A Corner of Peace, A Place of Belonging – A Conversation with Tara Hardy

A Corner of Peace, A Place of Belonging – A Conversation with Tara Hardy

from Jess Yusko, Student Partner in Learning and Teaching

Awaking early on a Monday morning, as Fall break was drawing to a close, I noticed the branches outside my window looked a bit more bare and the grey fog hangs like a perennial blanket. Today was the first day of December, which always feels like a beginning and an end all at once. It is the beginning of the end of the year; and we are near the end of Fall Quarter, already looking ahead and planning for Winter. Thinking about the day ahead of me, I felt gratitude that my first work activity would be something enjoyable: an interview with my former writing instructor, Evergreen faculty member, Tara Hardy. I made a nice cup of pour-over coffee, and sat in a spot by the window where I could see the fog blanketing us, half-obscuring the pines, as we met for a cozy early morning Zoom session. 

I opened the conversation by reminding Tara how much I appreciated the time and effort she put into researching and sourcing such a diverse, intersectional reading selection for our course, Writing Healing. I was so impressed with the wide variety of perspectives and voices that were represented. These selections included the kinds of voices that must intentionally be sought after or they may never be discovered; the ones that probably wouldn’t show up within the top three search results. Although I took this course a couple years ago, some of these voices stay with me: first person narratives from writers such as Pierre Pinson, a Black man writing while incarcerated in Pennsylvania, Natalie Diaz, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry of Mojave American poet, and Cyree Jarelle Johnson who writes from the perspective of POC, queer, disability advocate, among so many other impactful voices.

 When I asked Tara about her thoughts behind these selections, she carefully considered it and said:

 “It’s interesting… One of the things that happens for me while I’m building the curriculum is that the more I know, the more I learn, the more I’m aware of what voices are left out, and what voices are only represented in a slim way. So, they’re difficult choices, you know.” 

I asked Tara if she would share with me the reasons behind these choices and why she believes this aspect of instructional design is crucial. She said:

 “ People might say this is time consuming; and in a way it is time consuming, but I also find it to be time-saving and pain saving, because the more I research, the more I understand, and the more I am prepared to show up to student needs. And so, if I haven’t done a wide reading of the materials that are out there, if I haven’t done a wide search, I’m going to miss something. And that is potentially going to cause harm in the classroom.” 

Continuing to reframe the idea that course planning for inclusivity of diverse perspectives can be time consuming, or extraneous effort, Tara added, “It’s one of the things that I want to think about challenging myself and other faculty, that this type of research and reading: it redistributes time. It doesn’t necessarily take time. It just redistributes what we’re focusing on.” 

I asked Tara about the How, When and Why’s influencing her development of these values and how they apply to course design at Evergreen. Tara acknowledged some of her mentors such as poet and creative Ebo Barton, author and Disability & Transformative Justice activist Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, and author, activist and spoken-word artist Sonya Renee Taylor, crediting encounters with them in the arts community as shifting the direction of her work. Tara said:

“I continue to be a community organizer, overlapping with my job at Evergreen. And when you’re doing community organizing, if you’re doing it responsibly, you have to source needs from the community, right? You have to know what that community wants and needs if you’re going to be of use as a tool, as an instrument of change.” 

This concept of open inquiry and receptivity, learning about the identities of your community and their needs is also central to teaching at Evergreen. One of the initial strategies for cultivating belonging and  promoting culturally sustaining pedagogy is to know who you are teaching and which practices those in your learning community wish to see sustained. Tara makes a case for our responsibility as educators to consider these practices, by saying:

 “I think the solutions that we will create together will be imperfect, partial, and potentially harmful, if we’re not looking at as many perspectives as possible. And of course, I’m always letting the principles of Disability Justice guide me, one of which is seeking the leadership of those most impacted. So when I do research for building a curriculum for the program, I look at who is most impacted by what we are studying. And specifically who is most impacted by the systems that are involved in what we’re studying. And then I design the curriculum so that it is led by those peoples.” 

Stay tuned for Part Two, to hear some invaluable insights into questions such as: 

• How to deal with pushback?  How and when to talk about race in the classroom? What to say when students from privileged backgrounds ask: “Where am I in this curriculum?” 
• How to start? Tara offers actual methods for researching and including intersectional, diverse sources for course materials in your curriculum. 
• How can I make course planning and sourcing diverse course materials enjoyable and not a chore? 
• How to effectively utilize individual strengths and resources for Team Teaching at Evergreen to promote representation and diversity? 
• How to deal with student engagement in your course? Not fearing self-reflection and more!

 I saved so much practical, inspiring content to share with you at the start of Winter Quarter. Enjoy your holiday break. May it be restful, contemplative, and restorative so that we return renewed and ready to learn together.