A Public Thing
Opening space for public conversations. In person, in print, and online.
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Photo by Zoe Prinds-Flash.
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THIS NEWSPAPER IS A CONVERSATION.
Much like the conversations happening everywhere. People are sitting together at mealtime; gathering in the break room at work; lingering over a coffee, occupying government plazas, or resting in the shade and they’re talking about how things have gone so strikingly sour in the economy.
Inspired by all this, we made an opportunity a few weeks ago for people in the place where we live (the Twin Cities) to pull these discussions out of their private spheres and into the public. It’s not winter yet, after all, so we organized for folks to gather at Peavey Plaza in downtown Minneapolis to talk. We gave the event a name, FINANCIAL ENGAGEMENT: A PUBLIC THING, established a basic participatory framework and opened up the space.
Our driving philosophy was simple: Everyone has questions about the state of our economy and the burgeoning movement to make it better; and everyone has knowledge to share. We don’t just have to listen to the experts interviewed on the radio to understand what is going on. we can learn equally important information from people living around us who may or may not be getting by. And more crucially, we can strategize creative ways to get through and beyond this mess.
Much of the content in this paper comes directly out of the conversations we had on November 5TH. We invited anyone to submit something after the gathering. The results fill up these pages. Here in ink people are talking about communes, about peaceful organizing, about how to break up with your bank, about underwater mortgages, about feeling ashamed and empowered.
These pages also ask a lot of questions. They reflect the myriad movements afoot today: the Occupy encampments, organizing against foreclosures, Bank Transfer Day, equity work, etc. All of these agitations are forming a new politic that no longer depends on elected officials to make the changes we need to see now.
This paper is being distributed at sites of consumption in time for Black Friday. It’s also being posted online at apublicthing.org. As economists anticipate whether Americans will spend more or less to kick off the shopping season, we’re on the streets passing around the currency of information.
Enjoy!
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from: Jaimie Stevenson < xxxxxx.xxxxxxxxx @ xxxxx.xxx >
to: Colin Kloecker < xxxxx.xxxxxxxx @ xxxxx.xxx >, Shanai Matteson < xxxx.xxxxxxxx @ xxxxx.xxx >
date: Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 4:32 PM
subject: oakland » mplsdears colin + shanai,
greetings from the east bay, greater san francisco, california. you’re on my mind today as i’ve discovered that a man i share an office with is, in his extra-office existence, creating an Occupied Oakland Tribune newspaper to distribute to the masses during the 11/2 General Strike in Oakland this week. it’s modeled off of OWS’s Occupied Wall Street Journal, and making me recall piles and piles of Art Work circulating during We Work Here. (I will always always be sorry that I had to be out of town during that project: I would have loved to be its documentarian.)
i’m curious if you two have been participating in Occupy MN, what you’ve been seeing, and if anyone is printing a rag up there as a place for slow-mo public discourse. i did see the TC Runoff’s coverage of Occupy MN’s observance of Columbus/Indigenous Peoples’ day, but haven’t heard much else about what’s up in the MN capital.
the mainstream news coverage of occupy oakland has been really disheartening. the followup to last week’s violent clashes with police on tuesday was a spectacularly peaceful turnout of 2 to 3 thousand people (yea, precise right?) for a 4.5 hour long general assembly on wednesday night. that was the night the GA passed the proposal for a general strike, in a process in which over 1600 people cast a “vote.” it included two rounds of breaking out to groups of twenty, with representatives reporting back to the whole group. (goosebumps, tears, giddy smiles, elation, all part of the scene.) it was an incredible about-face from the previous night, but I cannot find that story anywhere. all the radio and print coverage I can find from the following days talks about tuesday’s violence, wednesday’s potential for violence, and (eventually) word about the action for a general strike, but NOTHING about the orderliness or peacefulness of the proceedings of the 4.5 hour general assembly. it’s really been getting to me. thus, i inquire about alternative newspapers!
