Fowler Visit: May 20-22

Before this trip Ashley W and I did a big push of outreach to all the people we’ve met so far in Fowler and others we have been wanting to meet.  We mailed or emailed a letter to everyone that included an updated that the project is happening and dates for auditions and performances, etc. plus information about our presence in town for this weekend. 

This was Laurie’s first visit to Fowler!  She and Julie and I started our visit on Friday with a stop in to the Fowler Post Office to rent a PO Box so Cornerstone Institute can get mail delivery while we are living here.  The clerk was really friendly and jokey.  His name is Rick Darling and he is on the city council.  His family has been in Fowler for over 100 years.  He grew up in Fresno but moved back to Fowler.  “I loved this town,” he said.  You don’t love it anymore? “Well not recently.  I guess you haven’t read the paper.”  Two days ago things there was a Grand Jury indictment.  But it’s good because now we know and we can move on and solve the problem, make it better.  So we got a PO box and a copy of the Grand Jury indictment.

Basically, the former Chief of Police who resigned in November of last year, had collected but not processed any of the crimes that have happened in Fowler since 2004.  Police officers did all the paperwork and turned it in and the chief never passed those things along to the county District Attorney.  Instead they collected in his office which remained locked, so no one else could see the intense disorganization of all this work undone.  Also, the City Manager was found to blame because he didn’t give appropriate oversight.  Also other evaluative procedures are habitually ignored within some parts of city government.

Our first appointment was to interview Josh Lopez, the editor of local paper, The Fowler Ensign.  He works out of the office of the Sanger Herald in Sanger.  It was funny at first because he thought he was going to interview us and we thought we were going to interview him.  We decided to both.  Josh is about 24 and got the job after graduating from Fresno State in journalism.  He has kind of a perfect job with a lot of freedom in his work schedule.  We had a great time talking with Josh and also meeting Sharon who is writes for the Sanger paper.  Josh is pretty informed about our project now and plans to write an article about Cornerstone and the play in the Ensign. 

We had a Youth Workshop for local kids aged 13-20 scheduled to happen at the library from 4:30 to 6pm.  In addition to it being mentioned in the letter we sent, it was sent specifically to the FHS drama teacher to share with her students.  No one showed up for the workshop.  There were some young people hanging out in front of the library though practicing some dance moves.  Laurie and Julie talked with them.  They are a new dance crew. We talked with them about maybe putting something together that we can build into the play.  We brought them in to practice inside out of the heat.  Two of the crew leaders spent most of the time sharing their story and philosophy with the other, younger kids.  They talked about the different styles of dance they are interested in: jerking, krumping, dougie, etc.  Laurie invited them all to come to our Youth Workshop on Saturday too. 

After dinner we attended a class in Buddhism taught by a teacher/leader from the area.  About 15 people were in attendance.  The local Buddhist church did their usual hospitality with snacks— little baggies of chex mix & cake & fresh cherries at the break.  We enjoyed the class, didn’t talk much with folks.

On Saturday we arrived at the park for Serve Fowler about 915am, registered and got a tshirt gloves and a trashbag.  We walked the alleys and streets to pick up trash.  After considering how best to connect with other folks “serving Fowler” it seemed clear that we should just do some work and we’d talk with folks afterward during the lunch.  It was nice to walk around the neighborhood.  We met a woman named Frances Salinas who had a conversation with Laurie about cleaning up some things others had left by her garbage cans in the alley behind her house.  Frances is 92 (? - waited to long to finish this so I am losing details..) and has lived in this house on E. Adams  a LONG time.  One of her sons owns/runs Salinas Farms up on Jensen Ave.  (A place we’ve passed by when kind of lost a few times.)  Frances was very gracious and friendly, brought us some cold drinks.  And while we were talking with her, Tracy came up with a tractor thingie to collect trashbags, so we asked him if he could take some of the large items that were cluttering up Frances’ area there.  He was happy to oblige—took away a giant tree stump and  bunch of ancient fencing pieces and more.  Later he met us in the next alley over and he took away some junked furniture and wood we loaded up for him.

