Adirondack Voters For Change’s vision is to provide all people the right to a safe and adequate standard of living while embracing diversity in all respects and the rights guaranteed in our nation’s Bill of Rights. Furthermore, AVFC advocates for a more equal distribution of wealth and income, access to health care for all, a clean, healthy environment, renewable energy and the peaceful resolution of conflicts, both domestic and international. Their meetings are open to the general public.

The Adirondack Diversity Initiative, led by Rea-Fisher, works to make the Adirondacks a welcoming and inclusive place for residents and visitors while ensuring a vital and sustainable Adirondack Park for future generations. The ADI is based in Saranac Lake at the Adirondack North Country Association, an organization that has played a crucial role in the establishment of the Adirondack Common Ground Alliance, which brings together a diverse network of educational, environmental, business, health, political and other leaders to address issues that affect the Adirondack Park, its communities, institutions and individuals.

By chance, Rea-Fisher’s presentation came at the end of a week when North Country Public Radio’s new podcast “If All Else Fails” first aired. It’s a series on far-right extremism in upstate New York that has gained traction in an increasingly polarized society. Thus, her talk was timely.

“Through the Memorial, I try to engage people in the injustices in our country,” said Ren Davidson Seward, creator of the Memorial Field for Black Lives installation at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site in Lake Placid. “I was galvanized to make the Memorial by the murder of the jogger Ahmaud Arbery, who was hunted down and killed by an armed posse.”

Davidson said the lack of transparency, the lack of information, in the world, increasingly in politics, galvanized her to display the often-hidden reality behind many of the violent deaths of Black Americans. Mindful that the arts can often be used to bridge differences, she created the Memorial Field to present the facts and hopefully stimulate dialogue. Davidson fears the increasing polarization in society and how differing people feel that they are true patriots; thus, she came to BluSeed to learn from Rea-Fisher how people can come together and how we can create safe spaces for dialogue.

Rea-Fisher, who leads a New York City-based dance company, divides her time weekly between Harlem, where she lives, and the Adirondacks. As she has been teaching dance and creating new works in the Adirondacks for over two decades, she feels her lifestyle enables her to understand a resident’s and visitor’s experience of the Adirondacks.

“One of the things I have learned about tough issues, be it about ability, age, economics, race, anything that can be a little sticky, issues that can make people a little uncomfortable, is the arts can be a wonderful way of bringing people to the table,” she said. “You’re not expecting to be attacked when you enter a gallery or theater. You expect to enjoy yourself, you’re ready for a good time, and you open in ways you might not ordinarily be when walking through your everyday life. Thus, the arts can be a way to get into people because you are often not only with people who think like you. When I speak with people (as the director of ADI), they often think I am coming to tell them they are bad people; what they’re doing is wrong. And so, they start with a huge wall up. Often, they are convinced that I feel how they have been living their life is wrong, who they are is bad, and that we’re in direct conflict.

“I disagree with that. I enter into any conversation with extreme empathy and understanding; my desire is to meet them where they are. I love bridge building. That doesn’t mean I don’t try to shake things up because you have to do that; in my role, you can’t be about the status quo. But that doesn’t mean that people have to feel bad about themselves. The easier that we can build trust, the easier you can feel seen and heard by me; the easier it will be for us to do some action together.”

Rea-Fisher said that the Adirondacks and Harlem have a lot in common; both are very distinct places, and each contains many small communities. In her experience, communities are about care. The people of Saranac Lake care about each other and seek to make the community a wonderful place to live, as is true of Lake Placid, Keene and other communities. There are communities with communities, such as a church and its congregation, the patrons of a library and the members of a fire department.

“I care about my family, my neighbor, about your experience in my neighborhood, and therefore, I will bring forth my best self to ensure you’re good, and you’ll do the same for me,” said Rea-Fisher. “I think sometimes that gets lost, or we forget. I feel that sometimes, in our extreme individualism, we forget about what makes us special. What makes us special as a species is that we have so many ways of communicating. I believe our shared humanity is what’s going to prove to be essential as we come to difficult years politically, that’s going to become essential to our survival as a species.

“What’s important to remember is there is no cavalry coming to save us. It’s just us. We’re the ones. It’s not the next generation. It’s who is here now that will make a difference on what happens, what comes next. We have to take responsibility for our actions, understanding they will have repercussions, positive or negative. We need to decide what kind of legacy we want to leave. Let’s say there are 50 people in this room. That’s 50 legacies.”

Rea-Fisher pointed out that we have ample evidence through living in the Adirondacks that diversity in nature makes nature stronger, be that diversity in the kinds of trees, insects, birds and everything together, and that the Adirondack communities already have far greater diversity in the people who live, work, and visit here than many realize. Thus, strengthening that diversity in positive ways is to our advantage.

Rea-Fisher then went on to identify three points, three skills that she has found have worked to bring people together. One was finding your center and like-minded people who can support you and, through their connections, make a positive difference through bridge-building and radical listening. She felt that we must understand the urgency of tackling the challenging issues facing humanity and that our collective action can and will make a difference.

(Naj Wikoff lives in Keene Valley. He has been covering events for the Lake Placid News for more than 15 years.)