Jess Roberts
"I’ve never felt as connected to and, and as at ease as I am when I’m in this place. So, I think it’s also just a feeling of belonging here"
Interview
“I’ll have you state your name and your age”
“My name is Jess Roberts, and I’m 47”
“And then where are you from?”
“So this is a complicated question for me. It’s complicated for me because when I was growing up my family moved all over the place so I lived in 6 different cities before I finished 7th grade, and then 6 more cities before I moved to Albion 18 years ago. So, I spent most of my life saying I wasn’t from anywhere, because I have never actually lived anywhere more than four and half years, or more than five years I guess, before I moved to Albion. So, by sheer number of years I have lived in Albion more than I have lived anywhere else. But I also think that the question of where are you from is also a question of what place made you who you are and if that’s the question, then I would say I am from Albion. Which in itself is complicated because being here for 18 years doesn’t make you from Albion, but I feel like Albion made me who I am. And if I weren’t here I would be somebody else”
“So you kind of answered it but for the sake of the questions, how long have you been a citizen of Albion?”
“18 years, so I moved here when Emmy Lou was one year old, so that was 2005”
“What brought you to Albion then?”
“So we had the good fortune, I had the good fortune of being offered a job in the English department and when I asked if there was a job for Nels too, they said yes. So that was awesome. And then the year after we got here, there was a tenure track line that opened up that he applied for also. And so for academic couples having two tenure track lines at the same college is like the holy grail. So, that was, but originally when we, when I applied for the job at Albion we had imagined that he would continue working with the program that he taught on through the University of Michigan. So we were interested in staying in Michigan, we’d never been to Albion before, but then there was this amazing, small, rural, diverse place, and we came here and only wanted to be here. So, that’s what we did”
“So, what are you involved with within the community?”
“So I think the big thing that I am involved with within the community is Albion’s Big Read. Which is a program that is all about changing the world by changing young people’s relationship with reading. And it’s also about creating educational spaces in which we maximize the likelihood that Black and Brown students can bring their whole selves into that space. And in addition to Albion’s Big Read, which has also made me who I am, I think, I am with, in, Albion’s NAACP, Albion Philanthropic Women, with the Sister City, although less so now. Although I think that is an amazing program. I absolutely adore it. I am also not directly involved with the 4H Creative and Expressive Arts Program but think it is amazing. So those I guess, so those are some of the things that I am directly involved with and some of the things that I just think that are awesome and amazing in our community”
“So why did you choose this location to have your interview?”
“So, this location, this is, this is the field where Caldwell school used to be. Did you go to Caldwell?”
“I did not”
“You did not. So, it was the place, it was the first school I loved in Albion. It was the first school that my daughter attended. She went to, she went to kindergarten and first grade here. And then they closed Caldwell, and she went to second, third and fourth grade, although they were pressed together in two years for her, over in Harrington. And then went to fifth, sixth, and seventh grade at the Albion community school. But I think my relationship to the Albion Public Schools is part of what created my relationship to Albion as a place and a group of people. And is part of what changed me. And I think one of the things, one of the things that is difficult for me is the way, and for many people I think is the eraser of parts of the history of this place. So here’s this place where like many, many, people came and many kids were educated in. Eddie Williams, I believe, was a principal here, and like relationships that were really powerful were created and now it’s an empty field. And there is no recognition. There is no visual recognition here in this place, of this, of who used to be here and what used to happen here. So it’s both because like, I choose this place because I love it. I loved Caldwell, I loved the people I met through Caldwell, young people and also the adults, but I also chose it cause I want us to look at the places that use to be things and now they aren’t any more. Cause I think that’s part of this place”
“So, what is Albion to you? Is it specific people, locations, feelings? What culminates it for you?”
“So, I think that Albion is all those things. I think Albion is a small, rural community that is on the banks on the Kalamazoo River that is a Great Migration town, that once was an industrial city and now isn’t. I think Albion is the amazing people. I think it’s you. I think it’s the other Fellows. I think it’s Bob and Mae Ola Dunklin. I think it’s Keena Williams. I think it’s Harry Bonner. I think it’s Nancy and Willie Lewis. I think it’s Temple Stovall. I think it’s all kinds of different people. I think it’s all the Big Read Leaders and the people they love and are friends with. Albion is all those things. And it’s also for me, in terms of being a feeling, I’ve never felt as connected to and, and as at ease as I am when I’m in this place. So, I think it’s also just a feeling of belonging here to me too”
“So, would you consider Albion to be your home?”
“Yes”
“Why?”
“Why would I consider Albion to be my home? I guess it’s because it’s the place that I feel all those feelings that I associate with that word home. Where I feel known and seen. Where I feel like I belong. Where I feel most fully who I am. Where I feel known and connected. Where I feel challenged and safe. I think that’s why it’s home”
“So, what does Albion mean to you?”
“I don't know. I mean I think somehow the meaning is inside all the other answers. I don’t know if I have what it means to me. I guess one thing that it means to me is that we, is that we can go places and become a part of them. So, that’s not like what Albion means to me but like that’s what my experience in Albion has taught me. Like I didn’t, if you have to be born here to be from here, then I am not from here because I was born in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. But if like, if the place where you’re from and the place that you’re home is the place where, where you are most a part of the place and the place is most a part of you then I think. Then you can go places and be a part of those places. You can go to communities and be a part of those communities. And I think that’s been a really important thing for me to experience and know”
“So, to kind of flip the script. We’ve been talking really positively and love Albion, but there’s always room for change and room for improvement. In what ways do you think Albion could improve?”
“So, I have thought about this question a lot. And I think, so I think that white people in Albion could do a better job thinking about how the decisions we make, the places where we spend our time, the places that we send our kids to go to school, what meetings we show up at, the churches that we go to, what shops we go to, who we’re in dialogue with, who we listen to, who we ask questions to, when we speak and when we don’t. I think we need to do a better job of doing all those things and taking seriously how all those different actions are impacting the People of Color who are in our community. I think that Albion would be better if more white people in Albion, who love Albion absolutely, asked themselves how do my daily actions impact my community member, community members in my town who don’t live where I live, who don’t go to church where I go to church and who don’t look like me”
“So, the very last thing I have for you, is to describe Albion in one word but say it as Albion is blank”
“Albion is real”