i hope you guys are doing well. i am really curious about how you, Works Progress, and your other projects are responding to Occupy everything. i’ll live in mpls again before too long. i miss it so.
love, jaimie
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from: Colin Kloecker < xxxxx.xxxxxxxx @ xxxxx.xxx >
to: Jaimie Stevenson < xxxxxx.xxxxxxxxx @ xxxxx.xxx >
cc: Shanai Matteson < xxxx.xxxxxxxx @ xxxxx.xxx >
date: Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 5:09 PM
subject: oakland » mplsHi Jamie,
So nice to hear from you! Your email is about as timely as can be. A Public Thing is a project we conceived of and launched last week (with the help of an awesome team of collaborators), with inspiration from OWS. Our first gathering will be this Saturday in Peavey Plaza in downtown Minneapolis and is on the theme of financial independence/interdependence. And guess what, it’s a newspaper project! We hope to have our first publication out by Black Friday.
It’s intentionally not directly associated with Occupy MN. For better or for worse, we wanted to create a public space and framework that was more neutral. It’s less protest and more proactive community conversation. So far, the neutral, open tone we’ve set has been successful in getting certified financial planners, lawyers who work in debter’s rights, and community development people interested in participating. I’d be interested in your thoughts on pros and cons of associating a public gathering/publication project like A Public Thing directly within or outside of the OWS movement.
Oakland has been on our minds a lot in the last 2 weeks, are you very involved? The GA last Wednesday sounds amazing. Maybe we can set up a Skype chat to check in sometime. We’re heading to Detroit to take part in, and help document, the PolicyLink Equity Summit and are pretty busy this week getting ready.
What are you up to mid-November? We’ll be in the thick of prepping our publication and it might be fun to tell you how it’s all going.
Stay well,
Colin Kloecker
Works Progress
( xxx ) xxx - xxxx-
from: Jaimie Stevenson < xxxxxx.xxxxxxxxx @ xxxxx.xxx >
to: Colin Kloecker < xxxxx.xxxxxxxx @ xxxxx.xxx >
cc: Shanai Matteson < xxxx.xxxxxxxx @ xxxxx.xxx >
date: Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 6:34 PM
subject: oakland » mplsA Public Thing sounds spot-on. As usual, the perspective that Works Progress brings to big issues (but somehow on the small scale of my life, and I imagine the scale of a lot of others’) is so refreshing. I have been feeling somewhat conflicted about whether or not Occupy Oakland is a neutral forum, and about how participating in GAs a/effects my integrity as a journalist. My impression is that the tone of things in Oakland is a lot more aggressive than Occupations elsewhere right now in direct response to violence last week.
Here Occupy is rallying against a strong tradition and tolerance for police brutality here, as well as the huge and deeply disempowered (not the best word, passive voice, but it’s close) black and brown communities in Oakland. City Council voted to close 5 more public schools last week, and police operations, social services, and sorts of other publicly-funded anythings, suffer continuous budget cuts. It’s alarming to acknowledge the extent of individuals’ financial dependence on the state, and it gets at one aspect of what you’re talking about.
I won’t be there for A Public Thing, but I would love to hear how newspaper production is going via Skype. I’ll be interested in how your group decides to produce the printed paper, and whether it is composed only of documentary work from Nov 5, or if there might be room for a dispatch from Oakland. If I could get my head around this in the next 24 hours, perhaps I could walk into the General Strike on Wednesday with a voice recorder and an outline for an interview, and talk to people about the personal topic of financial independence/interdependence.
I suspect this would weed out some of the more grandiose and less real postulations about what the hell is going on. Depending on the outcome, would you guys be interested in a faraway take on the same/similar questions? I am certain I would find use for the recordings some where some day, so no pressure.
Thanks for the speedy response. It’s exciting to hear about what you’re up to.
