Be Biased Towards Community-Building

We’re at a moment, y’all. 

I don’t say this to be alarmist, but things feel ominous here in the United States.  There’s the danger of rising fascism and the attacks on Black voters and Black history, immigrants, women, and the LGBTQ community. There’s the impending climate crisis.   What it means is this: We can no longer think in terms of singular people or individual institutions as the solution to see us through this moment safely. Instead, it’s really about building our muscle for, and bias toward, community-building.

Building community–bringing people together–is especially important given that many of our fellow citizens have pulled away from the idea of shared spaces, public goods (public education, healthcare, or any kind of social safety net), or even civic dialogue that would blunt the prevailing impulse to demonize those who hold opposing political beliefs.

How did we get here? We’ve taken on the worst aspects of that very American ethos of fierce, rugged individualism. It mutes our sense that there are things we need to face together.

So, yes, while some things are trending in the wrong direction, I’m also noticing encouraging signs.  Specifically, there’s a growing awareness of the value of community, and I’ve noticed three recent examples where community-building entered the conversation:

• Professional Networks
• Institutional & Sector Coalitions
• Preparing for Societal Upheavals & Transformations

Reimagining Professional Networks

I recently received a Substack newsletter from my friend James Andrews, who’s a marketer, venture investor and advisor, and community builder. He writes that we’re entering a phase where simple audience metrics–how many followers you have–are much less important than the community you’re building, i.e., the quality of the interactions the folks you bring together have with each other. He notes digital spaces such as Patreon, Discord, Mighty Networks, Signal/Whatsapp groups, and Clubhouse. These are “[d]estinations where the size doesn’t matter as much as who is in the room. I’m not proposing that having a big audience doesn’t still hold weight, I’m introducing the fact that communities will hold more influence. For example, I have 2.5m followers in Clubhouse but its [sic] my >300-member text groups in Whatsapp that are filled with some of the most powerful names in business and are the most valuable.”

What’s this mean for those of us in the arts and nonprofit spaces? Imagine if your organization’s “Friends of” group, docent cohort, or your board were a fully activated cohort. What kind of value could we unlock for our organizations? How would that enable your institution to pursue its mission-critical work? 

Institutional & Sector Coalitions

At the start of the pandemic, I had secured Weeksville’s entrance into the NYC Cultural Institutions Group (CIG), all of which came about through my efforts and the incredible support of numerous colleagues. I was fortunate that this group had access to City officials at both City Hall and the Department of Health.   Through both entities, we were getting daily updates during a rapidly changing situation leading up to the City’s eventual lockdown.  After the first couple of meetings, it became clear to us all that we needed to open these calls to other, non-CIG arts organizations. This turned into the Culture @ 3PM call, on which several hundred NYC cultural organization leaders could gather to share and receive information on resources directly from city officials. Think of it as a mastermind group for arts leaders in NYC.  The group eventually formed working groups to develop advocacy communications to press lawmakers for continued support for the city’s arts organizations during the pandemic’s terrible, early months; share plans on how organizations could pivot to address immediate community needs such as food and PPE distribution; and work with state officials to influence reopening regulations. This call continues to this day and remains an example of what can be done in community.

Surviving Societal Upheavals & Transformations

What we can’t know is exactly what the future holds.  But what is clear is that there are a lot of bad-faith actors, who are working to reshape society in ways that exclude vulnerable groups.  Therefore, it’s time to do what many folks in these abovementioned communities have always done: Lean into community-building.  Mutual aid.  Coalitions.  Consortiums. It’s about people coming together to pool resources, knowledge, and, of equal importance, emotional support.

In a conversation on the Movement Memos podcast with host Kelly Hayes, guest Chris Begley–an archeologist who also teaches wilderness survival skills–noted that attending to only your family or your small group is the absolute wrong way to go during a crisis.  He says:

Leaving people out is an incredibly dangerous thing. It’s just not sustainable. You can’t build a wall around your compound high enough. You can’t build institutions that are strong enough to withstand the disenchantment, the disenfranchisement of groups of people. So, when we talk about things like diversity and inclusivity, I mean, this isn’t some favor you’re doing for a marginalized group, if you’re part of the non-marginalized majority or minority sometimes. It, rather, is absolutely essential. I think we need to understand how critical this kind of inclusiveness is to any group of people.

Hayes, who is a member of the Menominee tribe, added this:

The Menominee practice of attending to everyone’s needs, and making sure that no one was left out, was key to our survival of an apocalypse [smallpox and other diseases from Europeans, as well as the land deforestation due to White logging companies, as examples]. It was not because everyone thought everyone else was great. Obviously, some people hated each other, and some people probably sucked. But long before colonization, my people understood that the best way to prevent theft and violence was to ensure that people’s needs were met. To simply punish someone for stealing food, for example, meant the theft and the punishment would likely reoccur, because the conditions that led the person to steal were unchanged. To my people, this was nonsensical.

If we think going it alone in the face of challenging times makes sense, we’re in for a rude awakening.  It’s time we accepted that we’re safer, stronger, and smarter together.  To get there, we’ll have to drop our notions that sticking to ourselves is the way to go.  The work that needs to be done now is to develop trust between individuals, institutions, and communities so that we can, should the need arise, band together for everyone’s benefit. This is the “if you want to go far, go together” part of that African proverb.  In fact, the focus on community-building might just be the best way to prepare for whatever societal challenges lie ahead.