Culture & Community | Koffee? on Audubon | New Haven Sister Cities
Adrian Huq Photos.
Solidarity is climate justice, a sign at Koffee? declared. Solidarity is rural education. Solidarity is youth leadership. Solidarity is interns and delegations. One by one, they fit in amongst the coffeehouse’s eclectic array of decor.
That was the scene as 30 cross-cultural bridge builders gathered at the coffeehouse to celebrate the New Haven/León Sister City Project’s (NHLSCP) 40th anniversary, feting four decades of partnership between the two cities. The theme of the night was “solidarity,” both between communities in New Haven and Nicaragua, but also in a broader sense towards nations who continue to struggle from systemic oppression and colonial legacies.
The event was sponsored by The International Association of New Haven.
This was the second of a series of four events honoring the four decades of solidarity, following the organization’s “1000 Bikes Storytelling Reception” held on May 19th at the Bradley Street Bicycle Co-Op.
The event included remarks by NHLSCP board members and a speech by local hip-hop poet and playwright Aaron Jafferis. Providing live music was Ponybird, an alternative folk singer and songwriter also known as Jennifer Dauphinais. Dauphinais is an educator in the New Haven area and taught previously in the New Haven Public Schools.
NHLSCP was founded in 1984 during a movement of sister-city relationships that sprang up between Nicaraguan cities and North American or European cities in the 1980s, an era when the U.S. government was engaged in an illegal war against Nicaragua. (Aside from León, New Haven is also sisters with seven other cities around the world.)
Since its inception, NHLSCP has sent over 1200 delegates and 200 interns to work in Nicaragua, plus nearly $2 million in material and financial assistance. Their programming promotes social justice, education, and sustainable development, with initiatives in León ranging from a women-led family gardens program that increases access to organic vegetables and fruit to the facilitation of a community-based after-school program for elementary school children.
Jafferis at the event.
Chris Schweitzer, who has been the director of NHLSCP since 2008, explained that while a lot has changed over 40 years, the root of the struggle remains the same.
“There’s still people struggling for social justice. At the beginning of the organization, we were really inspired by the people of Nicaragua and their commitment to a more just, passionate, loving future for their own country. And it’s always up against people interested in money and greed,” Schweitzer said.
In the last decade, taking action on climate change became a significant objective in NHLSCP’s work locally, recognizing the responsibility that the United States has in cutting its greenhouse gas emissions to protect vulnerable people and nations. Many of these climate vulnerabilities came to light in León following Hurricane Mitch, which hit Central America in 1998.
Here in New Haven, NHLSCP promotes climate change awareness, education, and advocacy through their projects New Haven Climate Movement, goNewHavengo, and the Climate Health Education Project.
The event’s emcee was Kate Alperin, who is based in Oregon but is currently working on special events coordination for NHLSCP. Alperin’s connection to NHLSCP stretches back 10 years when she was a student at Farmington High School.
“In my senior year [of high school], I did a year-long custom capstone project, and I was really interested in social justice, especially Central American solidarity movements and colonial legacies in Central America,” Alperin said.
In looking for an organization to partner with for her capstone, she reached out to NHLSCP. Throughout the year, she fundraised for their EcoStove Project, which subsidizes the cost of clean and efficient cookstoves for families and small businesses in the villages of Goyena and Troilo.
After a mingling break, Jafferis approached the mic with his usual down-to-earth aura. In true thespian fashion, as he spoke, he invited attendees to participate in a slow-motion race across the tightly packed room. The last participant to reach the finish line while continuously moving their feet would be declared winner.
Aaron Jafferis leads a slow-mo race.
While a dozen people shuffled across the floor at a snail’s pace, Jafferis reminisced on being part of NHLSCP’s student delegation to León in 1991, when he was a sophomore at James Hillhouse High School. During the visit, he worked with other students to fix a tile roof, paint a health center, and build a latrine.
These projects were also a conduit to personal learning. “I thought I was going down to Nicaragua to build a latrine or fix a roof or paint a health center. But actually that was not why I was there,” Jafferis said.
“I was there because in the process of doing that, I was learning completely new stuff about myself, changing my relationship to myself and to other people,” Jafferis said. “My student delegation trip to Nicaragua opened my eyes to the ways in which this country is keeping people oppressed to make money, both there and in other places.”
Alongside picking up some practical skills, the trip inspired him to try to change his community in New Haven and the world more broadly. Additionally, serving on NHLSCP’s advisory board as a teenager empowered him to see himself as a potential leader.
The final speaker was NHLSCP board member Margarita Diaz. Evoking the night’s theme of solidarity, she drew upon her own upbringing in Puerto Rico.
“I saw the political movements in Latin America as providing a shared struggle against colonialism and against imperialism, and that profoundly marked me as a young person growing up on the island.” Young peoples’ role in the revolution inspired her and provided her with hope for the future in Puerto Rico.
In her position as an Associate Professor at Quinnipiac University, Diaz had brought students down for educational trips to Nicaragua in the past, and then to other Central American countries after the political situation worsened in Nicaragua in 2018. In 2020, she joined the Board of NHLSCP, citing this role as a way that her political interests came together full circle.
To continue the next half of their anniversary celebrations, NHLSCP will host a panel discussion on solidarity in October featuring their León Director Ivett Fonseca among other guests and an art exhibition at the Institute Library which will run from January to April 2025.
Learn more about NHLSCP through their website. You can also keep up to date on their work through their Facebook or Instagram. In the interest of full transparency, this writer is affiliated with the New Haven Climate Movement and Climate Health Education Project.