Connection, Community and Storytelling #13
Here is what I've been pondering this week in the community world.
It was a blink-and-you’ve-missed-it kind of week for me. But here is what caught my attention this week.
Listen 🎧
So I’ve been lost in one podcast this week, neglecting the rest and that is Nice White Parents by Serial. Its the story of the collision and integration of two worlds in a Brooklyn school - privileged white families and the lower socioeconomic families from a variety of backgrounds - Black, Hispanic, Afghan and many more. Its a tale for our times in 2020 and my favourite quote;
“We build community by coming together and sharing the food we eat at home, the food of our origins, not by coming together to eat catered food.”
If only more people would approach community building this way, by bringing themselves and not to polished versions that don’t represent who they are.
Read 📖
Almost everything I’m reading right now is pointing to thoughts about connection and how we as a species are going to face loneliness and isolation head-on. The global pandemic has shone the headlights on this growing problem whilst also adding a large weight to it. Everything from public spaces and libraries, how corporate supports community, and ways in which we can connect better locally once covid is over are being considered right now.
Here in Australia we have been thinking about community on a local level a little earlier than the rest of the planet - because of the devastating bushfires our country suffered during the November to February fire season. It gained world wide attention but really brought the idea of local community home; our interconnectedness, how we rally together, how we support one another, and look for the gaps where we don’t.
Bridget Delaney wrote an opinion piece in the Guardian Australia this week about our need for community and asks us all to consider how serendipitous encounters might be facilitated in the future to meet the gap.
Fast Company are also encouraging us to think about corporate investments in community.
There is also a lot of online discussion around technology and tools for communities. A few useful insights on this from from:
Nikolas Lohmann’s conversation on Why is it so hard to get people to network on slack? and Li Jin and David Sherry’s article Community leaders deserve better: An open letter about community software
Chill 😎
If there were an theme tune for community (at least my view of it) it would be Jose Gonzalez’s Every Age. It’s poignant for the current day. Whilst I was writing my book late last year and this year and I felt like quitting and throwing drafts out the window, I would listen to the lyrics and somehow feel inspired to keep going.
"Take this mind, take this pen
Take this dream of a better land
Take your time, build a home
Build a place where we all... can belong"
A nice way to finish this week, so enjoy!
💙 Anna