I mean, yeah, it's free. It's super easy. It just prompts you through the process and you can tether it to hashtags to lift the Instagram material. OK.
[Amanda Centrella]: Would someone want to volunteer to do the Eventbrite part because I don't have any experience setting that up?
[Chelli Keshavan]: I think I would, I can do it. I would just feel more comfortable if I was able to check in with you and Kiara first when things are totally finalized, because it sort of asked for like a piece of art. It asked for taglines. It asked for things that I wouldn't have. OK. Or you and I can sit and look at Eventbrite online together, and then you could take that to maybe part of a few other meetings or something.
[Amanda Centrella]: Sounds good. All right. I'll check in with you on that, Shelley. Does anyone want to start putting together questions for the post-event email survey?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Sorry. Go ahead, Steve.
[Steve Schnapp]: I'll take a crack at it. OK.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Great.
[Steve Schnapp]: And it'll be a draft, and I'll just share it with everybody for feedback.
[Amanda Centrella]: Beautiful.
[Steve Schnapp]: It'll be as simple as possible.
[Amanda Centrella]: OK. Wonderful, thank you.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Dan, I wonder if in my head, if like if Steve's taking questions, Kelly and I are taking a speech of some sort, I wonder if we just decide on a deadline by which we all share our drafts of our contributions so that we know we've got something to chew on by whatever day we choose.
[Amanda Centrella]: I think, France, so could we stay by Well, leading up to the 25th, the speech, I mean, how about we say, I think I have to have the program completely finalized way before Monday. So I'll type everything up and try to email it to you all via Francis, maybe tomorrow. But I mean, do you want to say the 17th?
[Kelly Cunha]: So I can do the Instagram stuff I just need the stuff to promote so whenever that stuff if you whenever it's shared I can do the Instagram whatever. And as far as. I was thinking for Shelly and I's remarks, I'm, I'm on school break. The 17th is my last day. And then I'm on school break the next week and I'm going to become significantly more available for Shelly and I, and we can bang that out easily. But if we, if you gave me that after the 17th, I feel like I'm going to be so much more available. It's just things that work. Okay. I mean, and I feel like we wouldn't need to have it. It's not like we would print our speech and like share it anyways ahead of time. So if other things need to be done before happy to do that, but I feel like for that.
[Amanda Centrella]: Yeah. Oh God, we're not going to be signing off on you. I mean, you're our leaders. And so, you know, I mean, even if you just share a few talking points, you know, for the gist, but I mean, these are your words as the leaders of our commission. Um, Who wants to volunteer for setup and breakdown at the end? Because I don't want to be doing it all by myself.
[Steve Schnapp]: I can certainly give you a hand with that. I'll help on one end or the other.
[Kelly Cunha]: OK. I can help on the front end, not the back end. OK. So I can do setup. And maybe a little bit of taking down.
[Steve Schnapp]: Dan. I'll do either end. So when you get, when you figure it out, let me know which end.
[Amanda Centrella]: Okay. Sounds great.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Perfect. Thank you.
[Amanda Centrella]: So do we want to drop the sticker and the card exercise? Cause I think we have a lot going on.
[Chelli Keshavan]: What'd you say, Shelly? I support that.
[Kelly Cunha]: I think my thought is if families aren't going to be there, that was for me, it was like to try to get little to do something for kids. I still think we should have stickers of bull. I mean, I, I'm just saying, okay, if we can get stickers of Belinda's, I think that would be cool. And they're very in right now with like the youth, myself included, even though I'm not youth. All my kids have like their water bottles and their computers are covered. So even Sienna, my five-year-old, is like, when can I get stickers? So I'm just saying, if that was an option to get them, I still think we could. And then that could be like a fun thing that people take away or whatever.
[Amanda Centrella]: Okay, along with the pens. All right, I'll look into that. And then language. So there's a great quote from her petition, freedom for all the human race. And so, You know, we were just thinking, you know, like the first thought was keep it simple. It's Belinda's petition in the day, but then we left the quote freedom for all the human race. Maybe we try to get this, you know, on it. So I can see if I can work something up. And I, I have some good relationships with local printers who might give us a discount. So I'll check into that.
[Kelly Cunha]: I have a relationship with Cambridge printing company too. Um, I, they obviously would prefer Medford, but if for some reason I can happily reach out to them, they've been really helpful in the past with stuff.
[Amanda Centrella]: So, okay. Sounds good.
