Carin Bringelson::  My name is Carin Bringelson. I currently live in Madison, Wisconsin and I’m a member of the Grinnell College class of 1991. I remember when I came to visit as a prospective student, in the spring of 1987, one of the things that struck me was all the variety of activities that I could participate in and I remember seeing a flyer for the Sign Language Club. And I thought, “Wow. If there’s a sign language club, there’s probably a club for everything that I definitely want to be involved in.” So I was very taken by the extra-curricular activities.
Carin Bringelson::  My first semester here, I lived in Dibble Annex, and that first semester also there was a speakeasy of the black students on campus, talking about what it was like to be black in Grinnell. And that, in addition to the kind of ongoing work and activism around anti-Apartheid and we were trying to- I was part of Students to End Apartheid and we were trying to divest from investments in South Africa and getting the Board of Trustees to agree to that.
Carin Bringelson::  But, I think the Speakeasy and the truth that those African American students were able to share with the larger, wider community impacted me such that it was very clear to me that my high school education had been insufficient. That, I was so hungry for African American culture and history and perspectives that I knew I was going to have to seek that out myself.
Carin Bringelson::  So, I ended up getting a concentration in African American studies. I had, in high school, been a musician, had grown up playing violin and had been in the youth symphony and came and I think I played one semester with the orchestra here and then I heard the Gospel Choir. And I was like, "Oh," the... my ability to play music by ear was such that it was so much easier to sing in the gospel choir than it was to be in the orchestra, so less work and more interesting and more cathartic, but a different part of my brain to use and a different part of my social skills.
Carin Bringelson::  And so, it must have been my sophomore year, when I decided to join the Young Gifted and Black Gospel Choir. It was a great experience to consider the role of in-group time and space for people of color on a predominantly white campus, to have space that is their own, and here I was coming into it in a way that was probably more for me than it was for the group.
Carin Bringelson::  So, there was some tension with, y’know, particular members of the group. I remember one woman in particular said, “Ah...," kind of dissuaded me from participating in the Young Gifted and Black Gospel Choir as a white woman, but others, like the other Altos were like, great with me and happy to have me there. But, certainly there were.... y'know, different connections with different people, that I made.
Carin Bringelson::  And then, my junior year, I went abroad. I had my semester abroad, and my semester off-campus was at Howard University which is a predominantly black school in Washington, DC, and another awesome experience to learn about being in the minority. If I was not a minority in the larger social, societal sense, I was in the numerical minority, and just the lessons I learned were invaluable around that. And I came back to Grinnell- I think I may have been in YGB that next semester but my senior year I definitely did not, just realizing that it was more important for me to support. It was more important for me at that time to support the black students by not being in it than by participating in it.
Carin Bringelson::  I was... I guess when I started maybe there were... y'know, two or three white people and then when I- yeah, out of maybe 25, and then when I came back from Howard there was, I don’t know, it felt like five or eight and I was like, “Getting too many white people!” y'know, for my comfort. You know, there was something about the experience of kind of, wanting to have some sort of cultural experience that was closer to what one might consider the black church kind of feel or, experience that. I was like, “Ah, we’re diluting it too much somehow,” you know, for better or worse that was kind of my thinking at the time.
Carin Bringelson::  So, certainly I think when I look back at my time at Grinnell, and I think about kind of the extra-curricular and the curricular, the academic and the, and the volunteer, having those, all those parts kind of woven together to make a whole that impacted me the rest of my life, that I can continue to still seek and work for social, racial justice and that I continue to figure out ways to do that in different groups at different moments.
Carin Bringelson::  Y’know, that.. all the work that needs to be done with white people to understand privilege and power and resistance and choice around those moments when we can recreate a new moment, a new experience, a new pattern. That wouldn’t have happened without that Speakeasy that first semester, and so I’m so grateful for the courage of those students to speak up that semester and the amazing work that grew from that.
Sophie Haas::  Oh. Do you have anything else you want to talk about?
Carin Bringelson::  Let's see.. I think that’s kind of like the most coherent kind of, overarching piece. I mean, I certainly enjoyed.. There was a lot of things that came from my Grinnell experience that, like, “Oh! You really can eat like a vegetarian here," you know, "It is possible,” or- I think my experience here- well actually my experience at Howard University, the first people to befriend me were international students and they would say things to me that, you know, like, “Well, Americans aren’t very warm,” you know, or, “There’s a certain amount of barrier,” and certainly I was crossing a color barrier, a race barrier, or trying to, but the international students really saw me as a person in need and reached out to me.
Carin Bringelson::  And so, when I came back to Grinnell, I was able to see the international students really as an opportunity to be a warm host to- to them in a way that I wasn’t able to, prior. I think that has continued in my life as well, that I continue to seek out those... the visitors among us, the strangers among us who are looking for a friendly face and a place to call home, and to give Americans a better name for being better hosts; that we aren’t all cold and self-centered, that we can be welcoming and warm and open-hearted. So that was another piece.
Carin Bringelson::  I think also, yesterday during reunion I went to the Stonewall Resource Center, and while I- I’m... I was thinking about, y’know, we were talking about what it was like when I was here, whether- you know, we were in this building off of- even further away than Burling. Burling was so far to us, you know, like it was like this little health center, standalone building and it was kind of like a forgotten, like random place.
Carin Bringelson::  But what was interesting was that I wasn't- I didn’t identify as queer and now I’m in a long term, monogamous relationship with a woman who... and I- and we’ve been together, well, fifteen years, now. If I… I’ve never been good at math, but since 1997, it’s now 2012.
Carin Bringelson::  We had a commitment ceremony in 2000, and I think that the kind of acceptance for gay and lesbian community and people here at Grinnell really made it much easier to be open to queer love, to be open to the love that wasn’t going to be necessarily socially acceptable, to be open to a range of life experiences and family dynamics and family constellations that may not have been the case, having not gone here.
Carin Bringelson & Sophie Haas::  That, while I wasn’t a huge part of the gay community on campus when I was here, the fact that it existed and the fact that I could be an ally or supportive. And I also, my sister is a lesbian and so to have, like a safe place for me to come out as a sibling of someone who was gay was really important and really felt safe, too.
Carin Bringelson & Sophie Haas::  Yeah.
Carin Bringelson & Sophie Haas::  So, I think that was a really positive experience about being at Grinnell, as well.
Carin Bringelson & Sophie Haas::  Yeah.
Carin Bringelson::  So, it- And what’s the other fascinating thing: I stay in touch with a variety of my friends from across the country and there’s just so much about who we are that we’re already- like, that we- like, that here at reunion, I see a friend. I’m like, “Oh! His mannerisms are the same!" Like, "Oh yes, that’s the Pete I know!” You know?
Carin Bringelson & Sophie Haas::  And to think, “Wow, we had that back twenty years ago,” you know, like, wow, we were... You know, just like, there’s like some core of who we are as individuals, that when we can be true to ourselves is that kind of authentic place that allows us to express that self, you know, in kind of ways that are consistent across time. That’s pretty fascinating too, I think.
Carin Bringelson & Sophie Haas::  Yeah, absolutely.
Carin Bringelson & Sophie Haas::  So... It’s- I’m very grateful for Grinnell and continue to value all that it gives to its students and to the wider world because of the students.
Carin Bringelson & Sophie Haas::  Great.
Carin Bringelson & Sophie Haas::  So, thanks for doing this.
Carin Bringelson & Sophie Haas::  Yeah. Thank you so much.
Carin Bringelson & Sophie Haas::  Yeah.
