Zannette Lewis (pictured) saw to it that 20 Wilbur Cross High School students “who would not have graduated” without her support got their diplomas, Larry Conaway told a gathering at the Church of St. Paul and St. James celebrating the life of Lewis, who died Sept. 25 at age 63.
It was one of many heartfelt stories told Wednesday about Lewis (pictured), who worked as New Haven Coordinator of the state GEAR UP project.
It was just one of a multitude of organizations and projects that benefited from her involvement.
Perhaps her dear friend, Ngoma, who said they met in junior high school (pictured playing the digiridoo) said it best, in the tribute printed in the evening’s program:
“Unboxable improvisational freestyle. Zannette was her own universe, simultaneously a connection to past, present and future. An activist and visionary, she always confronted the system from the inside. Realizing that revolution goes in circles, Zannette was evolutionary. A free thinker un[en]cumbered by theory and dogma, she was a seer and a giver, an earth angel, she’s moved on to a new assignment. Look for her in the whirlwind.”
Ngoma (who uses just one name) was joined at the start of the program for a 40-minute concert by drummers Michael Mills (pictured) and Brian Jarawa Gray. Click here for a snippet.
Lewis had a longstanding connection with the Peabody Museum, as a member of an inner circle of dedicated volunteers. She chaired the Events, Public Education and Outreach Committee for more than a dozen years, said David Heiser (pictured), director of education at the Peabody.
“Her committee took the Peabody’s annual Martin Luther King Day celebration under its wing,” he said, referring to the enormously successful free two-day family event, which included a nationally famous poetry slam that she was instrumental in creating. Several poets with a connection to the slam read from their work at Wednesday night’s program.
Heiser (pictured watching a slide show retrospective of Lewis’s life) said Lewis — known to many as “Z” — helped birth two other important programs. “The Evolutions after-school program and the Peabody On the Road program grew out of her committee’s ideas and leadership. She felt very strongly that the Peabody should never cease its work to connect to the community, and to always be working and thinking harder about how to do a better job of connecting to the community.”
It seemed almost every person sitting in the church had a different connection to Lewis.
Some of the other organizations she was involved with were the New Haven Chapter of Links, Inc., the New Haven Historical Society, the National Council of Negro Women, the African American Women’s Agenda, the Astrological Society of Connecticut, and the Arts Council of Greater New Haven.
Paula Panzarella worked with Lewis on the poetry slam and through the Inner City Cultural Development Program, which was part of the Urban Artists Initiative, which in turn was part of the Regional Cultural Plan, which Lewis carried out while working at the Arts Council.
“In New Haven there were about 20 artists involved in an intensive, three-year training program about how to develop yourself as an artist — classes, mentorship, and jobs. Zannette encouraged me to apply,” Panzarella recalled. “She said, ‘Your voice is important and it needs to get out there.’ If it wasn’t for her giving me that extra push I would not have applied. And through that program I met a number of wonderful area artists, and made great contacts with a lot of Connecticut organizations.” Instead of reading her own poetry at the celebration, Panzarella, after recounting her gratitude to Lewis, read a poem by Karel Sloane, another participant in the training program who now lives in New Orleans. “She needed to be heard, too” at the memorial, Panzarella added.
In a forthcoming article in the Arts Council’s newsletter, arts booster and Alderwoman Frances “Bitsie” Clark wrote that in the three years Lewis worked at the Arts Council, “Zannette recruited and worked closely with Cultural Development officers from each neighborhood, trained and nurtured emerging artists, and held speak outs that brought together the leadership of such organizations as the Yale Museums and the Shubert with neighborhood management teams, grass roots political leaders, and emerging artists to dialog and learn from each other. She listened, taught, encouraged, empowered and expanded everyone’s thinking and experience. She opened up the Community on so many levels and helped us all to appreciate each other across the barriers of race, ethnicity, social class and spirituality.”
Lewis’s son, Tchad Jemahl Moore (pictured with his wife and daughter), welcomed his mother’s friends and colleagues to the church. His wife, holding Sofiya at the front of the church, sang “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and said, “We decided we would see Grandma Z in the stars every night and in ordinary things every day.”
The family asked that donations in Lewis’s memory be made to the Arts Council.