[Kelly Cunha]: So if you have something to print, I can get a quote from them, you know,
[Amanda Centrella]: Okay, perfect. Am I missing? Are we missing anything here? Or do we all feel pretty good about it?
[Chelli Keshavan]: I think I feel good for now.
[Kelly Cunha]: Yeah, I'm sure stuff will pop up, but we can.
[Steve Schnapp]: Yeah, I'll say one other thing. Folks who were at the Martin Luther King event, everyone I spoke with said it was fabulous. When I signed up, which was the next day, I was on a waiting list. So I wasn't able to attend. So I watched it on Zoom. It was not a great experience. The camera angle was bad. The sound was bad. So here is a room with 50 people, right? There's not going to be more than 50 people in this room or 50 participants.
[Amanda Centrella]: Right.
[Steve Schnapp]: So if, in fact, it goes Zoom, we have to pay attention to what that experience will be like for the 50 or 100 people who might be Zooming in.
[Amanda Centrella]: Yeah.
[Steve Schnapp]: So we got to get the camera angle and the microphone right.
[Amanda Centrella]: Yeah. And there's a chance we might not be able to pull off Zoom, but I'm still trying to figure that out.
[Steve Schnapp]: If you can, you can. If you do.
[Amanda Centrella]: Yeah. All right. Thank you, Steve. Right, well, I will stop sharing my screen. So I will follow up with everybody in some way via Francis, I think. So thank you so much. This was really great.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Thank you, Diane. I appreciate, it is clear how much effort you have put into thinking through this, and I really, really appreciate it.
[Amanda Centrella]: Thank you, and thank you for your leadership and coaching. I appreciate it from all of you.
[Chelli Keshavan]: So I think Laniere was gonna share some thoughts on CCOPS, and then maybe we can just, someone can approve a vote over a minute, just so that Frances doesn't send me a text about why I didn't do that while she was speaking.
[Munir Jirmanus]: yeah i mean you can go ahead i mean i guess we can since yeah do we get to check out the minutes do we have a quorum oh yeah yeah there are five of us yeah i'm motion to approve the minutes second Cool. All right, great.
[Unidentified]: All in favor.
[Munir Jirmanus]: So just to fill at least all of you guys about what's happening with CCOPS, I don't remember whether Diane was here as part of the Human Rights Commission the last time we discussed this, but we had voted to confirm and last year's, I believe it was last year's vote to support the concept of CCOPS. CCOPS stands for Community Control of Public Surveillance. And so right now, there has been an ongoing discussion in the city council with participation from the chief of police, Jack, who's not here today. I wish you were. And of course, the city administration. And to my, I mean, we just approved the concept. We said we like the concept of having some control over these surveillance technologies. And to my mind, there is now been an ongoing healthy discussion between the various participants, including primarily the chief of police and the representative of the mayor. And so I know there's going to be difficult negotiations, but to my way of thinking, this is better than not having any such effort and not having any participation from the public when we're discussing such technologies. So I just wanted to let everybody know that I will be also once again on, I believe, February 14th at the city council meeting where there's going to be a vote on this. I will be again mentioning and speaking in favor of this motion. And I am speaking, I'm telling everybody that I'm representing the HRC. So if everybody is okay with that, I will continue to do so. And we don't know whether the resolution will pass, but we're certainly going to try and make an effort to convince the city council, at least more than a majority of the city council to vote for this because we are asking them as our representative to participate in this discussion, to be part of it and not be excluded. So that's my brief report. I'll be happy to answer any questions or any comments that somebody might have.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Yeah, so thank you, Muneer. Guys, I actually will also be sharing comment in the name of the HRC that night. A couple of folks reached out and asked me if I would, and my comments will be based in, like, I'm trying to depersonalize this discussion and just make it a conversation of what best practice can and should look like, and that there should always be clean lines of opportunities for discussion between the department and the community just by aligning our rhetoric with our practice, essentially. So that's what I'm planning to say. But please join us if you have time. Log on. Also speak. I have reached out to a bunch of young people because I literally said, we can't have all baby boomers doing this. You can't say that your voice isn't ever heard if you don't show up. So I reached out to my peers. And contributed efforts are much appreciated if you can, and we all know it's also Valentine's Day. City Council is like, I'm sorry, I guess none of us have a life, sorry. Not today.
[Munir Jirmanus]: Yeah, and definitely, if you can attend the meeting in person, that would also be great to show some support for this. And people you know, yes.
[Kelly Cunha]: Rob, I feel like this is right up your alley, no?
