Solo Journey Round Europe Provides UConn Senior BOLD Expertise

As if Yvonna Maxie had just one aim for her monthlong journey round Europe this summer season, she realized this one early on in London after approaching a Black couple struggling to {photograph} themselves with out the good thing about a 3rd particular person.

They had been skeptical at first, however Maxie says she assured them that, sure, she was blissful to snap a pic to doc their journey. Thankful, the Nigerian couple advised her they had been visiting Europe for the primary time and having fun with each minute.

“It was good to talk to them and get their experience,” Maxie ’27 (SFA) says. “The African American and the African experience are two completely different things, and they experience very different types of racism, so it was good for me to hear that they feel safe and they’re feeling welcome as well.”

Maxie was solo on her journey in London that day and at different stops alongside the best way together with Dublin, Paris, Amsterdam, and Berlin, because the recipient of a scholarship from the BOLD Women’s Leadership Network at UConn who was abroad from late June till late July.

Her journey is the primary half of a bigger mission to doc the expertise of a younger Black lady navigating and dwelling alone in European international locations with Caucasian histories and cultures constructed round white individuals.

In addition to seeing the main websites at every locale, she sought to go to on a regular basis locations to measure how effortlessly and comfortably a Black lady might reside overseas, as an illustration pharmacies to survey the aisles for merchandise designed for Black hair care.

Her experiences would be the topic of an interactive journal the digital media and design pupil is creating this educational yr for different Black ladies considering of finding out overseas or following in her journey footprint. She hopes for it to ultimately be distributed to highschool and college-age college students.

Connections to Africa

Maxie says lots of her associates who’ve traveled outdoors the United States have gone to locations within the Caribbean or Africa, not Europe as a result of they didn’t really feel prefer it was a spot for them. But she was desirous to cross the proverbial pond.

“I found that Ireland was one of the nicest places to be, just the hospitality and the way people serve you and talk to you,” she says. “Even when I went out to restaurants by myself, the bartender or the server would always talk to me, asking questions.”

At the Collins Barracks, which homes the National Museum of Ireland, she discovered concerning the struggles involving Ireland and Northern Ireland and about their assist for the African nation of Rwanda throughout its genocide within the mid-Nineteen Nineties.

Throughout her journey, she discovered lots about European affect in Africa.

The AfricaMuseum simply outdoors Brussels in Belgium featured an exhibition concerning the nation’s darkish historical past with Congo, throughout which a government-supported propaganda marketing campaign tried to rally favor for Belgium’s continued rule over the central African nation throughout a time when public assist waned.

“The Belgians were exporting Congo’s resources and using the people as slaves, so they doctored pictures of it being a lively place, showing animals, their culture, and their dances, and they displayed them near the World Fair, so people could come in and see how Belgium was transforming and using Congo,” Maxie says. “Flash forward, once they realized this is an evil part of their history, they didn’t shy away from devoting a museum to it.”

She noticed photos of the murals used as propaganda versus the precise pictures which are devoid of bushes and animals and present shackles on individuals’s legs, she says, including, “That was one of my favorite museums of the whole trip. It’s very rare for people to accept their history.”

People Who Look Like Her

When Maxie stepped off the practice in Edinburgh, Scotland, the fantastic thing about the small, touristy city couldn’t be missed. But for the primary few days she was there, there was one factor noticeably absent.

“I didn’t see anyone who looked like me,” she says. “It was the third day I was there, and I was walking in the city center when I saw a group of Black women and children. They were singing to get other people to come to their church. A lot of the places I went had Black people advertising their religion, ‘Come to church with us, come to this church music festival.’”

Those three days had been the primary time in her life, she supposes, throughout which she really was the one Black particular person round. High college would have been the closest instance, when she was one of many solely Black college students in her honors programs.

In Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the place there’s a relatively small inhabitants of Black individuals, Maxie says she felt heartened after visiting Rijksmuseum, the place she noticed the work of an illustrator who drew outlines of kids on a background, sketches of younglings doing child-like issues.

“Even without color, the children looked different enough to know they were from different backgrounds,” she says. “You could see the curly hair and the straight hair or the waves. I really enjoyed that because it’s important for children to see that people look different from them but they’re all together in the same space.”

Feeling a Bit Unwelcome

Of course, a month of journey doesn’t come with out letdowns.

