Chattanooga Community Conversation with Mona Golabek
On September 23, Facing History and Ourselves and The Allstate Foundation hosted our first Community Conversation in Chattanooga at the Chattanooga High School Center for Creative Arts. The evening featured a performance by Mona Golabek, concert pianist and the author of The Children of Willesden Lane about her mother's experience as one of the 10,000 children brought to England before World War II as part of the Kindertransport, a mission to rescue children threatened by the Nazis. Over 500 community members, students and educators came to hear this powerful story of friendship, rescue and resistance, including Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield, who remarked, "This was really a wonderful evening."
Allstate Market Distribution Leader Pat Williams opened the program by sharing the impact of Community Conversations, which have now reached almost 30,000 people across the U.S. "We began a partnership with Facing History to provide an open platform for exchanging ideas and challenging preconceived notions on race, social divisions and human behavior. Since then, many conversations of this kind have brought people together. Facing History shows us how to stop violence rooted in discrimination. It shows us how to use history as our teacher."
Leslie Schoonover, a FHAO teacher at Chattanooga High School Center for Creative Arts, also shared some opening remarks.
"I have been a teacher for 23 years and spent a lot of time trying to learn history, but there was something missing. I found the missing component seven years ago when I attended my first Facing History workshop . . . . to teach students to be more human, more tolerant, more compassionate. I learned to teach students how to be better human beings. I found that in Facing History and Ourselves."
After Ms. Golabek's performance, Alexus S., an 8th grade student at Chattanooga Science & Arts School and aspiring musician, asked if she would listen to her play. Ms. Golabek loved it, saying that she has never been asked to listen to a student's playing in such a setting before.
Mona Golabek really connected with the audience who gave her an enthusiastic standing ovation, and more than 100 people waited in line for a book-signing. Through the generosity of the Lebovitz Family Charitable Trust, the first 400 guests received a free copy of the book.
