The Behavioral Corner 

Hi, and welcome. I'm Steve Martorano. And this is the Behavioral Corner, you're invited to hang with us as we discuss the ways we live today, the choices we make, the things we do, and how they affect our health and well-being. So you're on the Corner, the Behavioral Corner, please hang around a while.

Steve Martorano 

Hey, everybody, how are you doing? Welcome to the Behavioral Corner. It's a little rainy today. So I hope you dress appropriately. We get under the canopy here by the bodega on the corner, we'll be okay. I'm Steve Martorano your host and guide through this, you know how it works. I hope you do. We're here to talk about a very broad topic, behavioral health. And that encompasses a lot of things specifically, and even more things in a general sense. Because the way we behave affects everything, the way we feel spiritually, emotionally, and physically. They touch upon issues, we often do have substance abuse and mental health issues. We're focusing though, on an even broader realm and that's what we know about our history. Because we know the story of the Founding Fathers chapter adverse. We know their name. So we know Washington and we know Jefferson and we know Adams. I never knew a lot about where the founding mothers and sisters and wives. I had that smattering same as a lot of you guys, we know who Molly Pitcher was. We certainly know who Betsy Ross was. And we certainly know Dolly Madison and, and George's wife, Martha. So we know all those ladies. And they all have several things in common, one of which is they're all white. So that can't be the case certainly there are women of color, who played an important part in the nation's history. I wanted to find out about that. And so I got lucky and look who wandered onto the Corner. She's the director of the writing of the Mighty Writers will tell you about that a little later. Kayela Williams, and she is our guest on the program. Kayela, thanks so much for joining us.

Kalela Williams 

Thank you so much for having me.

Steve Martorano 

I got a lot of that right, didn't I? I mean, you know, women, in general, are sort of left out of that story of the founding of the nation and certainly women of color are almost nowhere to be found. So we're grateful to have you on that. A little bit about you. You're from Atlanta originally?

Kalela Williams 

Yes.

Steve Martorano 

How long have you been in Philadelphia?

Kalela Williams 

I have been in Philadelphia for about nine years. I didn't think of it. But yes. I've always been fascinated by Philadelphia, actually, before I ever set foot here before I even visited because of the history of people of color here.

Steve Martorano 

Yeah, yeah, you know what those of us who are born and raised here kind of forget the central part that the city played a couple of 100 years ago. Kayela is one of those rare individuals who's actually devoted to nonprofits. And she's worked for many of them in course of her career, she's accomplished poet and author, and she's written extensively and this stuff appears in the whole lots of places. And she's now focusing with the Mighty Writers on a couple of interesting areas that she's going to tell us about today. The Mighty Writers for people don't know real quick.

Kalela Williams 

Sure, Mighty Writers is a Philadelphia-based organization that teaches kids to think clearly and write with clarity. It is an organization that provides free workshops. Right now, we're all online. But workshops, again, are free. And they approach writing from different angles. There's everything from say, there's a workshop called Mighty Brotherhood, which is for black men to come together and talk about identity and talk about issues that affect them specifically, as black men. There's Mighty Girls Rock, which teaches girls to compose music. So again, it's teaching writing, but it's teaching it from an angle that might capture a child's interest. I right now am teaching what we're calling Master Classes and these are for specially gifted writers and we're really getting into some detailed work with poetry and fiction. So it's a lot of fun teaching sort of, in some ways, college-level ideas to kids.

Steve Martorano 

How old are these kids?

Kalela Williams 

Mighty Writer serves kids from toddlers to 17. The kids who I work with are 12 to 17.

Steve Martorano 

Yeah, we had your leader of Mighty Writers, Tim Whitaker on the program. We just jumped into it. I loved it because of the group of kids you're dealing with have unique situations in their lives and expressing themselves is one of the things that they're probably not called upon to to very much. And writing is a great way to get them to do that. So mighty writers assistant great, great organization, and more people should be aware of it and support. Anyway, let's talk a little bit about your focus recently on women of color and history.