[MCM00001269_SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think the subject matter is exceptionally serious and people don't pay it the attention that's needed. If we've got two folks already speaking on the HRC behalf, I don't know that a third will add. I'm certainly not going to contradict anything that the two of you are going to say. So I don't know if it's necessary to double down again. One item I was thinking, if it's not been done already, I'm happy to put forth a motion to formally align the HRC and empower one or the two of you to be formally speaking on our behalf, if that's not something that's been done yet or needs to be done. So I guess points of order would require conversation about that. your group thinks it's worth carrying forward?
[Munir Jirmanus]: I mean, that's probably that's probably a good idea. We can I mean, last time when when we voted to affirm the vote that we had last year, I sent emails to all members of the city council. You know, as a result of our vote at that time, we could I don't know whether we want to do that one more time necessarily, but if people think that's good, I'm certainly willing to do that. if we all agree on this. And by the way, Rob, you can always be there just for support, or even as just as an individual, you can always speak as an individual. So you don't have to necessarily even say, all right, I'm the third person from the HRC. Very good point.
[MCM00001269_SPEAKER_08]: I certainly think that the emails can't hurt. I mean, even if it is simply cut and paste the exact same thing that got sent last year, there's one thing that resonates with folks in the political sphere more than anything else, and it's added points of contact. So every mark makes a difference.
[Kelly Cunha]: Do we have to formally quorum approve them to speak on our behalf? Because if so, I'm happy to do that and second your motion, Rob. I have, I don't know, points of order is in my area of specialty.
[Amanda Centrella]: Yeah, I'm still learning, but I'm on board as well.
[MCM00001269_SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, to be quite honest, I have absolutely no idea if we need to formally empower the two of you, but I think that it can't hurt if we do so.
[Munir Jirmanus]: Yeah, it doesn't hurt. That's right. Yes, yes. So I suppose somebody can make a motion. I can make a motion. to empower Shelley and myself to speak on behalf of the HRC in support of the CCOPS ordinance that's being proposed. Second. All those in favor say yes. Yes. All right. So that's as far and the only other thing I wanted to mention that I asked Francis to add it to the agenda was the resolution that I mentioned earlier that the HRC in Arlington, and I put a link to it in the chat, the HRC in Arlington put out a statement regarding the the killing of a young black person, resident of Cambridge, by the Cambridge police.
[Chelli Keshavan]: And- Indian kid, Munir.
[Munir Jirmanus]: Excuse me?
[Chelli Keshavan]: Indian kid, I think Faisal was Bangla.
[Munir Jirmanus]: Yeah, Bangladeshi. Yeah, Bangladeshi, Bangladeshi parents. And it was, you know, I mean, it was some kind of a, I guess he had some difficulties and he was threatening with himself, even with a knife. But I mean, the unfortunate thing is that they ended up killing the young man instead of helping him. And again, the resolution itself that HRC, the Argentine HRC describes it in detail, a lot more detail. So in also having us submitting a similar resolution. Of course, we can't do that today because I don't have any, or we can either decide to just simply voice our concern. or bring it next time, bring a resolution for next month to vote on, because we can't do that just by email. We have been bound by the old meeting law.
[Unidentified]: So I don't know what folks think about this.
[Chelli Keshavan]: I think my bandwidth feels a little bit low in this moment in particular, but I'm down to talk about it if we can get on the agenda maybe for next time.
[Munir Jirmanus]: Okay.
[Chelli Keshavan]: I just mean like not probably right now in the last 10 minutes.
[Munir Jirmanus]: No, no, I understand. Yes, yes, yes.
[Kelly Cunha]: I also think, and this is to be tabled later, but I was looking at when you sent the link, This is something that has come up over and over again, where we wanna put out statements, but then because of this whole, and I'm really curious, I'm wondering, I'm thinking of reaching out to them, like, how do they get all these statements done in such a timely manner? And maybe they have a different governing ordinance or something, but like, they have this website, they have 19 members, they're whipping out statements about all these really important, relevant human rights things that feel important. And I'm wondering if, I'm going to maybe just reach out and ask what their, how they do it, because there are so many things that come up that we feel deserve our attention. Our, you know, resolutions are, you know, a stand on, but because of the way that the commission works have, you know, it doesn't, we know it doesn't always happen in a timely manner. I mean, me and Shelly one time wrote a letter after the awful, police killing of a black man. And I think it was like two months before like ever anything, you know? So again, this is important and so many things are important. So I guess this also goes back to that idea of like, what's the, what is our role is, if this is a part of our role, which I feel like it is and should be, how do we do it in a timely manner and in a way that feels good for everybody. Anyways, that's just something to put over there, I guess. but I'm going to reach out to the chair and co-chair of the Arlington and just ask what they're, I'm just curious. Like I went on their thing and there was like, I mean, there was a statement for all sorts of issues. So they clearly have a system.
