[Music]
so why culture very pertinent the
discussion to be having in today’s day
in age specifically because just a few
weeks ago we saw neo-nazis and white
supremacists openly marching in
Charlottesville we just had another
officer acquitted for the shooting of an
unarmed black man in st. Louis and we
have a president who not only believes
that there’s an African country called
nambia but as gotten rid of Dhaka is in
a war of words with North Korea that
could potentially lead to the next world
war and is how bent I’m building a wall
between the u.s. and Mexico why culture
is a very important discussion to be
having at this very moment and indeed it
is the impetus for the incident the
creation of the providence cultural
equity initiative my attempts to balance
my american indian culture and heritage
along with my social justice efforts
along with my efforts to just empower
the community as a whole to be more
self-reliant and self-sufficient so
before we begin our discussion we should
probably start with an understanding of
what culture is and I say that because
culture is such a dynamic element that
I’m sure if I went around this room and
asked each of you what culture is I
would get a different definition from
you all and if we’re gonna have a
discussion we need to be starting from a
place of mutual understanding we can
start with the very academic definition
of what culture is which was proposed by
Hofstede in 1997 when he said culture is
the accumulation of knowledge beliefs
values religion understanding of
space-time land ownership whatever you
may have that is acquired by groups of
people over generations through
individual in groups driver very
academic very verbose and not a great
elevator pitch in my opinion so let’s
see if we can whittle this down a little
bit to find a definition that’s a little
bit more manageable for our discussion
today first of all culture is expressed
through music and I personally have the
opportunity to perform with the eastern
medicine singers which is an Eastern
woodland American Indian Algonquian drum
group they tribals throughout the New
England region and beyond sharing our
culture through our music letting people
know that the Eastern woodlands
is alive and well it’s a great way to
share the culture
it’s a great way to express it to let
people know what your culture is and
where it’s at
next we can look at dance and my mind
goes to the per day picture people in
michoacán which is north west of Mexico
City in Mexico who have this fantastic
dance called the dance of the old men
they dress in traditional per day but
your clothing and of course they wear
masks that make them look like old men
what’s great about this is that they
invite the youth to be involved in it so
you not only get the youth involved in
the culture but you transfer it to
future generations and if you have had
the opportunity to see the dance it’s a
great way to share with the public
because once you’re watching it you
can’t take your eyes away until it’s
finished
of course culture is also expressed in
art and it said that society often
influences our and our influences
society or what influences society
culture of course the way that we are
the way that we become though our state
of being
so art is definitely a great way of
expressing culture we can also look at
history and my mind goes to the Arawak
people of the Caribbean who from a
colonial historical perspective are said
to be wiped out but if you have to have
the opportunity to travel to the
Caribbean then you’ll see the influences
of the Arawak people everywhere and
you’ll learn that from a colonial
historical perspective the Arawak
culture is alive and well and still
influencing to this day
so definitely history can be expressed
by culture next we can look at heritage
and I take you back to Mexico and
matulak on the island of initio and Lake
patzcuaro where they have a fantastic
statue at the top of the island honoring
Morelos who was the liberator of Mexico
from Spain and the story goes that when
he was on the run from the Spanish
government he went to the island and as
is the way of indigenous people they hid
and protected him so to honor this role
that they played in the liberation of
Mexico they have erected a statue they
on the top of the island and this is a
tremendous example of how culture can be
expressed through heritage we can stay
on the island and talk about how food
expresses culture and on until they have
this very unique delicacy called Charles
which are the small fish that they catch
in the lake around that they roll in
flour and they fry whole and then they
eat them like their french fries very
unique very specific and enough
great example of how culture can be
expressed through food and then lastly
we can talk about traditions and if
you’re talking about here in the
Northeast and you’re definitely talking
about the powwow which is actually a
derivative of the Narragansett word for
our medicine man which is a powwow he
used to go and bless the circle before
all of the dancers would come up to
dance and this became known as the
powwow but what’s great about traditions
is you can create new ones and we do
this in particular by our fire towards
honoring ceremony which we collaborate
with water fire Providence on from time
to time so not only honor indigenous
leaders from the local community but
leaders from the community as a whole so
ultimately when we’re talking about
culture we’re talking about the way
things are done by specific groups of
people and the reasons why they do them
much better elevator pitch if I do say
so myself
so we understand what culture is let’s
look at why culture is important and for
this we can look at the world Commission