Kalela Williams 

My interest in history is it's a very old interest fittingly. In 2019 - in January of 2019, I founded an online community called Black History Maven. And that was basically just a sort of way for me too, you know, I was always posting articles about black history and I thought, gosh, you know, I'm just always posting these on my personal page, what if I created a page that was just about black history, and I could post articles as I find them, and maybe spark discussion among more than just my friends and more than just my little circle. And I also thought about doing tours. So I started doing tours with Airbnb Experiences. And I also did some community tours through Black History, Maven, and these were tours focused on women's history on African American History in Philadelphia. The pandemic put a little bit of a stop to that I had, I guess you could call it a costume made, but my costume was, it's a 1778 costume, and it's hand-sewn. The person who made it is an expert in 18th-century sewing techniques. And so there's just a lot there. But in the meantime, while I was waiting for that to be ready, I actually did some work with a museum at the American Revolution, and I borrowed some clothes from them. Also, hand sewn.

Steve Martorano 

Interesting, when you think about an expert in 18th-century sewing, I'm guessing that most of the clothes those people wore in those days were probably made by African American women, right?

Kalela Williams 

I don't know if I would say most, and I think it would depend on regions. But a fair amount of clothing in like, if you look at the American South, a fair amount was made by African American women, but a fair amount was actually made by white women, even white Southern women who we think of as plantation mistresses. were expected to be industrious and frugal. And so in many cases, they use enslaved labor to do things that they considered a sort of beneath them. And sewing wasn't necessarily that. That being said, there is a history of African American women making clothing. In fact, one of my favorite stories in Philadelphia is that of a woman named Emilie Davis, who was just a simple, everyday person, nobody famous, but she left behind diaries, and she was a seamstress. So she sewed clothing for a living, and sort of glimpses like that give you an idea of work.

Steve Martorano 

But we're here to talk about women with regard to haberdashery - I may have this completely wrong -but I think I read somewhere George Washington's tailor, I guess, became an international celebrity. I mean, he went to Europe and designed clothes over there. That's in the back of my head, it may have been someone else completely. Anyway, in the beginning, I mentioned that we know plenty about the Founding Fathers and very little about the women involved in that period of time. How sparse would you say our knowledge is of the women in history, particularly the women of color?

Kalela Williams 

Sure, a lot of what we use when we study history, we tend to use written records. That's what we have. We have letters, we have diaries, we have newspapers, articles, media, and women, often the women in general, much fewer women of color were often not documented, or if they were documented, those documents were not necessarily saved. There was a tradition, for instance, of women burning their letters, because if you wrote something that could be considered untoward or anything that just could be considered something that you didn't want to be left behind, you know, you want to be modest. And so you, in many cases, women might have burned their letters, we don't have them. So like, for instance, Martha Washington burned all of her letters from George Washington, so we don't have that corresponded. So...actors

Steve Martorano 

There's a lot of actors today, famous men who wish the women they knew, had done that.

Kalela Williams 

Right, you can't burn an email.

Steve Martorano 

Tweets will get you every time. So the record is wiped out because of the 18th century, mores rather than anything else. 

Kalela Williams 

Right, and when we think about women of color, in many circumstances, you either have a situation where literacy is limited - and remember, literacy was limited in all classes, in the 18th and 19th century -- but it certainly was much more limited in many cases by law for black women, specifically. So you have that you also have limited resources paper was not just something that you just grabbed.

Steve Martorano 

Although the federalist papers have endured a lot of papers did endure anyway, with regard to women of color in Philadelphia that you've taken a look at, or interested in telling people about, do you have a favorite woman who stands out?

Kalela Williams 

Right now my favorite, I would say if I had to have a favorite is there's been a lot of conversation about Francis Ellen Watkins Harper, who was a 19th-century poet who no one ever heard of, or very few people have heard she's actually enjoying a resurgence right now. But she lived a long time she was born in I believe was 1825 and she died in 1913. So she lived a very long breath of life and she was an activist and a poet she did everything from -- she was a Rosa Parks on trolley cars that were desegregated, she would sit down and refuse to get up because at that point, trolley cars were the segregation of them strictly limited black folks movement throughout the city, which meant they couldn't go to work. They couldn't do their own activist work. She also again, was a poet and she would host salons that would raise money for everything from Union soldiers to you know, during the war to after the war, to orphan children, you name it. And she was also a suffragist, she advocated for women's right to vote.

Steve Martorano 

Must have been a real joy to be that far ahead of your time. You know, it's interesting, I'm sure I've even thought about this myself, how segregated was a city like Philadelphia in the 19th century?

