Last winter, when I was at the height of my research into the Small House Movement (as I was writing my thesis proposal over from scratch), I discovered an article through tons of online research on Dee Williams. Dee is one of the most visible people in the Small House Movement, and when I came across this photo of her on the cover, I knew I had to subscribe to this magazine. If you’ve never read Yes! and you are interested in sustainability, activism, community engagement, etc., you should absolutely be reading it. It is so modest and well intentioned that I find something that inspires me in every issue. The truth is I have two articles, both from Yes!, that I’m designated as tied for my favorite article of the year. The Spring 2009 issue’s focus was on food systems and sustainability. I came across a piece on an action in Brazil that absolutely captivated and inspired me: "The City that Ended Hunger." The article described the “People’s restaurants” in Belo Horizonte, Brazil where everyone can get affordable, healthy, hot meals. The aim is not profit; it is serving people, no matter their income or social status. There are people who go there for every meal. The restaurants use local ingredients and produce, and meals sell for about 50 cents each.
The restaurants are subsidized by the city government, which is amazingly progressive and seems like an impossible feat to happen in America. In 1993, the Belo’s administration passed a law that ruled access to quality food was a right of all of their citizenship. The fact that this is happening in any country at all gives me hope that there are people out there who gain positions of power and actually do good with them.
The second article I read was from the Fall 2009 issue about a writer who teaches poetry to young men in prison. Despite the fact that I’ve been immersed in discussion about community, privilege, NGO’s, activism, and self-documentation for years now, it wasn’t until I read this article that everything shifted together and clicked in my head. I knew what I wanted to do. The poet writing this article talks about how kids in the system respond to the opportunity to write. There is a transformation that happens when they realize that they can tell their story—not to rat someone out or be analyzed by a shrink—but just to say what's happened to them, to be their own witness without having to answer to someone for what they’re saying.
One of the things I’ve realized through my documentary work is how important it is to tell your story; the explosion of blogging and reality TV attest to this fact. But those of us who blog, photograph, or write are privileged by the fact that we believe we have something worth saying or showing, something in which other people should be interested. Many people in disadvantaged communities have spent the majority of their lives being made to feel that their lives and perspectives are worthless. I finally feel like I know my purpose. I want to join or create a program that teaches young people in disadvantaged communities to document their own lives through poetry and photography. I feel like this is the perfect intersection of my talents, and I don’t know how long it would have taken me to come to that if I hadn’t read this article.
