I am sitting in the corporate headquarters of one of the largest banks in the region to have a meeting with the Vice President of the company. If this meeting is successful, the bank will be our largest corporate donor and allow the organization I represent to purchase our first permanent home. For the last thirteen years we have been tenants living under the thumb of a landlord who only values us when we pay the rent. I have been told that this VP has the power to change my life and I believe it. The marble floors are immaculately polished and a lovely woman at the reception desk keeps trying to take my coat and offer me something to drink. I politely say no thank you and look down at my shoes and wonder if I should have given them a fresh coat of polish. Before I am able to make a determination the VP's assistant enters the room followed by the man himself. There is some cordial small talk and we are whisked off to a meeting room away from the hubbub of the lobby. The environment of the conversation settles down and begins to take a more somber tone; what you would imagine an important business meeting to feel like. As the Vice President of a major bank he has many functions and I am most assuredly at the bottom of his 'to do' list. I give him the pitch I have been practicing all morning:
In the city of Rochester, New York is a historic church that has existed since the 1820s. It represents the first historically African-American church in the region and played a key role in the civil rights struggle of the United States. It is called the Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church. Harriet Tubman used the building as a way station on the Underground Railroad. Frederick Douglass had his printing press in the basement where he published his abolitionist newspaper 'The North Star'. Susan B. Anthony gave her last speeches in the building before she retired from public life. The current congregation cannot afford to maintain the building and wants to sell it. The organization I represent, Bread & Water Theatre, wants to purchase the building, renovate it and use it as a arts and cultural center. This would breathe new life into the community and make it possible for arts programming to reach the inner city of Rochester for the first time in fifty years.
Anyone can tell you that the downtown of Rochester, NY has been woefully neglected. Our Main Street is in a shambles and suffering from blight. Politicians do not know what to do so they blame gangs, drugs and violent crime as the problem. If you are poor or working class you have few opportunities to remove yourself from the problems surrounding you. We believe that providing arts programming to the public for a reasonable fee will provide the community a much needed avenue for enrichment. We will also have educational programs for students to help encourage them to succeed not just in the arts, but in life. Our schools, like many throughout the country, have cut arts funding so that they may prepare for the more rigorous testing requirements that are the bane of every teacher's existence. This would be an opportunity to bring that programming back into the community where it belongs. Others would benefit from our presence even if they never paid us a visit. For every dollar spent at the theatre by a patron, seven dollars are spent by that same patron in the community. This means that if the average patron spends twelve dollars on a theatre ticket they will end up spending an additional eighty-four dollars on dinner, transportation and other frills associated with their night out on the town. That money will go back into the community, make it stronger and improve the lives of everyone that lives there. The bank you represent would be responsible for bringing a community back from the brink and preserving the legacy of Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony for generations to come.
The VP appreciated my pitch. He especially liked the idea of supporting an effort connected to the lives of Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass. It took a long time for resident's of Rochester to embrace their prodigal son and daughter, but much has changed since their lifetimes. Rochester is no longer the boomtown it once was. Many of our businesses have left or moved production overseas eliminating jobs at home. The Erie Canal became obsolete and is no longer the big shipping channel it once was. Anthony and Douglass became our mascots by default and businesses liked to hang a hat on their legacy. What the VP did not like was an emphasis on affordable programs for people living in the city. He definitely did not like the idea of afterschool programs for inner-city youth. And he especially did not like the idea of improving the quality of life for those that lived in the community. I do not think he was prejudiced or racist. As a banker he wants to stretch his dollar as far as it will go so that it has the most impact. He would rather spend his bank's money on projects that attract a few wealthy people than on ones that attract the working class or poor. As a banker he has assigned everyone a value and the people I serve are not valuable enough for him. He thanked me for my time and explained that his bank has already allocated its non-profit funding for the next couple of years. He looked forward to hearing of my progress and wished me the best of luck.
The organization I represent, Bread & Water Theatre, is no closer to reaching its goals than it was at that meeting several months ago. We have some modest fundraising plans for the spring, but that will not be enough. If we are to be successful it is because people from all over the world want us to be. They see value in the work that we do and they want it to continue. They recognize our efforts in providing arts programming to city residents and how community arts initiatives change lives in amazingly positive ways. Lastly, I ask you to maintain the legacies of our ancestors: Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony and all the others who passed through the doors of this church fighting for equality so that their children could reap the benefits of liberty. Today that promise remains only partially fulfilled. We need to continue the struggle to ensure that everyone has the same opportunity of access to the benefits of our society and that the arts remain available to all regardless of their position in society.
Bread & Water Theatre is currently accepting donations to its building fund. To obtain more information on how you can donate contact the theatre at Info@BreadandWaterTheatre.org or call 585.271.5523. Bread & Water Theatre is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit arts institution. All donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law. You may also donate via this weblink to our website:
http://www.breadandwatertheatre.org/suppor... "I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves" -Harriet Tubman
"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe." -Frederick Douglass
"Failure is impossible" -Susan B. Anthony
Posted By: JR Teeter
Friday, March 22nd 2013 at 10:12PM
You can also
click
here to view all posts by this author...