Kalela Williams 

So there were definitely neighborhoods that were a little bit more. The Seventh Ward, which at the time stretched from Spruce to Bainbridge - river to river. It was sort of a corridor where a lot of most African Americans in the city lived by the, you know, mid 19th century.

Steve Martorano 

That's the ward that W.E.B. DuBois did the studies on? 

Kalela Williams 

Yeah, that's exactly right. Most of them, Philadelphia's black community was concentrated there. But that being said, you still could look at a census report from you know, that neighborhood during that time during, say, the mid 19th century, and you see a lot of folks who were born in Ireland who was born in Germany, who was born in England, or who were born here, but who were listed as white. So there was not, as much of say, like, the enclaves that you might even see more of today. What was segregated was not so many neighborhoods, but communities. So like, for instance, if you had a literary circle, that you'd have a black literary circle, and then you'd have other white literary circles, schools were segregated in many cases. So...

Steve Martorano 

So we don't think about that so much. Segregation is something that only happened in the deep south. But that, of course, is not the case. And the Seventh Ward is a very famous place for students of black history, certainly in Philadelphia. Have you led towards through the Seventh Ward, you're going to do that again?

Kalela Williams 

Yeah, I have. I was doing them quite a bit before the pandemic hit. And then I've stopped, but I will be doing some virtual tours through Black History Maven of the Seventh Ward because it's a very important area. It really is.

Steve Martorano 

Yeah, yeah. And it's been studied for a long, long time. I don't know how much we've learned. But it's certainly been studied a long, long time. We're talking to Kayela Williams. She is the director of writing for the Mighty Writers, an organization that teaches kids to write. And as you can tell from the name of the site, she's a history maven, I love that. I love that idea. You know, one of the other areas we're getting to know that you've been involved in is the Founding Sisters, and I love that idea. Tell us a little about a couple of them.

Kalela Williams 

Sure. So I also did tours on what I called Founding Sisters, you know, we think of Philadelphia as the place where America began and women were part of that story. So there are a few people who are interesting. And what I like to do is tell complicated stories, right, and history is best-served complex. So for instance, we can look at somebody named Peggy shippen, who was the wife of Benedict Arnold, not one of our favorite people in American history. Peggy was sort of aligned during her life as being hysterical and crazy. And we don't know very much about her. We have a lot of writings of accounts of how she behaved, but we really don't know what was going on in her mind. You know, if I'm doing a tour, and I'm talking about some of the crazy things, Peggy Shippen did, I like to think about, what is it that we don't know, we don't have her voice? What's left out and what could be something behind how she's feeling?

Steve Martorano 

Well, can you imagine the stories that are left untold about a woman married to the most infamous man of her time? That was a very famous family, right? Rhe Shippens family? 

Kalela Williams 

Yeah. 

Steve Martorano 

Yeah, yeah. A friend of mine owned and manage a tavern at Fourth and Bainbridge -- Fifth and Bainbridge back in the day called Shippens. Never occurred to me that there may be a famous woman involved in that. Of course, Philadelphia was one of the "terminus" -- is that a word? -- of the Underground Railroad? Who were the women and I'm sure there were women in Philadelphia who were involved in that?

Kalela Williams 

Oh my gosh, so many people come to mind. I mentioned Francis Ellen Watkins Harper. Obviously, she was involved and mentioned Emilie Davis, the seamstress, the woman who wasn't making a whole lot of money, but she was a member of the ladies union committee. She was part of the female anti-slavery committee. You know, she writes in her diaries, about running around selling tickets to this benefit or that benefit because she was raising money for escaping enslaved people. You have people who were, I guess, flying under the radar as well as more well-known people. Harriet Purvis was another person who was involved in that effort along with her husband, Robert Purvis. So we have so many people, just everyday people as well as more elevated names.

Steve Martorano 

I'm struck by the names roll from your tongue. I mean, there are so many literally lost, excepted scholars like yourself and other real students of history. We don't do anywhere near a good enough job telling the story, the whole story of that period of time. Abolitionists, even in the north, this was a pretty dicey thing to be involved in, right? These women took some risk of getting involved in that movement.

Kalela Williams 

Yeah, I mean, there's the risk of obviously, it was illegal, you know, trying to help an enslaved person after the passage of the fugitive slave law in 1850, was outright illegal. And even before that, it was frowned upon to the point where you could be I don't know, beaten. So there was the physical risk, but there was also the risk of speaking in public at that time being a woman speaking in public at that time, which was also extremely frowned upon. That was something you did not do. So these women in some ways, and obviously, the risk was more or the frowning upon was bigger for white women than it was for black women because the tradition of black activism was understood in black communities. But it's to say that women were in some ways risking their reputation to do this to speak in public.