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from: Colin Kloecker < xxxxx.xxxxxxxx @ xxxxx.xxx >
to: Jaimie Stevenson < xxxxxx.xxxxxxxxx @ xxxxx.xxx >
cc: Shanai Matteson < xxxx.xxxxxxxx @ xxxxx.xxx >
date: Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 6:44 PM
subject: oakland » mplsThanks for the feedback, we’re really excited to see how it all goes!
We’re having a meeting tomorrow morning to talk about the publication, and give it some form. I think a dispatch from Oakland would be really interesting, but I wonder if we should also have a dispatch from our own Occupy movement here in MN (it could also be framed differently… more of a national perspective thing, less about OWS). I’ll bring it up at the meeting and see what people think.
Let’s talk in mid-November either way!
Colin Kloecker
Works Progress
( xxx ) xxx - xxxx-
from: Jaimie Stevenson < xxxxxx.xxxxxxxxx @ xxxxx.xxx >
to: Colin Kloecker < xxxxx.xxxxxxxx @ xxxxx.xxx >
cc: Shanai Matteson < xxxx.xxxxxxxx @ xxxxx.xxx >
date: Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 11:59 AM
subject: oakland » mplsHi guys,
A agree that a dispatch from Oakland might be hard to contextualize in a conversation born in MN. Do you imagine multiple editions of the newspaper that comes out of A Public Thing?
I was sitting in the crowd at last night’s General Assembly with the questions you’re raising about personal finance, shame, reimagining responsibility, etc, running through my mind and in conversation with my guy, Jesse. I’ve been meandering through the last few weeks on the edge of viewing myself as active in all this, and as an observer (journalist style). Thinking about Occupy Oakland through the perspective of those questions is clarifying some of my unsettled feelings about the scope and accessibility of the movement here: your premise seems to narrow the conversation to individual experience, while widening it to validate any person’s perspective. Funny how that works.
This might be an imposing proposition, but I’m going to venture to make it at the risk of stepping on your toes—I am curious if you would be comfortable with me going into the “General Strike” tomorrow with an interview built off of the questions behind A Public Thing. No promises from me about the outcome, and no obligation from you about finding use for it.
With race and racism driving a lot of the class-based conversation in Oakland, and with the Occupy movement having a largely-white profile, even here, it is incredible to think about the possibility of creating an interview that does not alienate people based on race. I think the questions you’re using to explore A Public Thing might succeed at this.
I understand if you would like to preserve these questions for use in MN for the time being. But I ask because I also imagine you might think it’s OK. I look forward to hearing back.
All my best,
Jaimie-
from: Shanai Matteson < xxxx.xxxxxxxx @ xxxxx.xxx >
to: Jaimie Stevenson < xxxxxx.xxxxxxxxx @ xxxxx.xxx >
cc: Colin Kloecker < xxxxx.xxxxxxxx @ xxxxx.xxx >
date: Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 12:08 PM
subject: oakland » mplsJaimie,
Go for it, please! And let us know what you learn. This could be a way to generate a dispatch that resonates. Thanks for your note, and sorry I have not chimed in sooner - but am thankful for your perspective!
-Shanai
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from: Colin Kloecker < xxxxx.xxxxxxxx @ xxxxx.xxx >
to: Jaimie Stevenson < xxxxxx.xxxxxxxxx @ xxxxx.xxx >
cc: Shanai Matteson < xxxx.xxxxxxxx @ xxxxx.xxx >
date: Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 12:08 PM
subject: oakland » mplsMore then OK, that sounds amazing. Do it!
We talked about how to handle “outside” content at this morning’s meeting, and about how to acknowledge that an important part of this conversation is happening through the Occupy movement here and around the world. We can’t guarantee that your dispatch would be included in the frame of our first publication, but there will be more issues/editions/volumes, and we would definitely LOVE to put it online. We’ll potentially be building out the website after we get the first publication out to include a much more diverse array of voices and this could be a spectacular addition to that.
Thanks for your energy! Wish you were here.
Let us know how it goes!
