The main objective of the project I was given at Local Matters was to create a document telling the story of how the Near East Side Cooperative Market came to be. At first, I thought of this document as a blueprint. In other words, if a similar community to the Near East Side somewhere else in the country wanted to open a cooperative grocer, what advice would I want to give them? I’ve been writing from this practical standpoint for 8 weeks, and just this afternoon I had a meeting that totally revamped my ideas.

Michael Jones, the executive director of Local Matters, sat down with me to discuss my final presentation this afternoon. He’s just as excited as I am about the Pecha Kucha format, and his main advice was to forget statistics, forget hard facts, and focus on telling a compelling story. I had created a preliminary presentation outline that discussed Local Matters as an organization, gave information on a cooperative business model, provided statistics on the Near East Side economy, etc. etc. etc. Michael asked me to put the data aside and take a walk down the street with my camera. He suggested capturing life in the neighborhood by photographing the vacant lots, the corner stores, and moms on their porches with their children. These people, these places, and these businesses make up the Near East Side and convey the need for a cooperative grocer so much more than a handful of statistics ever could.

The suggestion to move away from data and move towards aspects that can help bring the story to life has given me new direction for editing my final document. Although it may seem late in the game, right now is the perfect time to receive this directive. At this point, I have a lengthy document that contains all the facts, and it will be manageable to infuse life into the document by tweaking the language, adding photos, and making the story more relatable.

I’m excited for these last two weeks.