on culture and development our creative
diversity port report this summary
version of July 1996 where they came to
three conclusions first that culture
influences all of our way of thinking
behaving and imagining that the
societies and groups culture is energy
empowerment inspiration knowledge and
acknowledgement of diversity and also
the fact that political and economic
rights cannot be realized outside of
social and cultural so ultimately why is
coaching important because it impacts
every aspect of our livelihood so we
understand what culture is we understand
why it’s important let’s look at some of
the benefits of culture and because we
live in a dollars and cents world let’s
look at the fact that culture is a
tremendous economic driver now how do we
know this because there’s this thing
called cultural tourism and what is
quote true tourism well it’s 78 percent
of all visitors to the US on an annual
basis about 118 million visitors per
year
these cultural tourists stay longer and
spend about 36% more during these days
to the tune of about 1319 dollars per
visit or 192 billion dollars annually to
the US economy so when you’re talking
culture you’re definitely talking an
economic driver we can next look at the
fact that culture supports and enhances
all other sectors why well because
cultural tourists are looking for a very
specific
they can unique experience when they
travel but of course to have this
experience they have to travel so
they’re supporting the travel industry
when they get to their destination they
need a place to stay so they’re
supporting the hospitality industry and
of course we got to eat right so they’re
also supporting the food and beverage
industry and we know this because UNESCO
has designated several hundred
designations around the world as world
heritage of humanity sites that get
millions of cultural tourists to visit
them on an annual basis once again
contributing to all of these other
sectors in our economy next we can take
a look at the City of Philadelphia’s
office of arts culture in the creative
community there everyone’s rights to our
culture discussion where they focused on
two things first what is the negative
impact on communities when they do not
have access to arts and culture
resources and secondly what steps can be
taken to promote more cultural equity in
their community and they team came to
two conclusions first that communities
with lower socioeconomic statuses that
have access to higher levels of our
cultural resources have greater social
well-being outcomes and secondly that is
in the interest of the public sector as
a whole to have greater access for
everyone to kochu resources so
ultimately the benefit is that exposure
to culture diversity assists and the
overall social well-being of a community
and its members next a very important
one we can look at the fact that culture
mitigates against racism now how do we
know this well because it honors unique
cultural distinctions because it builds
bridges of understanding and because it
promotes relationship building and
mutual respect now those are big claims
right how do we substantiate that well
let’s take a look at the relationship of
the American Indian to the Irishman to
the Englishman now from a cultural
perspective the American Indian and the
Irishman have so many things in common
tribal communities warriors clans Chiefs
and both colonized by the English so
from a cultural perspective you would
think that the Indian would get together
with the Irishman and say hey Englishman
we don’t appreciate what you did to us
we’re standing together now we’re gonna
make sure this doesn’t happen to us ever
again but of course we live in a racial
society right so in a racial society
Irishman becomes white along with the
Englishman the Indian becomes colored or
black and the Indian and the Irishman
never get together culture has a way of
breaking down those barriers and it’s a
great way to mitigate against racism
next we can look at the fact that
culture creates a very unique narrative
my mind goes back to Mexico once again
to sent the klauer which is in Mitch
Mitchell Khan which is the copper
capital of Mexico and not only can you
go there and get some of the most
exquisite high-quality and unique copper
craftsmanship you’ve ever seen in your
life but you can also visit the National
Museum of copper to learn about the rich
heritage of copper in Mexico and also
see some of the fantastic traditional
forms of making copper once again very
specific and unique to Santa Clara and a
great example of how culture creates a
very unique new narrative for the place
where it speaks
and then lastly culture instills
personal pride in belonging and why do I
say this
well because whether you’re Laotian
American Indian or Liberian from West
Africa everyone has one so everyone can
have personal pride and everyone can
feel a sense of belonging based upon the
culture that they come from so let’s
recap briefly coaches a tremendous
economic driver it supports and enhances
all other sectors it increases social
well-being outcomes it mitigates against
racism it creates a very unique
narrative and it instills personal pride
and belonging so in my opinion rather
than having a conversation entitled
white culture we should really be having
a conversation entitled why not culture
and with that being said in spirit from
the top of the pyramid of the Sun at
Teotihuacan outside of Mexico City in
the accompanying of my lovely wife by
saying to you all
aqua knee kotappa tourists will cheer to
suit our Karpinski nose which is to say
peace be unto you thank you for
listening to me and I hope to see you
also
you
[Applause]
so why culture very pertinent the