Colin Kloecker
Works Progress
( xxx ) xxx - xxxx-
from: Jaimie Stevenson < xxxxxx.xxxxxxxxx @ xxxxx.xxx >
to: Colin Kloecker < xxxxx.xxxxxxxx @ xxxxx.xxx >
cc: Shanai Matteson < xxxx.xxxxxxxx @ xxxxx.xxx >
date: Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 2:24 PM subject: oakland » mplsYes! I will be really curious to see how the questions evolve on the ground in BOTH places. I will keep you abreast of what I find tomorrow and beyond. One challenge for me, as usual, will be to distill a lot of information into simple sentences (though a complex narrative is ok) so I will think about lots of possible ways to explore the body of interviews with both writing and audio. Thanks for your willingness to share this stuff. What a roundabout way of strengthening my tethers to mpls, though they’re hardly weak.
JJJJaimie
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from: Jaimie Stevenson < xxxxxx.xxxxxxxxx @ xxxxx.xxx >
to: Colin Kloecker < xxxxx.xxxxxxxx @ xxxxx.xxx >
cc: Shanai Matteson < xxxx.xxxxxxxx @ xxxxx.xxx >
date: Tue, Nov 8, 2011 at 6:15 PM
subject: oakland » mplsI am sorry for the delay in writing. I was preoccupied with this and all things this. California is not the bomb, but I’ve got a few real cool things going on while I’m here.
I learned a lot by interviewing people during the Oakland “General Strike.” I learned that I had forgotten that there is a big difference between journalistic reporting and collecting oral histories. The premise with which I approached the interviews ran on assumptions and beliefs that wouldn’t have flown if it had been straight journalistic reporting.
I typically don’t have a hard time approaching subjects, but I experienced a lot of hesitation in picking folks out of the huge crowd to interview about a set of ideas that was already so well developed. In a lot of senses, I realized that I was there to affirm a set of beliefs expressed in the questions A Public Thing raises, rather than discovering those beliefs.
The interviews did an okay job at illustrating some individual portraits, but still felt at least a little bit contrived. Throughout the day I found myself wanting to post up with a booth and a big sign, inviting people to come talk by their own motivation to share and dialogue. This could have gotten a bit closer to the type of open forum you’ve facilitated in MPLS, and which I now realize is a far safer place to talk about these issues than a 1-on-1 interview.
Early on in the day, I shifted the tone of the interview I’d outlined because I wasn’t getting enough of a rise out of people. I wanted people to talk about the guilt, embarrassment, secrecy, shame they may or may not have been in the process of easing, in the company of ten thousand folks who were also admitting to financial dependence and despair and disdain. You and I both acknowledged that Occupy was getting folks to realize the guilt they’d internalized as personal failure is actually a part of a very public system.
But “interviewing” folks on this topic is a lot different from providing public space for “discussion” on this topic, as I said above. As an interviewer, I’m pretty okay at making people feel comfortable in talking with me, but I realized that I needed to make them feel uncomfortable. I needed to trigger some of the discomfort I was interested in hearing about. So I started asking first: “Are you in debt?” “How long will it take you to get out?” and then: “Where do you go to to learn about managing your finances? And the financial economy?” It helped.
The two most interesting interviews are recordings with a woman named Dottie and a man named Orlando. She is a member of the organization Veterans Against the Iraq War, and he is a member of a local roofers’ union. If I am smart, I’ll go back to each of them in six months or so to check in on their story. I’m sending you three audio files via yousendit; the first two are with Dottie, the third is Orlando.
Interview questions included the following, but I did not use them all in every conversation:
- Name + age
- How long have you been living in Oakland?
- Are you in debt?
- How long will it take you to get out?
- Where do you go for resources about financial education? (reworded above)
- What does financial dependence look like? Describe it.
- How has OWS/OO affected the way you talk about money?
- What financial responsibility weights most heavy on you?
- How does your family and community support your financial burdens?
- Would you describe yourself as financially independent or dependent?
- Final Q: What’s the difference between a credit union and a bank?
