{"id":12246,"date":"2021-06-01T21:05:34","date_gmt":"2021-06-02T01:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nornow.org\/?p=12246"},"modified":"2021-06-01T21:05:36","modified_gmt":"2021-06-02T01:05:36","slug":"sometimes-a-chair-is-more-than-a-chair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nornow.org\/2021\/06\/01\/sometimes-a-chair-is-more-than-a-chair\/","title":{"rendered":"Sometimes a Chair is More than a Chair"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Around the Village Green<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>by Kelly Kandra Hughes<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Norfolk resident Leslie&nbsp;Battis&nbsp;has seen Adirondack chairs outside of churches for over a year now. Often painted in vibrant rainbow colors representing LGBTQIA+&nbsp;inclusivity, these chairs started popping&nbsp;up&nbsp;more frequently&nbsp;during the pandemic.&nbsp;Battis&nbsp;wanted to see her church, the Norfolk Church of Christ Congregational (UCC), have their own chairs, too.&nbsp;She&nbsp;thought they would be a great way to encourage conversations outdoors in a socially distant manner.&nbsp;But she&nbsp;also&nbsp;had a different vision for how the chairs should look \u2013&nbsp;what if they were painted in all different skin&nbsp;colors?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the past&nbsp;several&nbsp;years, the Norfolk UCC&nbsp;has promoted racial justice as one of its missions. Some of their activities, often in collaboration&nbsp;with&nbsp;the Rev. Dr. Shelley Best of&nbsp;The Redeemer\u2019s African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Plainville, Conn.<em>,&nbsp;<\/em>have included group discussions of books such as&nbsp;\u201cThe New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness\u201d&nbsp;and&nbsp;the documentaries \u201c<em>13<\/em><em><sup>th<\/sup><\/em><em>\u201d<\/em>and&nbsp;\u201cAll In: The Fight for Democracy\u201d<em>.&nbsp;<\/em>Battis\u2019s idea for these chairs&nbsp;would be an outward expression&nbsp;of the church&#8217;s mission, so that&nbsp;the town of Norfolk&nbsp;could see on the church\u2019s&nbsp;front lawn their solidarity with&nbsp;their Black sisters and brothers.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Battis, who is also part of the church\u2019s Fellowship &amp; Growth team, brought her idea to the other\u00a0members, who all enthusiastically and unanimously voiced their support.\u00a0The next step was to\u00a0price\u00a0Adirondack chairs. Wanting to support a local business, if possible, Rev. Erick Olsen, pastor of Norfolk UCC, visited\u00a0Olde Farms Furniture in East Canaan.\u00a0Owners Ron and Ann Reich loved the idea so much they\u00a0donated seven Adirondack chairs.\u00a0\u201cWhen Pastor Olsen spoke to me about the project,\u201d says Ann Reich, \u201cI thought it over and realized what a great opportunity to donate the chairs for this great cause. In these trying times, anything to bring all peoples together to live in peace and harmony is what I believe God wants us to do. I felt the Lord has been watching over us and keeping us safe through this pandemic, and this was the least I could do to give back to the community in some small way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/nornow.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Adirondack-Chairs-by-Erick-Olsen-at-Olde-Farms-Furniture-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12247\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nornow.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Adirondack-Chairs-by-Erick-Olsen-at-Olde-Farms-Furniture-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/nornow.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Adirondack-Chairs-by-Erick-Olsen-at-Olde-Farms-Furniture-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/nornow.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Adirondack-Chairs-by-Erick-Olsen-at-Olde-Farms-Furniture-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/nornow.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Adirondack-Chairs-by-Erick-Olsen-at-Olde-Farms-Furniture-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nornow.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Adirondack-Chairs-by-Erick-Olsen-at-Olde-Farms-Furniture-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/nornow.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Adirondack-Chairs-by-Erick-Olsen-at-Olde-Farms-Furniture-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/nornow.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Adirondack-Chairs-by-Erick-Olsen-at-Olde-Farms-Furniture-450x338.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>With its generous donation of Adirondack chair&#8217;s, Canaan&#8217;s Olde Farms Furniture helps Norfolk UCC bring its racial justice mission comfortably front and center. Photo by Erick Olsen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>With the chairs so generously donated,&nbsp;the next step was to determine the colors to paint them.&nbsp;Recognizing the need to choose colors with sensitivity and awareness, the church knew they needed&nbsp;an expert&nbsp;and, thankfully, already knew one\u2013the Rev. Dr. Shelley Best.&nbsp;In 2019, Rev. Dr. Best\u2019s art show, \u201cWhat Is Black? Prayers &amp; Portraits,\u201d<em> <\/em>exhibited at The 224 EcoSpace in Hartford, showcased the myriad flesh colors that constitute \u201cBlack.\u201d \u201cThe colors of Black people can be any color of human flesh,\u201d says Rev. Dr. Best. \u201cWhite, pink, brown, mauve. But when you identify as Black, there are shifts in how you are perceived and ramifications for your life.\u201d Educating and building awareness of these perceptions is why Rev. Dr. Best is so enthusiastic about the Congregational Church\u2019s project. \u201cThis installation goes one step further than walking in another person\u2019s shoes. It gives people a chance to sit in another person\u2019s skin color and think about the differences.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After Rev. Dr. Best made her color recommendations, the church still needed&nbsp;to determine the best way to paint and care for the pressure-treated wood.&nbsp;Rev. Olsen reached out to Matt Bannerman, a local painter and owner of Mad River Painting Co.&nbsp;The&nbsp;spirit of generosity surrounding the chairs continued to flow as Bannerman offered to paint the chairs free of charge. All the church had to do was buy the materials.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;There is clearly something good in the air and in people&#8217;s hearts when so many friends jump on board an initiative like this!&#8221; says Rev. Olsen. \u201cThis project is powerful, not only because of its clear visual representation of our desire for racial justice, but also due to the creative collaboration it has inspired in Norfolk and beyond. I am humbled and delighted to find myself in the middle of a community that works in such a grassroots manner toward such a noble goal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At press time, the chairs are still being painted. Once they arrive on the Congregational Church\u2019s front lawn, all are welcome to sit in and enjoy them.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Around the Village Green by Kelly Kandra Hughes Norfolk resident Leslie&nbsp;Battis&nbsp;has seen Adirondack chairs outside of churches for over a year now. Often painted in vibrant rainbow colors representing LGBTQIA+&nbsp;inclusivity, these chairs started popping&nbsp;up&nbsp;more frequently&nbsp;during the pandemic.&nbsp;Battis&nbsp;wanted to see her church, the Norfolk Church of Christ Congregational (UCC), have their own chairs, too.&nbsp;She&nbsp;thought they would [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[233,3,39,238],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-233","category-articles","category-features","category-june-2021"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nornow.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12246"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nornow.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nornow.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nornow.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nornow.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12246"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nornow.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12249,"href":"https:\/\/nornow.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12246\/revisions\/12249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nornow.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nornow.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nornow.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}