Courtesy of Sean Elliot
On February 10, the first event in a new series, the [Un]Freedom Colloquium, jointly organized by Connecticut College and the Center for Housing Equity and Opportunity, was held in Ernst Common Room in Blaustein Humanities Center. The event addressed issues of housing insecurity, education access, and community advocacy in the College’s home city of New London. Moderated by Dr. Monika Lopez-Anuarbe of the Economics Department, the discussion featured speakers Trina Charles, the executive director of Step Up New London, Catherine Zall, the executive director of New London Homeless Hospitality Center, David Morgan,the executive director of TEAM Inc., Jennifer Paradis, the executive director of Beth El Center, and Michael Passero, the mayor of New London. The [Un]Freedom series seeks to create a productive space for members of local communities to explore and narrate our city’s rich history in conversation with faculty, staff, and students, to share strategies and offer opportunities for future collaboration. The series is framed around the theme of ‘unfreedom,’ a concept that refers to the historical and contemporary conditions that limit individual and collective agency, as a lens through which to view New London’s place within the wider setting of the Western Hemisphere and the Atlantic World. The events highlight work done by local historians, students, creators, and community advocates.
The speakers combined their wealth of experiences and knowledge as community organizers working with the New London community to offer insight into what “unfreedom” means in their fields. Guided by moderating questions and audience insights, the five panelists spoke to a crowded room of Connecticut College students, faculty, staff, and members of the New London community on topics including the meaning of community, freedom, gentrification, and New London’s relationship to these terms. The discussion stressed the importance of previous efforts to combat homelessness in the city, such as the New London Homeless Hospitality Center and the Walk to End Homelessness, and also brought up previous failures, such as segregation in schools and neighborhoods and poorly constructed, unsafe housing for lower-income families. Trina Charles, speaking for Step Up New London, an organization dedicated to “unapologetically and intentionally organizing, advocating and educating for housing & education justice,” stated that freedom comes from having a vision and purpose and the ability to see it through, and that supporting the concept of agency is crucial for community growth, a sentiment echoed throughout the conversation.
Particularly interesting were the conflicting perspectives offered by Charles, the executive director of Step Up New London, and Mayor Passero, a Conn alum, about gentrification’s effect on the city and how that is being combatted, with Passero stating that housing built in the city costs “market rate” and cannot be made less expensive, and also mentioning the importance of the arts to New Londoners and plans for a recreation center, set to open in summer 2025. Mayor Passero emphasized the Manwaring buildings in downtown New London, a form of housing offered for Conn students who wanted to engage with the local community, as an important place for community building. He also stated that housing is “a marathon.” Charles offered an opposing viewpoint, based on her experience working in the city, that New London is actively experiencing gentrification (the process by which the character of a neighborhood, usually a poor urban one, changes due to an influx of wealthier white residents), with people driven out of the city by infrastructure construction, forced to live in hotels, and unable to purchase homes.
[Un] Freedom’s speakers emphasized the vitality of further connecting the Connecticut College community to the New London community, not in a way that is “saving” underprivileged residents, but rather putting focus on uplifting them and giving them their own agency to combat issues in their lives. As Mayor Passero stated, “New London is a city on the front porch, not the back deck” — a call to action for students and New Londoners alike to do what they can to uplift the community, strengthening existing spaces of community action and building new ones, and to combat forces of gentrification as they threaten a thriving city.
The [Un]Freedom Colloquium series will next host an event on Wednesday, February 24th, at 4:15 PM in Oliva Hall in Cummings Art Center. This event will feature a showing of the documentary “Fighting for Home” (2024), followed by a conversation with the filmmakers about the history of exclusionary zoning and redlining policies and their effect on New London. Following this, the series will continue with an event on March 3rd dedicated to food and housing security for tribal communities. This event will feature a panel discussion with members of the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation and a Q&A session. The series will conclude with a conference on March 29th, where students and professors are invited to share their research on shaping historical narratives.