This event was originally just a Baptist Church of Fowler event and this year was the first time they invited some other churches to join in.  The turn-out was great!  St. Lucy’s Catholic church and the Fresno Gurdwara (Nanaksar Sahib) which is close to Fowler participated.  (Maybe other churches, too?)  The Lions Club and the Knights of Columbus provided BBQ burgers and dogs and the Sikhs provided some vegetarian Indian fare.  We had been under the impression that we might have a former story circle with Baptist church folks in their space after the lunch, but that was not the case.  Pastor Jim Kennon made an announcement at lunch introducing Laurie who introduced us and our project and invited folks to talk with us.  Some of them did.  We had brought “5 Senses of My Fowler” worksheets and used them as a way to collect contact information as well as to get people thinking about their community.  Some people did fill them out, especially the younger ones.  They did not give a lot of insight for Julie in terms of the script but were useful particularly for example when Laurie was with a group of kids and talking them through it, asking them questions that they’d discuss together.  Julie and Laurie got to meet Sandie Monis, a Fowler force of nature.  Council member Rico Aguayo was there and checked in with me about how he can help.  He always does this and I am so grateful for it.  He and I strategized about how to approach the school district to get some rehearsal space at one of the elementary schools.  Julie talked with Craig M. and his wife quite a bit.  I’d met Craig before and he didn’t seem very interested or particularly friendly, but today I found out he is terrific.  He and his wife are transplants from Philadelphia.  He is president of the chamber of commerce and is involved in a number of city committees.  He has a business helping with events—providing DJs, sound systems, photographers, stuff like that.  She works for a school district other than Fowler. 

Someone also introduced me to Raj, a young man from the Sikh community.  We talked a bit and he gets what it is we do and how it would be great to include the Sikh voice in our project.  He is not from Fowler though- he lives in Fresno.  He asked that I send info to him via email and he’d share it with some folks and also would set us up so Julie could talk with another guy who does live in Fowler and is definitely a member of the community here.

We had arranged to have a story circle with youth from St Lucy’s church at their hall. David Cardenas had set it up for us—he’s very committed and connected in his church. David had hoped for more participation but got commitments from 4 young people who said they’d attend.  Unfortunately there was confusion and we actually could not meet at St. Lucy’s.  We were able to switch the location to the library.  No one from the Catholic church attended,  though the dance crew from the day before did attend.  Laurie did a great job wrangling them into talking with us, not just dancing and talking among themselves.  It was hard work!  We gained a good view into Fowler youth, especially these kids in comparison to the church kids we met in the park.  These kids say they want to stay in high school and generally seem more on the outside. The church kids all said they want to go to college.

(We tried to go see a movie in Selma Saturday night but got lost and found the theater too late. But now we know where it is.)

We’d been invited to meet with Presbyterian Church members for their lunch in the park following their Sunday church service.  I think we got there later than Pastor Paul Irwin expected us, but he rolled with it.  When we arrived all the picnic tables were packed with people dressed for church!  Quite a sight!  We made an announcement as we had the day before and many people sought out us or our flyers.  It was obvious that Pastor Paul had shared information about our project during the service that morning.  This was very heartening.  Julie mostly spoke with an older couple, John & Carol Anne Converse, who shared a lot of their current life and some of their past, too.  They are involved in education for mentally-disabled adults. They were so full of details and thoughtful perspectives and interesting, personal stories.  Really lovely people with some challenging life circumstances but much love.  I talked some with Dorothy Feaver.  The Feaver family is one that others often mention when talking about Fowler.  Dorothy is 97.  We talked a bit and she said she’d be open to talking with Julie later.  Laurie spoke with a number of enthusiastic Fowlerites.  The Blaneys are a farm family and neighbors of George Teraoka.

We were unable to make headway with St. Gregory’s Armenian Church.  The priest there (maybe new?) just doesn’t return the call and Ashley W has been very dedicated and persistent in following through as much as we can on our end.  

Ashley has also been diligent it trying to connect us with the African American residents via the local churches.  Rose of Sharon’s Pastor Easter seems to live in Fresno.  The Second Baptist Church doesn’t have an answering machine, though Ashley has sleuthed out the information that their pastor JUST left this church.  St. Paul’s AME has an answering machine and email but Ashley’s messages have gone unanswered.

Karen M. forgets to ask her husband about them meeting with us,  then doesn’t return call or answer inquiry.  I know that Karen is excited for our project—she spoke passionately in favor of us at a Buddhist church community meeting!  She’s offered to be a point person for us in terms of details.  Maybe it is just cultural that even the Japanese Buddhists who want to help us with our project are just unlikely to make a date to talk about their personal stories. 

