2024 Community Impact & Housing Expo Hosted by Gwinnett/Walton Habitat for Humanity

On Saturday, April 27th Stephanie Calabrese served as the Keynote Speaker for this 6th Annual event held at the Walton Boys & Girls Club in Monroe, Georgia. She was invited because of her efforts toward racial justice and reconciliation through her documentary feature film, UNSPOKEN.

“Change is a Choice”

Let’s be honest… How many of you woke up and felt like you needed to push yourself just a bit to come to this event today?

I want to thank you because you made the choice to be here not just for yourself, or your family… but for our community. Your presence matters.

When YOU learn, grow and expand your opportunities… we all benefit. 

I’ve come to understand that change is a choice… but that wasn’t always obvious to me. Maybe you can relate. 

Change asks us to confront the status quo either in ourselves or in the world around us. I wish I could tell you that this was easy for me or that I felt no resistance, but in my case it was something I had to wrestle with… something that started at first as a question mark in my mind, a point of discomfort and THAT over time, turned into a curiosity that made space for so much more. 

So I offer this story to you today, in case this is something you’re thinking about too. In case, like me, you need a little encouragement to see change as a choice—and not a one time thing like buying a house, changing jobs or starting a business, but a series of small choices you and I make each day. And how these small choices have the power to transform our community in a big way.

When I first moved to Monroe in 1996, I was one foot in, one foot out. I lived outside the city limits, commuted back & forth to Atlanta several days a week, and jumped at the chance to travel across the US and beyond to places like the country Georgia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Nepal. As a photographer and storyteller, I was focused on exploring new people and places.

It wasn’t until years later, in 2012 when my children and I moved to downtown Monroe that I began to get curious about my own community. I’d run or walk through town and began to make photographs with my iPhone as a practice of seeing and studying this place I called home. That practice turned into a four-year documentary photography series that was featured in the NYTimes in 2017. 

When the journalist asked, “Does Monroe still seem segregated to you?” I chose not to answer. I knew the answer was yes, but I felt a great deal of shame and embarrassment on behalf of our community.

But my silence on this question stayed with me. I wondered why so much of our history and present-day division along racial lines remained unspoken. I began to question my role in contributing to the perpetuation of that… and I wondered what it would take to change it. I also wondered what might happen if I chose to prioritize the benefit of my community over my own personal comfort.

I had a choice… stay silent or step up, sink in and speak out. I chose the latter but not without significant fear and sacrifice. The notion of creating a documentary feature film (something I had never done) that would reveal generations of racial injustice in our community felt overwhelming, so I had to take it day-by-day. I made progress toward the change I wanted to see here in our community through a series of very small choices.

When I began to reach out beyond my comfort zone in 2018 to talk with neighbors I had never met before on front porches, at kitchen tables and in my own home… I began to see our community through a different lens. I was most inspired by members of our Black community… 

Dan Young and Bobby Howard’s persistence in organizing our Black community’s fight for equal education rights through the 1950s and 60s.

Dorcas Jernigan and Sallie Mae Robertson’s courage to integrate Monroe Area High School in 1964 after thousands of white residents protested the Walton County School Board’s plan for de-segregation; 

 I was inspired by…

Albert Floyd’s entrepreneurial spirit… raised on a farm during the 1940s Jim Crow era with minimal formal education, he learned masonry and expanded that skill into a thriving business.

James Vaughn and Johnny Smith’s resilient and brave hearts. Both men experienced trauma in the wake of Jim Crow policing and prejudice and went on to become police officers with a passion for justice.

I was inspired by…

Patricia Roberts’ drive. A strong athlete and graduate of Monroe Area High School, she went on to earn a spot on the first US Women’s Olympic Basketball team in 1976 and brought a silver medal home for us.

And I was inspired by…

Lynn Robinson Camp’s creativity. Her passion for documentary work lead her to research and write the book “Black America Series: Walton County, Georgia” documenting our community’s Black history published in 2003.

Often in the face of fear and uncertainty, each of them made a series of small choices that ultimately fueled great change in our community.

For each of them, for me and for you… change is a choice. While we have no control over the circumstances of our birth, the bodies we are born into, nor the way others choose to perceive us, we do have the power to change ourselves and our community for the better through our thoughts, our words and our actions. 

What’s exciting is that transformative change is still happening in our community today through small choices being made by each of us…

It’s Patrice Broughton’s choice to transition her career toward advancing our public school system.

It’s Kirklyn Dixon’s choice to help build bridges between our Black and white communities by encouraging necessary dialogue. 

It’s Lynn Hill’s choice to open the doors of this Boys & Girls Club gym most Friday nights for teens to gather and play basketball in a safe space.

It’s Rhonda Streat’s choice to pour her passion into her work for Habitat for Humanity to help make this event possible.

It’s YOU choosing to care for and set high expectations for your children, each day even when you’re down. 

It’s choosing to show up for work and your relationships even when we’re stretched. 

It’s choosing to acknowledge the trauma of our past experiences and attempting to transform it into fuel toward our hopes for tomorrow. 

It’s choosing to vote for county and city leaders who will serve our entire community and not just cater to our personal interests. 

It’s choosing to say no to racism and all iterations of injustice.

It’s choosing to say yes to investing in ourselves and each other through new experiences like this event here today.

So I want to close our time together with an invitation by way of a question. If you could pick one word to capture the change you’re longing for, what would it be? 

Let’s take just a minute on the timer, and listen for what word rises within you. Maybe if we can get quiet enough, our words will surprise us…

(1 min)

How was that? It’s not every day we get to be quiet for a minute. 

I wonder if we can take a moment to share your word with the person beside you. Just two minutes this time. Find a partner. Someone you don’t know. Let’s practice getting out of our comfort zones today.

(2 mins)

Would anyone like to share their word?

(Audience shared words including: Unity, Love, Together, Embrace, Peace)

Who knows what changes are in the songs for any one of us when we start to realize our discomfort is the beginning of being curious. And that curiosity feeds the chance to make change a choice. Thank you.