Flyering, Culture, and Harmless Ranting

My fellow author, Melissa, and I sat down together in the St. John's office and contemplated a number of things. It went from the very basic immediate to-do list to esoteric questions about culture and the significance of family for Union City's Hispanic population. All of this over the course of an hour with Puerta Abierta's phone ringing in the background and the AC giving us slight respite from the heat and air quality warnings sitting just outside the windows.

Initially, we discussed what we need to accomplish to promote the Arts at St. John's Summer Wellness Program, simple things like flyering the heck out of the surrounding houses and apartment buildings, chatting it up like crazies and such. This was decisive and easy, then the conversation shifted a bit.

Much of our appeal, as Arts at St. John's and previously with Art Talk, has been to the local Anglo community, as a majority of our current constituency, with little input or draw from the majority local Hispanics. Obviously, our first and simplest issue is our inability to hablar (how's that for a redundant infinitive?) Español, and vice versa when it comes to Enlgish for much of our Hispanic counterparts. But it goes deeper than that, as we conversed we hit upon a few cultural gaps. First, we are talking about more than one solid bloc, as there are a multitude of ethnic groups locally, let alone regionally. Setting aside that point, the second thing is that within our own personal experience we see daily just how much the family unit, immediate and extended, is part and parcel to this particular demographic. How that affects us is that not only are we an outside group in terms of language, but we also are trying to crack into a core group that there's simply no way we can think of to do that at the moment. Folks wake up in their rented row-house apartments next to their cousins and siblings, eat breakfast with them, go to work with them and return home. How do you break into that, especially considering that our asking prices, currently, are probably simply out of reach for them?

We have this beautiful building in a perfect location for the surrounding neighborhood and to this point we have not been able to communicate that we want this space to become a mutually beneficial home for artists seeking a home and Arts at St. John's to really become a recognized institution that brings people together in a spirit of exploration and creativity.

The other issue we have is trying to not duplicate the actions of other spaces and groups in the area broadly (Park Theater, etc..). If we are duplicating, as there is always some natural crossover, how do we do whatever it is better or more efficiently?

We had lots of questions, but few answers. As we prepare to enter the fall season we want to continue to revive our own spirits with knowledge that we care, are willing to work, and have a passion for this mission we have embarked on as a group. It is our continued hope that we can invigorate those around us into action as well.

As always we invite you to come with your fresh ideas, creativity, and your person. We also encourage feedback, please comment below!!!

Thanks for reading!