5 Key Takeaways on Reparations

In the Spring of 2023, I took a course on reparations for slavery called The Stolen Beam at the Jones Library, Amherst, MA.

Stolen Beam refers to a Talmudic debate about the right thing to do when we discover that the house in which we live was built with stolen materials. One rabbi argues that the entire house must be torn down and the beam returned to its rightful owners. Another argues that it makes no sense to destroy the home, yet some form of acknowledgment and compensation (reparation) is owed to those from whom the beam was stolen. The name of the course recognizes that much of our country was built on stolen land, with stolen lives and stolen labor.

I illustrated my 5 key takeaways from the course:

Kayla Boisvert is an artist and researcher for advocacy initiatives that promote social justice at Innovation Network. She lives in Western Massachusetts with her husband and two silly dog-monsters. She is often found running trails and climbing mountains where she lives and around the world.