Buddhist Church property

The Buddhist Church  (main bldg that ctc will not be using)

 

 

 

this is the stage in the Social Hall but the photo is a bit out of order

Main Gate on 9th St (that's main bldg on rt)

MJG & George T with Social hall behind.

Left of Social Hall: BBQs and dirt lot.

Inside Social hall looking HR from stage

Add caption

Youth Hall

Youth Hall Again + memorial in front of it

Inside Youth Hall: our dining & class room

Inside Youth Hall: our kitchen

special wok stoves in the kitchen

Our Kitchen

Youth Hall on left, Breezeway, Dharma Classrooms Bldg

Valuable outdoor sink in breezeway

Breezeway

Camp Showers at Previous Institutes

These first two pictures are from 2005 ("I-2") at Grayson Elementary School in Wesley, CA.  Shower bags like beached seals sunning on a reflective blanket.

 These showers are from 2010 (I-7) in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Pacoima at Discovery Prep Charter High School.  The step ladder at the back was used to place the shower bag on the shelf of the desired stall.  When your shower ends, you can just pull the bag down from inside the stall.

Fowler Visit: April, pt 2 (Carole, Marie and 2 Story Circles)

Thursday night Julie Marie Myatt, Ashley Walden and I attended a history presentation at the Fowler library: Japanese in Fowler. This presentation was made by our friend George Teraoke. He originally presented it, as an Historical Society event at the Buddhist church back in January or so. Since then he updated it. This was a recorded, projected video accompanied by some cultural artifacts on display. George introduced the video and answered questions afterward.

Most of the attendance seemed to be Historical Society folks, many of whom we had met before. Mrs. Mukai, of the Buddhist Church, and Gary (one of her sons) were there.

Afterward Ashley, Julie and I all had conversations with various individuals. One of the new people we met there was Penny M. Currently she and her husband live in Fresno but she’s from a longtime Fowler family.

On Friday morning we drove out to meet Carole Yukino Masumoto at her house on farmland just outside of town. She is the mother of David Mas Masumoto who joined us to help facilitate the conversation. Carole has completely lost her hearing so Mas typed questions for her on a laptop and she’d answer them. Carole is really lively and laughs a lot. She was a freshman at Fowler High School when she and her family left to be in interred at the “Gila River War Relocation Center.” When she left the internment camp, she spent 3 years in Los Angeles with her sister before moving back to Fresno County to marry her husband. Like her parents, Carole and her husband farmed in the Sanger/Fowler/Del Rey area, eventually owning a farm whose property straddles the Fowler/Del Rey border.

After Carole’s house we went to visit with Marie and Vernon Gonsalves who live on Sixth Street—the house with an American flag in the front yard. Since Cornerstone is embarking on The Hunger Cycle for our next few years of Los Angeles productions, we’re interested in incorporating related themes in our Institute production as well. One story we’d been told earlier is that there’s a couple that run a food pantry for Fowler out of their home. And it turns out that Marie, who’d attended our first library story circle, is the person I’d heard about earlier.

Marie and Vernon have been living in this house for 25 years, since Vernon retired from the Fowler police dept. Vernon worked for the Salvation Army for a time in their food distribution program. Eventually though he was frustrated with the red-tape involved in serving people in need. He and Marie have been helping people from their home for at least 30 years. They purchase some of the food themselves. At least one church has a standing food donation system and in December the high school has a massive food drive and all that the students bring in goes to the Gonsalves’ project. They pack up boxes of non-perishables. And they answer the door any time of day or night to people who need food. They ask them how many people in their family and they ask them if they live in Fowler. That’s it. They track how many people they server on a calendar for their own knowledge. It’s pretty amazing, in my opinion.

We spent almost 2 hours with Marie and Vernon. They showed us their food pantry and answered our questions about that. They are completely humble about this and talk like it’s the most normal thing in the world, rather than a huge act of personal generosity.

Their home is very well cared for—Vernon does carpentry and is handy with anything it seems—created a coy pond in the back yard, built unique birdhouses for awhile (which he mostly gave away), and he created a valentine of a garden for Marie—a trellis with flowers trained to grow in the shape of a heart. We sat in their dining room and they answered lots of questions about their lives, families, etc. Marie has a never-ending supply of neatly saved photographs and newspaper clippings about everything that interests her—particularly her hometown of Fowler, its people and history.