Steve Martorano 

Even when we do know of these women, and what they were doing, they are somehow, in spite of their efforts, somehow known because of their attachment to men. My guess is one of the most outstanding names of the founding period of a woman of color is Sally Hemings. Sally Hemings was like 1000s of other women, a piece of property she was on when she was owned by a very famous man. He fathered some of her children. These women all had in addition to that they were carrying around that. That's, that's my husband, the only reason I'm paying attention to me is my husband. We need to break free of that just look at them as individuals. I mean, that's part of I'm sure what you want to accomplish with this, right?

Kalela Williams 

Oh, absolutely. I think to some extent, of course, you know, we still see that today. But I think that certainly looking at women through the attachment of either their husbands, their brothers, their fathers, or the attachment of in Sally Hemings case, which was a very unique case. She was yes, indeed, the mother of at least four of Thomas Jefferson's children. And she's someone interesting, who I like to talk about when I'm standing at the Declaration House on Seventh and Market. It's a rebuilt Declaration House. It's not the original, of course, was rebuilt in the 1930s. But we don't have any record of her necessarily being in Philadelphia ever, even when she sailed to France. It doesn't seem like she went through Philadelphia. But we do know that when Thomas Jefferson was in that Declaration House, Robert Hemings her brother was with him. And Hemings family is part of the Jefferson family. And Sally's story brings us to another point about women of color history, and that is the idea of sexual assault in women's history. And I'd like to talk about this on tours because I think it's important that to stress that all women were in danger of sexual assault. At that time, all women were especially women who were indentured servants, women who were poor, and especially women who were African American, and especially women who were owned by other people. When you don't own your body, it's very hard to, you know, the idea of consent is out of the window. So it's important to talk about these things.

Steve Martorano 

Yeah, it's awful to think about something like that. I mean, you're right about across the board, women were, you know, considered property, even if they were free white women, they sort of belong to their husbands. I mean, not that they acquiesced any of this behavior. But it certainly wouldn't be the first thing in their mind is I consent to this was sort of the what was to be expected and endured. So horrible just to contemplate that. So the people you lead on these tours are they roll ages or they younger people who are you taking on these tours when you were doing them?

Kalela Williams 

Generally adults, but I will say that I love when kids are part of these tours, I will be more patient, not more patient, not that I'm usually inpatient "Come on, raw!" But I will re-explain things as needed. I want to make sure that the child comes away with an understanding because that's important to me.

Steve Martorano 

Are they surprised to find out that there were so many people of color who were involved in those days and had an impact?

Kalela Williams 

One of the reasons I mentioned that I was fascinated with Philadelphia before I ever set foot in the city. Because you know, you grew up in the south and you always hear the narrative of slavery and go down Moses and you just hear this like 19th-century cotton plantation narrative, and it's so much bigger than that. And Philadelphia is a place where there was a thriving free community that really was at odds with everything I ever learned in school. And so I wanted to learn more. And so I think that's what surprises people. I think that people just sort of forgetting that black folks existed outside of slavery, that black folks existed in the 18th century and not just the 19th century.

Steve Martorano 

I don't want to get too much into this. But I'm curious, you know, I spent time in Boston working in Boston is very similar to Philadelphia, that historical roots thing. But they seemed, this just made me by ignorance of Boston seem to be more inclined to bring people through that history. I mean, there's the famous Freedom Trail tour that they've been doing forever there. Is the city up to speed on the kinds of things you do?

Kalela Williams 

I have not spent a lot of time in Boston for a while. I would like to, and that was actually on my list of things to do before the pandemic hit because I haven't really spent time in Boston for about 15 years and 15 years is a long time in terms of interpreting black history.

Steve Martorano 

I got to ask you about the one other area here because it's leaped off the page at me when I saw the tour, and that is a scandal. What's, what's sort of scandals were going on?