[Amanda Centrella]: I'm on board with that. I think that's great because I was even wondering, you know, when, when we were waiting for the, the police footage to come out about Tyree Nichols and it was just what, you know, I mean, again, Mayor Wu in Boston made this really powerful statement, and it was, what are we as the Human Rights Commission doing to be leading in this space and trying to bring, you know, to acknowledge this and take a stand, and the leaders in Medford to take a strong stand as well. Like, where's our You know, like it's always in a moment of crisis when people need leadership and they want to hear these words and the acknowledgement. So thank you, Kelly, for looking into that because I've been wondering, like, what is our role with that? And I'm happy to help with, you know, any messaging and writing as well.
[Steve Schnapp]: I think the issue is not the restrictions on the committee. The issue is resources, time and energy. In the past, the HRC has issued statements about all sorts of issues. It takes someone to vote on it and that requires a quorum. And there've been many, many meetings without a quorum. It takes somebody to do a draft and it takes the time to run it by others until they feel comfortable with it. That, to me, that's been what's prevented the Medford HRC from doing things like this. And if folks have the energy to draft something, could be based on the Arlington statement or others, seems to me you have a quorum. You folks have been showing up pretty regularly. It's a quorum. So I think as long as you have the energy to do it and the time, that's the key question.
[Munir Jirmanus]: I mean, one approach, and you can, Kelly, that would be great if you also speak to members of the Arlington Commission. I think, indeed, Steve is right in that sense. I mean, one way that we could certainly do it is I, for instance, can volunteer. and ask for another person on the commission or the commissioner to join me in drafting a statement that would be not violating any law. And then that statement could then be brought to the next meeting for everybody to vote on and then you can pass such a resolution. So if folks are comfortable with that, I'd be happy to volunteer. I can base it on the Arlington statement and on other statements that have been sent out online as well. I can make it very brief. So if somebody, one of you would like me to sort of pass this by you and we can come up with a final draft and bring it to next month's meeting.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Sure. Do you want to swap drafts, Muneer? Maybe you and I could look at it together.
[Munir Jirmanus]: Okay, that's fine. I'll do that.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Cool. Um, sounds good guys. I unfortunately have to jump off for a teacher meeting and I don't want to interrupt conversation, but I already, but I also know that we're sort of 10 minutes out and I don't know if folks are ready to just call it a night. Um, yes. Yes. That's a consensus.
[Steve Schnapp]: I'm sorry. I am a, I am not a commissioner and you feel free to tell me to shut the hell up anytime. Not for discussion, but to think. There's the issue of officers for the HRC. Judy was the treasurer, the secretary, is no longer a secretary. So that's something I just want to keep on your radar. The second thing is, is the proposal that Safe Medford presented to this committee. It should be on the table somewhere. So I'm just asking you to think about that.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Yeah, great points. We need to make sure that we're bringing these comments with us as we move forward. Absolutely.
[Kelly Cunha]: And when you say that, when you meet, what do you mean, like, are we supposed to vote on it? Because if we, like, I'm still confused about what happened with that whole thing, to be completely honest.
[Munir Jirmanus]: Well, um, so I, let me, let me, let me propose. I mean, I think, I think what we need is a serious discussion of these proposals to see if even if we don't all agree on endorsing every single item in the proposals, we can at least have a discussion and perhaps decide on a set or a subset of these proposals that we can all agree upon and feel comfortable with so that we can then make a motion and vote on it.
[Kelly Cunha]: So why don't we put that on the agenda for next week, right? Or next meeting. And then we are all, let's all just commit to like really digging deep into that and looking and having some comments or where you feel strongly about so that we can come prepared to talk and kind of do that. I think that sounds like a good plan.
[Unidentified]: Yeah. That'd be great. Thanks.
[Kelly Cunha]: Sounds good.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Motion to adjourn. I think so.
[Munir Jirmanus]: All those in favor, hang up.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Thank you so much, guys. I appreciate all of you.
[Munir Jirmanus]: Thank you, Diane, for all your work in this.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Thank you, Diane. Thanks, Diane. Bye, guys.