Grantee Partner Spotlight: Garvey Tubman Cultural Arts and Research Center

A Q&A with Shatriya Smith

Executive Director of the Garvey Tubman Cultural Arts and Research Center (GTCARC)

The two mentors made compelling statements, but it took some time for me to agree. 

Charles Tripplet said, "The road is paved, the bus fare is paid... It's time to get on the bus.” 

Charles Scott said, "Just do 5 things on the itinerary for the executive director and then move on to the next." Now I am doing 25 things and learning more as I grow. I have been an executive director for 5 years and I have learned so much. Nevertheless, I bring with me an ample amount of customer service skills from many years of working with the public. Including empathetic leadership skills from working with students who have developmental differences for 11 years.

I have been blessed to be born into a creative and artistic family from music to visual arts. Organizing is an art in itself to compile and maintain controlled chaos in the heights of a busy and everchanging landscape, like events and program activities (a precarious dance of many moving pieces) by having an advantage of seeing the behind-the-scenes actions and duties of others. As I've grown into these spaces, I can reference back to many experiences from the past. My grandmother Ernestine (Teena) Nicks was integral in supporting the Blacks, Whites, and Blues Festivals in Springfield, IL, and had several businesses under her leadership. My father was a D.J. and martial arts instructor. My Uncle was a visual artist but had many complications after the Vietnam War. My grandmother on my mom’s side, Luella Logan, had 11 children and she organized all of them to work the fields in Mississippi but also saved finances and was able to afford many of her children to go to college on a third-grade education, which taught me that lack of education does not equate to lack of ability.

Considering your own background as a published poet, and that April is National Poetry Month, how would you describe the importance that poetry has in reaching and engaging with young people?

My grandmother Teena introduced me to poetry through Paul Lawrence Dunbar as a teen, at a time when I was having difficulty with reading. Having undiagnosed dyslexia and not understanding that while we may have many similarities we also have many differences. 

My grandmother gave me an enlightened view of other forms of communication and imagination through creative writing. 

It was critical for me because it bolstered my resolve to learn and lean into poetry and poetic stanzas from many different backgrounds. Enhancing my thrust for reading by sharing similar stories of my environment and family dynamics that I was not receiving from my education. For instance, my family might speak in hushed tones around sorrowful or hard conversations; these poems screamed compassion and understanding while overcoming similar odds. I think this is the same for young people of today, thirsty for some semblance of understanding, compassion, and creativity that can be rhythmic and melodic.

How would you describe the Springfield community you work in? And what sorts of evidence do you see of the impact of your programs in that community? 

This is a very impactful question, as I have had many generations of family that I would listen to, always being indebted to listening and asking questions. 

Paying close attention to the storytelling of the older days of Springfield. The Emancipation Proclamation, the Great Migration, the opportunities for Black businesses, work, and prosperity in comparison to the fields and hardships of sharecropping. I see a timespan of growth and depreciation.

Currently, we are in a space that is emaciated with the words and works of much-needed investments. The desegregation without assimilation. They say they want for us to grow but the barriers are fraught with details that make it difficult and classist. The community that I speak of that used to house most of the Black population is now empty lots, boarded up or burnt-up homes, business blight, and a food desert. There are no gas stations and large box businesses only preside outside of its areas. 

Where once this was a thriving community the lack of jobs has showcased the socio-economic divide in a noticeable display.

While I don’t think this is unique, it is reminiscent of a vision or declaration of dismantling Black and low-income communities for a long-term goal of reconstruction of spaces. The unethical historical understanding of Black inferiority, despite examples of the falsity of this inferiority through the existence of entities like Black Wall Street, or the hatred of Black prosperity in many communities has been showcased as a 100-year-goal to discourage and rearrange the power structure of said communities.

On the evidence of our organization in the community, I can only say this: Programs like those offered by GTCARC and the Springfield Urban League are supportive because I am a representative of the outcome of a program called the ARP (Adolescent Responsibility Program) offered by the Springfield Urban League, under Doris Chambers. Her tutelage and leadership have provided Springfield with many members doing great things in the community.

Sharing and supporting local youth programs such as the ones offered by the GTCARC assist in bringing the imagination, effort, and continuity of growth by these young individuals to provide their future with engagements not easily acquired in most situations offered to low-income families, by offering them developmental tools, communication tools, and creative access to training not offered by the educational community in Springfield. 

Anything else you’d like to add?

Learning at a deficit is something we need to recognize for many community members who are trying new avenues of leadership and may not be particularly prepared for all the nuances of running an organization/business. I recognize that in my duties I have a difficult time finding the support of effort and manpower to do this work. Burnout is a real and consistent issue in the nonprofit field, compassionate compensation is not always on par with the mental, physical, and emotional strain, time, and effort that is put on the leaders/staff/volunteers. Finding a team that is willing to get on the board and support the mission is difficult in these times, especially for those who are contending with excessive financial obligations like shelter, food, and gas.

About the Garvey Tubman Cultural Arts and Research Center (GTCARC)