Kalela Williams 

But oh, my goodness, you know, everything from Alexander Hamilton's affair to you know, obviously, I do talk about Peggy Shippen because that is just so incredibly interesting. And during the scandal tour, I also talk about things that we consider taboo, and that we consider something that we like to talk about. So for instance, sex work in the 18th and 19th century, looking at, say, like Ben Franklin's many divergences, we'll call them, I'm looking at them, not through the lens of this is salacious, but through the lens of people, we're human beings. And this is how human beings behave. And one of the interesting things about this was I had a teenager take that tour once. And the mom reached out to me, and she was like, Is it okay if my teen comes? And I was like, Oh, oh, oh! And I said, you know, this is what we talked about that is up to you. And the kid came along, and I just tried to pretend like he wasn't there, in that case, because I didn't want to sort of like not say anything. And then when the tour was done, he was like, I didn't know history was like this. Like, can you send me some articles? Like, where can I learn more about this? I want to learn this in history class. And I'm like, I don't know if we can ever learn this in class, but I will send you articles.

Steve Martorano 

Well, you know, that if you were to put revolutionary scandals on a list of courses, people would sign up for it. It's a fascinating idea. Let's focus again, back on women in this time. You mentioned sex work, which is kind of interesting. Now we know that sex work is sex work. It's not any profession anybody aspires to. But for many women, it was the first, I'm guessing it was the first expression they had of some kind of independence, they could take what was usually taken from them, turn it into a commodity, and make some money. We're women of color involved in a lot of sex work during the Revolutionary period?

Kalela Williams 

I mean, sex work is definitely something that was pretty widespread, you know, certainly throughout American history. In Philadelphia, it doesn't seem that women of color were more involved or less involved. The records on this are very, very shadowy, but I will say that, from what I've seen, it seems like they were not disproportionately represented in sex work. You know, sex work, it seems just as it does now, it means different things to different people. You know, for some, it's, it is empowering to be able to earn your own money. And in that time, especially when there are very few avenues, you know, it could have been, but for many, it was the only thing you could do. It was incredibly and still is, in many cases, it can be incredibly dangerous work in many, many different ways. So, yeah, I think it's important to look at the sort of look at it in a holistic way. And looking at it from the lens of this is part of the economic reality of women, just as there are other professions that were part of the economic reality of women.

Steve Martorano 

It's, fascinating. I mean, the story is so much bigger than what we've been told, even in, you know, fairly serious discussions and study of the history of this country. It's way bigger than we're aware of. So stuff like your work is particularly important. You're a fan of Hamilton? 

Kalela Williams 

The musical? 

Steve Martorano 

Yes.

Kalela Williams 

Um, you know, I am a fan. 

Steve Martorano 

As a historian, I mean.

Kalela Williams 

Yes, I'm not a super fan. I'm not I definitely don't like listen to the soundtrack over and over. But yeah, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the take on history and anything that makes history more accessible and more interesting to people. I'm all for it.

Steve Martorano 

You're not falling down about this. My problem has always been Hamilton. They told us some other story of Hamilton when I was growing up. Anyway, what should people do if they want to know more about your individual work? Is your website is your name? Correct?

Kalela Williams 

My website is my name. And I also have BlackHistoryMaven.com.

Steve Martorano 

I would look at both sites are fascinating. I would urge people to do that. And the Mighty Writers is also there on the internet. You can look them up. They are as I said at nonprofit are're dependent upon contributions. It's a great way to spend some money if you got some extra money. Kalela, thanks so much. Could you do me a favor and promise to come back and talk about this again, but in costume.

Kalela Williams 

It takes me about an hour and a half to get dressed because I'm just not very good with the stays yet, but yes, I'm getting there.

Steve Martorano 

Is that longer than it takes you regularly get dressed? 

Kalela Williams 

Oh, oh my god, yeah. Are kidding me. Usually, I'm just like, I sometimes don't even look in the mirror. But it's bad.

Steve Martorano 

That's not true at all. Kalela Williams, thanks so much. 

Kalela Williams 

You're welcome. 

Steve Martorano 

And I can't wait until the pandemic gets out of all of our ways. And then you can get back to doing so many great tours. Thanks again. We appreciate

Retreat Behavioral Health 

At Retreat Behavioral Health, we believe in the power of connection and quality care. We offer comprehensive holistic and compassionate treatment from industry-leading experts. Call 855-802-6600 and begin your journey today.

The Behavioral Corner 

That's it for now and make us a habit of hanging out at the Behavioral Corner. And when we're not hanging, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, on the Behavioral Corner.