discussion to be having in today’s day
in age specifically because just a few
weeks ago we saw neo-nazis and white
supremacists openly marching in
Charlottesville we just had another
officer acquitted for the shooting of an
unarmed black man in st. Louis and we
have a president who not only believes
that there’s an African country called
nambia but as gotten rid of Dhaka is in
a war of words with North Korea that
could potentially lead to the next world
war and is how bent I’m building a wall
between the u.s. and Mexico why culture
is a very important discussion to be
having at this very moment and indeed it
is the impetus for the incident the
creation of the providence cultural
equity initiative my attempts to balance
my american indian culture and heritage
along with my social justice efforts
along with my efforts to just empower
the community as a whole to be more
self-reliant and self-sufficient so
before we begin our discussion we should
probably start with an understanding of
what culture is and I say that because
culture is such a dynamic element that
I’m sure if I went around this room and
asked each of you what culture is I
would get a different definition from
you all and if we’re gonna have a
discussion we need to be starting from a
place of mutual understanding we can
start with the very academic definition
of what culture is which was proposed by
Hofstede in 1997 when he said culture is
the accumulation of knowledge beliefs
values religion understanding of
space-time land ownership whatever you
may have that is acquired by groups of
people over generations through
individual in groups driver very
academic very verbose and not a great
elevator pitch in my opinion so let’s
see if we can whittle this down a little
bit to find a definition that’s a little
bit more manageable for our discussion
today first of all culture is expressed
through music and I personally have the
opportunity to perform with the eastern
medicine singers which is an Eastern
woodland American Indian Algonquian drum
group they tribals throughout the New
England region and beyond sharing our
culture through our music letting people
know that the Eastern woodlands
is alive and well it’s a great way to
share the culture
it’s a great way to express it to let
people know what your culture is and
where it’s at
next we can look at dance and my mind
goes to the per day picture people in
michoacán which is north west of Mexico
City in Mexico who have this fantastic
dance called the dance of the old men
they dress in traditional per day but
your clothing and of course they wear
masks that make them look like old men
what’s great about this is that they
invite the youth to be involved in it so
you not only get the youth involved in
the culture but you transfer it to
future generations and if you have had
the opportunity to see the dance it’s a
great way to share with the public
because once you’re watching it you
can’t take your eyes away until it’s
finished
of course culture is also expressed in
art and it said that society often
influences our and our influences
society or what influences society
culture of course the way that we are
the way that we become though our state
of being
so art is definitely a great way of
expressing culture we can also look at
history and my mind goes to the Arawak
people of the Caribbean who from a
colonial historical perspective are said
to be wiped out but if you have to have
the opportunity to travel to the
Caribbean then you’ll see the influences
of the Arawak people everywhere and
you’ll learn that from a colonial
historical perspective the Arawak
culture is alive and well and still
influencing to this day
so definitely history can be expressed
by culture next we can look at heritage
and I take you back to Mexico and
matulak on the island of initio and Lake
patzcuaro where they have a fantastic
statue at the top of the island honoring
Morelos who was the liberator of Mexico
from Spain and the story goes that when
he was on the run from the Spanish
government he went to the island and as
is the way of indigenous people they hid
and protected him so to honor this role
that they played in the liberation of
Mexico they have erected a statue they
on the top of the island and this is a
tremendous example of how culture can be
expressed through heritage we can stay
on the island and talk about how food
expresses culture and on until they have
this very unique delicacy called Charles
which are the small fish that they catch
in the lake around that they roll in
flour and they fry whole and then they
eat them like their french fries very
unique very specific and enough
great example of how culture can be
expressed through food and then lastly
we can talk about traditions and if
you’re talking about here in the
Northeast and you’re definitely talking
about the powwow which is actually a
derivative of the Narragansett word for
our medicine man which is a powwow he
used to go and bless the circle before
all of the dancers would come up to
dance and this became known as the
powwow but what’s great about traditions
is you can create new ones and we do
this in particular by our fire towards
honoring ceremony which we collaborate
with water fire Providence on from time
to time so not only honor indigenous
leaders from the local community but
leaders from the community as a whole so
ultimately when we’re talking about
culture we’re talking about the way
things are done by specific groups of
people and the reasons why they do them
much better elevator pitch if I do say
so myself
so we understand what culture is let’s
look at why culture is important and for
this we can look at the world Commission