Friday night we were scheduled for a story circle with folks from the

Buddhist Church. George T was arranging it for us and he thought we’d have a pretty low turnout. He was right. We spent an hour talking with George and his wife Mary. One of the most helpful bits of conversation was this explanation from George: half (or more than half ?) of the members of the Buddhist Church of Fowler view it as a social organization, the other half view it as a spiritual organization. Those in the latter group, such as George, have a strong desire to open the church up to share this spiritual philosophy with the greater community whenever possible. Those in the former want the opposite.

George also expressed fears that those in the church who are not in favor of us living there might be dissuading others from participating by talking with us in a story circle. He also said he was worried that people might try to stir up trouble while we are living on the property. He also said no one is usually around the church during the time of year we are staying there. He also mentioned that he wished that we had planned to set up our housing units on the south side of the property, in the unpaved area rather than the north/paved area because of this: we’d be taking up parking for the Obon Festival and people don’t like to park on the street. I told him that I hadn’t known that, that I thought we were allowing for more parking by not setting them up in the bigger open area.

I thought about moving our temp buildings. But then I thought that having our housing in a dirt lot, while living with camp showers would lend to unhappiness. My general feeling and response to all of this stuff expressed here in this paragraph is that I cannot plan for excess negativity. We are acting in good faith and being clear and will bring a lot of positive energy while we are in residence. I am considering the delicate situation with regard to all our interactions and relations with this organization. Also, as Julie pointed out, George is anxious. He’s put himself out there in his community in supporting us and generating interest in what we are doing. He’s embarrassed by the ego that his fellow church members are operating from. He was mortified about the cost to us of engaging a lawyer. So some of his expressed fears are likely based in this unsteady place he has created within the Buddhist church.

We’ll be reaching out to some people who have told George that they’d be interested in talking with us, including Kerry Yo Nakagawa who among many talents and projects is the founder of the Nisei Baseball Research Project.

On Saturday morning, we headed to the library early. Our open/general story circle was schedule there for 12:30 to 2pm. Before that though, there was a presentation from a wildlife rescue organization. They brought and introduced about a dozen birds of prey as part of an educational program.

Afterward we set up for our Story Circle and were joined by three participants and eventually a fourth. This was a small and somewhat disappointing turn-out, though there were many good things too. Our participants were: Marie G (who we had spoken to for 2 hours the day before brought many clippings about Fowler), Mas (who we’d also spoken to in private interviews as well), and Shawna. We were joined by Clara B, who also had attended our first story circle.

Shawna grew up in Fowler and moved away for 15 years or so and has recently returned. Her son Zasou (?) was with her and her second child is due any minute. Her husband recently secured a fulltime job teaching at Reedley College. She mentioned a few times that she was an outsider and didn’t have much to contribute, but of course, she did. Clara and Marie represent a particular Fowler voice—retired women who are at least second generation Fowler who love their town very much but are not particularly adept at seeing experiences beyond their own. Their stories are similar and dominant in conversation. Mas’ presence was valuable in this conversation. Being a writer himself he asked good questions. He also balanced the energy in the room.

Afterward, Julie spent an hour meeting with the mayor Dave Cardenas, at his auto shop.

We grabbed lunch at Elaine’s and headed home.

[ Look at the street view of Elain's on the "Cornestone in Fowler" map linked on the right of this page! We learned from one of our conversations on this trip that Elaine’s was named for a woman who, along with a partner, took over the restaurant from the original owners. But Elaine was booted not long after because she turned out to be taking $ from the till. The owners now are Chinese. So we hear. ]

Due to our long delay in securing housing, we are behind in this story gathering process. A visit like this would have been fine a few months ago, but at this late date the lack of turnout is difficult. Even more, the lack of variety in people’s perspective on the town is challenging. We are not looking for a “dark underbelly” but rather story conflict, experiences and perspectives that create contrast.

As we plan our next visit we’ll be arranging some one-on-one interviews to help create an environment where people might share more personal experiences that illustrate some contrast. We’ll be attending the community cleanup event that meets in the park. Of course, we will continue to do outreach for project awareness and inviting people into the process as we can. We’ll be looking for auditioners soon!