Sharing the personal note and Call to Action Statement I addressed to the American Academy in Rome Community in response to this summer’s growing activism and support of BLACK LIVES MATTER. In my view, we should all remember that social justice and the eradication of systemic racism is not contained within a singular moment but an ongoing movement towards EQUALITY...
‘…An open letter from Kelly D. Powell, a 2002 Fellow in Architecture and President of the Society of Fellows of the American Academy in Rome.
Looking back at my fellowship at the Academy from 2001 to 2002, I always remember how my fluency in French improved long before I had a handle on speaking Italian.
My first connections in the Eternal City were with the Senegalese, who primarily lived around the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele roughly twenty years ago. Because many didn’t speak English, it was easier for me to communicate in French and answer their questions about my research in Rome and, in turn, pose my questions to them about their life in Italy. I was actively seeking out groups within Rome that would be considered “other” or existed on the margins of what was considered Italian society, to learn how their existence impacted the built environment. While this was the basis of my work in Rome, venturing to Piazza Vittorio eventually became my personal escape (in addition to encounters with Italians from Venice to Erice, Sicily) and a means of dealing with the isolation I often felt at the Academy, being one of two African American Fellows that year….’
Read the full statement HERE…
