Time USA - 06.04.2020

77

JASON

MACOVIAK

Bey ond b ooks

Picture a library.

Is someone telling

you to shush? When

Jason Macoviak

became manager

of Copper Queen

Library in Bisbee,

Ariz., the first thing

he did was get

rid of “all of that.”

Macoviak, 45, and

his team redid the

layout of the build-

ing to create

a “community

living room,” encour-

aging patrons to

talk and “get to

know their neigh-

bor.” His team also

revamped part of

an abandoned

middle school into

a public space that

teaches literacy to

children and adults.

Called the San Jose

Annex, it opened

in 2018 with the

help of the whole

community: a local

nonprofit designed

the layout; the high

school shop class

built shelving;

volunteers help

keep it running. In

2019, Copper Queen

Library was awarded

Best Small Library

in America by Library

Journal. “Because

we’re small,” Maco-

viak says, “we know

everyone.

—Madeleine Carlisle

KASSY

ALIA RAY

Civic d uty

Grief makes many

people turn inward.

Others, like Kassy

Alia Ray, 32, use

their pain to open up.

Ray’s late husband

Greg Alia was a

police officer killed

in the line of duty in

2015 in Columbia,

S.C. At the time,

debates about police

brutality dominated

headlines. Ray, a

community psycholo-

gist, decided to work

on easing the tension

that can be fatal to

both officers and

those they’re meant

to protect. Since

2018, her nonprofit

Serve & Connect has

done the complex

work of building trust

between the two

groups—for example,

outfitting officers

with some 40,000

meals to give to food-

insecure families

they encounter on

the job. “Issues like

hunger and poverty

and trauma are really

at the root of a lot of

things,” she says.

—Katy Steinmetz

CHRISTOPHER EMDIN

Te aching t eachers

Christopher E mdin b eliev es h ip-hop c an m ake

better t eachers. “It’s about telling stories,”

he s ays. Emdin, an associate professor at

Columbia U niversity’s Teachers C ollege, h as

spent m ore t han a d ecade w ork ing t o b ridge

the c ultural d ivide b etwe en t eachers and stu-

dents, e specially w hen t he t eaching w orkforce

fails t o r eflect s tudent d iversity. T he a uthor o f

For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood ... and

the R est o f Y’all Too, E mdin, 4 1, wants t eachers

to e ngage w ith s tudents “ on t heir o wn c ultural

turf,” a nd h e l aunched t he # HipHopEd i nitiative

to g et t eachers to incorporate h ip-hop i nto t heir

lessons. T he g oal i s t o t ransform how teachers

engage w ith y oung p eople a nd h ow s tudents

engage w ith t heir e ducations a s a r esult.

“The s ystem, a s i t e xists, j ust d oesn’t d o well

for a v ast m ajority o f y oung p eople,” h e s ays.

“We j ust h ave to change it.” —Katie Reilly

PATRICIA TÉLLEZ-GIRÓN

Medical m essenger

On a recent Monday, Dr. Patricia Téllez-Girón, 51,

answered questions on a radio show about the

coronavirus in Spanish for the Latinx audience

of Madison, Wis. The segment had been sched-

uled to last two hours, but for members of the

concerned audience, the chance to hear from

a professional in their own community in their

own language was particularly valuable—and

so the show went on an additional hour. It was

one of many efforts by Téllez-Girón to educate

and protect the community from COVID-19.

Téllez-Girón, a p hysician in Madison and

an a ssociate p rofessor a t t he U niversity of

Wisconsin D epartment of Family Medicine and

Community H ealth, h as p layed an active role

in c ommunity o rganizing e fforts ever since

she m oved to Madison in 1993 from Mexico

City. She has now co-chaired the Latino Health

Council t here f or 2 0 y ears and mentors young

aspiring L atinx m edical p rofessionals. A nd t o

her, a c risis l ike t he c oronavirus outbreak high-

lights t he v ulnerability o f t he L atinx c ommunity

of D ane C ounty, Wisconsin. Immigration sta-

tus, h igh p overty rates, large households and

employment in the types of jobs that can’t be

done f rom h ome a ll p ut p eople a t r isk. I t c an b e

hard t o fi nd r eliable p ublic-health i nformation

in S panish ev en a t t he b est o f t imes; r ight n ow,

bridging t he d ivide b etwe en S panish-speaking

people a nd t he U .S. p ublic-health s ystem i s

a m atter o f l ife a nd d eath.

“Ve ry f ew o rganizations were a ctually

keeping a n ey e o n o ur c ommunity,” Téllez-Girón

says. “That’s why, as usual, when something

like [ COV ID-19] h appens, t he L atinx c ommunity

leadership right away starts organizing.

We d on’t wait f or o thers to come and help us.

However, we r eally want others to be aware that

we a re h ere.”

So, t ogether w ith t he L atino C onsort ium

for A ction a nd o ther g roups i n t he c ommunity,

Téllez-Girón i s h elping t o l ead t he L atinx c harge

against C OV ID-19.“This i s j ust t he b eginning,”

she s ays. “We’re s ending a v ery s trong m es-

sage t o t he c ommunity t hat we a re h ere, we

need h elp a nd we n eed t o w ork t ogether.”

EMDIN: LAURA YOST; TÉLLEZ-GIRÓN: JOHN MANIACI—UW MADISON SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AND PUBLIC HEALTH; MACOVIAK: BRIDGET SHANAHAN; RAY: STEPHANIE TASSONE —Jasmine Aguilera

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