“Berlin, I don’t think I gave it my best shot personally,” Maxie says, reflecting on the journey. “I didn’t see a lot of other Black people and when I went to their museums, there wasn’t a lot of Black art. They had the bust of Nefertiti, which is from Egypt, in a building with Greco-Roman art. It wasn’t showcased in the way it should have been.”

And Paris, even with its magnificent websites, Maxie says she didn’t really feel wholly welcome.

To be truthful, she admits, she doesn’t converse French, which is thought to annoy native audio system, and he or she’s American, additionally identified to be grating on different cultures. Getting round and mixing with on a regular basis individuals was doubly tough – triple that when she met up with a white pal from UConn, who additionally was abroad, and had dinner together with her.

“It’s important to see that side-to-side treatment because sometimes I just think it’s me,” she says. “To have that comparison, it’s like whoa, I didn’t know you could be treated this well until there was someone else being treated this well next to me. The rudeness was heavier toward me.”

She continues, “Sometimes I get scared to call something racist because it feels like such a buzzword almost, people trying to make every little thing about race. I don’t want to do that and have people think of me that way. But at the same time, you’re treating me poorly, and she’s not being treated as poorly. It was a big wake-up call.”

Places on the ‘Go-Back-To’ List

Still, the journey got here with some large highs. Take London, England, for instance. It’s the place she met that couple from Nigeria and took their image. It’s additionally the place she says she felt most free.

“When I got up and went somewhere, I didn’t have to actively think about it or think that I would feel odd or look out of place. I didn’t have to spend so much time getting myself together. I felt like I could just exist there and not get a look or a stare. It was the place I felt most comfortable in immediately, and it was one of the most diverse places,” she says.

Madrid, Spain, the final place on her itinerary earlier than coming again dwelling, additionally was a spotlight.

Excited by the fruits of a profitable journey and the prospect of reuniting with household in only a couple days, Maxie’s pleasure grew because the nation welcomed dwelling the nationwide soccer staff after its historic win over Argentina within the World Cup.

Her arrival to town was delayed after being held up on the tarmac to permit the staff to deplane simply forward of hers, and when she stepped onto her resort balcony on Grand Via the following morning and noticed plenty of individuals lining up for the celebratory parade, she knew what she wanted to do.

“I put on my red shirt, I put on my shorts, and I went,” she says. “It was people on people – I looked the next day and there were 2 million people – but it was beautiful. Being able to go there and see other people who looked like me celebrating their sport was amazing. A lot of the Black people I saw were wearing the names of Black players on their jerseys, so it was nice to see that solidarity with each other.”

I put a lot into this journey, and I really feel like everybody was anticipating me to have a revelation or transformation, like I went to Europe and located myself. But I got here again, and I’m nonetheless me. I didn’t know that I’d nonetheless be me, that I’d know a lot extra about myself and the world and nonetheless be me. — Yvonna Maxie ’27 (SFA)

Expected – and Unexpected – Takeaways

Emily Schwab, director of the BOLD program at UConn, says Maxie’s journey overseas was the capstone expertise for her time in this system.

“Important to her, and the goals of our program, is a focus on self and career development, alongside social impact in carrying out their summer leadership projects,” she says. “By studying journey writing by Black authors, researching the traits of the place Black Americans sometimes journey, and dealing with mentors in digital media and design and Experiential Global Learning, Yvonna developed a mission plan to generate knowledge via her personal travels by chronicling her personal expertise and connecting with Black expats and vacationers overseas.

“She methodically documented her learnings about her experiences traveling through Europe in the hope she could share her insights with other young women through an engaging, accessible, and creative final product, informed by her expertise honed as a DMD major,” Schwab provides. “She also thought intentionally about how the project could be used to boost her portfolio as a DMD major and future professional, utilizing those storytelling skills to elevate narratives that don’t always break through to the mainstream.”

But there’s one thing, Maxie says, that she acquired from the expertise and by no means anticipated.

“I put so much into this trip, and I feel like everyone was expecting me to have a revelation or transformation, like I went to Europe and found myself,” she says. “But I came back, and I’m still me. I didn’t know that I’d still be me, that I’d know so much more about myself and the world and still be me.”

It’s one thing she’d inform anybody contemplating making use of for a BOLD scholarship via UConn’s Office of Undergraduate Research – together with the recommendation to dream large.

“I never thought I’d go to this many countries and do this many things,” she says. “When I first applied, I thought I could do to one or two places, and then I set the expectations bigger for myself. It’s important to find something that you really care about and just find a way to make it work for yourself.”