Community Conversations, Museum Advocacy & Listerine
Removing Barriers: Strengthening Democracy
Monday March 15, 6 PM: Youth Activism & Civic Responsibility

Student youth leaders with the Alliance of Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Education (ARISE), a program that combines leadership training and community organizing to mobilize Southeast Asian and other Rhode Island youth of color for education justice, will lead a conversation with Rhode Island civil rights leaders of earlier generations. They’ll discuss motivations for their civic engagement, similarities and differences in their strategies, barriers to overcome, and goals yet to realize. The youth leaders will share how ARISE’s emphasis on civic responsibility informs their activism.
Monday March 22, 6 PM: Barriers to Democratic Participation for Formerly Incarcerated Individuals

Staff and adult students of the Reentry Campus Program, which provides current and formerly incarcerated individuals with affordable pathways to post-secondary education programs critical to the reentry process, will lead a conversation with leaders who make and adjudicate policies impacting formerly incarcerated individuals. The dialogue will explore barriers that keep formerly incarcerated individuals from fully participating in democratic processes, such as employment and access to adequate education — including civics education and voting rights for people currently in the criminal justice system.

Both discussions will be held virtually via Zoom starting at 6:00 pm. The sessions are FREE and preregistration is required.
Advocating for Rhode Island Museums
From a 2017 report from the American Alliance of Museums and Oxford Economics.
Museums play a key role in education, job creation, tourism, economic development, historic preservation, environmental conservation, and advancing the well-being of Rhode Island.

As a part of the American Alliance of Museum's Advocacy Day, Curator of Education, Cathy Saunders joined colleagues from Rhode Island to meet with the offices of Senators Reed and Whitehouse and Representatives Langevin and Cicillini. COVID relief, such as the CARES act, benefited many small businesses, including museums. In the last year Lippitt House Museum and other Rhode Island museums faced many challenges of the pandemic and yet continue to serve their audiences in new and innovative ways.

Lippitt House Museum will join colleagues again on March 10 for Rhode Island Museum Day to let local legislators know museums are vital members of the small business community, contribute to the local economy, and support tourism in our state.
Patent Medicines and False Hopes
The world has put more attention on health and hygiene in the last year. This led Lippitt House Museum Director Carrie Taylor to explore the history of a popular product of today, Listerine. It turns out that this mouthwash was promoted as a remedy for everything from dandruff to smallpox in the 19th century.

Check out "Silver & Spindles," the Lippitt House Museum blog, for the full story.
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Lippitt House Museum
199 Hope Street, Providence, RI 02906 | www.LippittHouse.org
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