Ok, I could go on an on about this, but let’s start here. I’ve got a lot of thinking to do about what to make of what I found. Let’s keep talking about it. Thanks so much for sending me off with your good will—
Jaimie Stevenson is a freelance journalist and Story Editor at Once. She lives in Oakland, California.
Colin Kloecker and Shanai Matteson are Co-Directors of Works Progress, a Minneapolis-based public art and design studio.
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Photo by Zoe Prinds-Flash.
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Kenneth Boulding, The Great Disruption
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Photo by Zoe Prinds-Flash.
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Personal Finance Becomes a Public Thing at Peavy Plaza on Bank Change Day
by Lisa Steinmann
A woman sat in one corner of Peavey Plaza, along the Nicollet Mall, at a foot-pedal sewing machine sewing dollar bills end to end, as a crowd of about 50 people assembled to discuss money on Bank Change Day. The woman, Rachel Breen, was one of several artists who was there as part of Financial Engagement: A Public Thing. An event organized by artists and journalists who wanted to start a public conversation on the state of the economy. As one of the organizers, Colin Kloecker, explained to the crowd, “We’re not an organization but we all agree that the economy needs deep organizational change.”
Kloecker, along with Shanai Matteson from Works Progress and Sarah Peters and Molly Priesmeyer (Good Work Group), Sam Gould (Red76), Molly Balcom Raleigh, and other artists and writers, put the event together following their own conversations sparked by Bank Change Day. Bank Change Day, which originated on Facebook, has become the crest of a wave of consumer action to switch accounts from big banks to credit unions and small, locally based, nonprofit banks.
The event began shortly after 1 p.m., Shanai Matteson directed introductions as those assembled gathered in a circle. Everyone had put on nametags that had a spot for their name, what they wanted to know “about the state of our economy and how to make it better” and what they knew, “because “everyone has knowledge to share,” according to Matteson.
The topic for discussion was open but Matteson read out loud a list of questions to get the conversation going, “How does our economy work? What are some strategies for creating more economically sustainable families and communities? What is the difference between a credit union and a bank? Should student loans be forgiven? What is income vs. wealth? What financial education resources are available? What is possible?”
Following introductions, Kloecker explained that we would be using the Open Space Technology model for a public discussion. Peavey Plaza became a sort of conference room with people gathered in circles to discuss various questions generated by individuals in the crowd. A number of people there had signed on as “documentarians.” Armed with cameras, notepads and recording devices, they collected stories for a newspaper about the event.
Sarah Peters, the editor, explained that the Financial Engagement/A Public Thing newspaper will be available online at the end of November and that it is also going to be printed and distributed to the public on Black Friday, the big shopping day after Thanksgiving.
A half dozen groups gathered around individuals who stepped forward with questions. Each group was identified by a big cardboard sign with a letter on it. The group I sat in on was moderated by Molly, who asked “What are some practical, everyday things I can do to contribute to a better economy?” During the course of an hour, the group of mostly young adults, shared questions and brainstormed answers on the topic. Notes were taken so that representatives from each group could report back to the whole group.
The discussion ranged from options when changing banks to wondering, as one participant asked, “Are we really changing things by doing this?” A list of other things people could do centered on supporting local businesses for everything from holiday shopping to getting a pair of shoes repaired. Although most in my group seemed to agree, someone noted, “We don’t all have to agree. Just getting involved and getting political rhetoric out of the decision-making will help.”
A trumpet sounded to signal the end of small group discussions. Each group reported back. When everyone was finished there was applause. Matteson announced that the discussion was perhaps the first in what may turn into a series of public conversations organized in this collaborative way. In a final artistic touch, the cardboard letters that had been used to identify discussion groups were assembled as everyone gathered on the plaza for a group photo. They spelled out, A Public Thing.
Lisa Steinmann is a journalist, teacher and a student of philanthropy. She loves a good story. This article appeared in the online edition of the Twin Cities Daily Planet on November 9th, 2011.
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Photo by Zoe Prinds-Flash.
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