Beneath a white tent in Ocean Park on Saturday, stories of artist, educator, and activist Della Hardman filled the air. It was the 21st annual celebration of Hardman’s life, and the nearly 50 attendees reflected the phrase she used as a lifelong mantra: “Savor the moment.”
Following Hardman’s passing at the age of 83 in 2005, the town of Oak Bluffs recognized the last Saturday of July as “Della Hardman Day” in honor of her work and legacy on and off the Island.
Hardman boasted a vast professional career that spanned across art, education, and activism. Over the decades, she worked at the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, in the Boston public schools system, and as an art professor at West Virginia State University, where she stayed for almost 30 years. She also hosted the “Black Experience” on WKAZ radio in Charleston, where she is originally from. On the Island, she was a town columnist for Oak Bluffs for The Vineyard Gazette, where she signed off at the end of every piece with “savor the moment.”
In 1986, Hardman made Martha’s Vineyard her full-time home, where she stayed for nearly 20 years. In 1994, she received the first ever Humanitarian Award from the Martha’s Vineyard branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for her years of committed service and contributions to the Island.
“She was very much a part of this community, and this meant the world to her. We are pleased that we were able to continue that tradition,” Wole Coaxum, Hardman’s grandson, said to the crowd on Saturday.
Coaxum’s welcome speech was followed by greetings from Oak Bluffs Select Board Chair Dion Alley, speeches by Boston University (BU) faculty, where Hardman was an alumni (and nine of her descendents also graduated from), and a program called “Our Stories, Our Legacy” that highlighted influential women.
BU was also a main sponsor of Della Hardman Day celebrations this year, and the university’s Director of African American & Black Diaspora Studies (AABDS) Margarita Guillory and Director of Graduate Studies for AABDS Paula Austin delivered speeches at the event.
“Dr. Hardman’s life is immortal because of celebrations like this,” Guillory said in her speech. “It just reflects on the light of Dr. Hardman. What we realized is that she was such a community person. And not only was she a community person, she understood the importance of community and cared for those around her.”
Each year, speakers are invited to feature the work of female African American artists. This year, a panel included television producer and writer Mara Brock Akil and Columbia University professor Farah Jasmine Griffin. In a talk moderated by Griffin, Akil reflected on the process of writing her newest novel, “The Revelation of Dionne Daphne,” discussing storytelling and the craft of writing — something Hardman was passionate about.
“I am more of who I am after writing this book,” Akil told the crowd. “I share with Della the power of storytelling.” She added that writing gives people the ability to continue to fight what she described as evils in humanity; she discussed injustice, and the role of technology in dividing people.
The first celebration of Hardman’s work and legacy took place the summer before her death in December of 2005. “Students that she taught when she was a professor wanted to celebrate her life because they knew she wasn’t gonna be around forever,” Coaxum said. That celebration included an art fair for the work of her students and herself.
The event became an annual celebration, especially through the will of his mother, Andrea Taylor, Coaxum said. “It just started to gain momentum, and every year we were able to get another speaker to talk about her and how she inspired them,” he said.
The event on Saturday brought together a number of family members, longtime friends, and community members. Janis Smith-Gomez, who attended the celebration, moved to the Island in 2004 and met Hardman not long after. She was invited to Hardman’s home, which Hardman often offered to newcomers.
“She was just so warm, and inviting. I then discovered she was an amazing artist, and I have one of her paintings in my home, which I love. She was just very special, and she lives on in the community,” Smith-Gomez told The Times.
Throughout the afternoon, attendees rejoiced in remembrance of stories about Hardman, and, true to her catch-phrase, “savored the moment.”
A topic mentioned numerous times throughout the day was Hardman’s dog: Chloe.
“Chloe ran her life, and so I grew up hearing about basically the adventures of Della and Chloe. And everyone on the Island knew that you wouldn’t find one without the other,” Quinn Coaxum, Hardman’s great granddaughter, said to The Times. “So listening to these stories [is] realizing how much her presence on the Island had an impact.”
The event also featured a book signing for Akil’s new release and a cake that paid homage to Hardman, who was famously known for bringing pound cake whenever visiting friends. The event was a celebration of new writers and educators, like Akil, and an honoring of the generational impact Hardman made on the Island.
“Our stories, our legacy, which we weaved into this year’s program, have always been about the tradition of an afternoon where generations sit side by side under one sky,” Taylor said.