on culture and development our creative
diversity port report this summary
version of July 1996 where they came to
three conclusions first that culture
influences all of our way of thinking
behaving and imagining that the
societies and groups culture is energy
empowerment inspiration knowledge and
acknowledgement of diversity and also
the fact that political and economic
rights cannot be realized outside of
social and cultural so ultimately why is
coaching important because it impacts
every aspect of our livelihood so we
understand what culture is we understand
why it’s important let’s look at some of
the benefits of culture and because we
live in a dollars and cents world let’s
look at the fact that culture is a
tremendous economic driver now how do we
know this because there’s this thing
called cultural tourism and what is
quote true tourism well it’s 78 percent
of all visitors to the US on an annual
basis about 118 million visitors per
year
these cultural tourists stay longer and
spend about 36% more during these days
to the tune of about 1319 dollars per
visit or 192 billion dollars annually to
the US economy so when you’re talking
culture you’re definitely talking an
economic driver we can next look at the
fact that culture supports and enhances
all other sectors why well because
cultural tourists are looking for a very
specific
they can unique experience when they
travel but of course to have this
experience they have to travel so
they’re supporting the travel industry
when they get to their destination they
need a place to stay so they’re
supporting the hospitality industry and
of course we got to eat right so they’re
also supporting the food and beverage
industry and we know this because UNESCO
has designated several hundred
designations around the world as world
heritage of humanity sites that get
millions of cultural tourists to visit
them on an annual basis once again
contributing to all of these other
sectors in our economy next we can take
a look at the City of Philadelphia’s
office of arts culture in the creative
community there everyone’s rights to our
culture discussion where they focused on
two things first what is the negative
impact on communities when they do not
have access to arts and culture
resources and secondly what steps can be
taken to promote more cultural equity in
their community and they team came to
two conclusions first that communities
with lower socioeconomic statuses that
have access to higher levels of our
cultural resources have greater social
well-being outcomes and secondly that is
in the interest of the public sector as
a whole to have greater access for
everyone to kochu resources so
ultimately the benefit is that exposure
to culture diversity assists and the
overall social well-being of a community
and its members next a very important
one we can look at the fact that culture
mitigates against racism now how do we
know this well because it honors unique
cultural distinctions because it builds
bridges of understanding and because it
promotes relationship building and
mutual respect now those are big claims
right how do we substantiate that well
let’s take a look at the relationship of
the American Indian to the Irishman to
the Englishman now from a cultural
perspective the American Indian and the
Irishman have so many things in common
tribal communities warriors clans Chiefs
and both colonized by the English so
from a cultural perspective you would
think that the Indian would get together
with the Irishman and say hey Englishman
we don’t appreciate what you did to us
we’re standing together now we’re gonna
make sure this doesn’t happen to us ever
again but of course we live in a racial
society right so in a racial society
Irishman becomes white along with the
Englishman the Indian becomes colored or
black and the Indian and the Irishman
never get together culture has a way of
breaking down those barriers and it’s a
great way to mitigate against racism
next we can look at the fact that
culture creates a very unique narrative
my mind goes back to Mexico once again
to sent the klauer which is in Mitch
Mitchell Khan which is the copper
capital of Mexico and not only can you
go there and get some of the most
exquisite high-quality and unique copper
craftsmanship you’ve ever seen in your
life but you can also visit the National
Museum of copper to learn about the rich
heritage of copper in Mexico and also
see some of the fantastic traditional
forms of making copper once again very
specific and unique to Santa Clara and a
great example of how culture creates a
very unique new narrative for the place
where it speaks
and then lastly culture instills
personal pride in belonging and why do I
say this
well because whether you’re Laotian
American Indian or Liberian from West
Africa everyone has one so everyone can
have personal pride and everyone can
feel a sense of belonging based upon the
culture that they come from so let’s
recap briefly coaches a tremendous
economic driver it supports and enhances
all other sectors it increases social
well-being outcomes it mitigates against
racism it creates a very unique
narrative and it instills personal pride
and belonging so in my opinion rather
than having a conversation entitled
white culture we should really be having
a conversation entitled why not culture
and with that being said in spirit from
the top of the pyramid of the Sun at
Teotihuacan outside of Mexico City in
the accompanying of my lovely wife by
saying to you all
aqua knee kotappa tourists will cheer to
suit our Karpinski nose which is to say
peace be unto you thank you for
listening to me and I hope to see you
also
you
[Applause]
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