Dear Instagram: I Appreciate That Your App Sucks. Seriously.

I don't need the Explore Page to find my purpose.

While on my way home from a random—and unexpectedly productive—evening at the College of Charleston’s Avery Research Center, I called one of my best friends. After a rushed greeted, I blurted out: “I'm about to manifest some stuff, real quick.”

Then without any context, I told her my plans for life. Thinking back on it, these felt less like “plans” and more like soothsaying. I didn’t feel a sense of hopeful aspiration, like this was something I was looking forward to doing. Instead, it feel like I was telling her about some shit I had already done. In a weird way, it felt as if I was referring to memories that hadn’t happened yet. Does that make sense?

It was with that heightened level of, I’ll call it “self-assurance”, that posted a fairly long caption, on Instagram. In summation, I thanked Instagram for being a shitty app.

blackfoodfridays

A post shared by @blackfoodfridays

For if Instagram was terrible—in terms of allowing creators to actually interact with their followers—I wouldn’t have released where the source of my power, as a Content Creator, comes from. It’s not from my sick video editing skills or the way I curate my IG Stories. In fact, my draw doesn’t have anything to do with the internet. I love learning, I love hosting, I love interviewing people, and love bringing people together. That’s probably why my currently job, as a Community Organizer, is the most rewarding and fulfilling thing I’ve ever done in my life. And it’s my person-to-person skills that have allowed me to thrive in this attention based economy.

I tell people all the time, “I’m the LeBron James of small talk”. And what I now understand is that, in a internet-based world, that’s not a very useful skill. But that’s okay, I realize that my powers don’t really manifest in an online setting. I gets jiggy in real life.

That post was not a declaration of me leaving social media. It was a realization that if I’m going to manifest the life I told my friend, it would have to be done outside the confines of Michelle Obama’s internet. I’m already working on taking BITE THE POWER on the road and, just this week, I agreed with a local organizing group to co-facilitate real ass People’s Pizza Party!

Introducing "The People's Pizza Party"!

“Community” exist both online and in the real world. Shoot, the fact that you’re reading this newsletter proves the existence and power of online community. But the type of community I want to create cannot be contained by any number of fiber optic cables. Ain’t enough terabytes on earth that can replace the feeling of enjoying a delicious meal with a like-minded member of your tribe. Not enough pixels to replace the mental images, burned onto the back of my brain, of all the smiling faces I have encountered in this food space. Looking to the internet to feed me the type of energy I’m on is not only silly, it’s an impossible ask. So I’m stopping. And I think you’ll all benefit from this changed perspective.

» KJ «

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TASTE BUDS: ASSEMBLE!

In the spirit of doing more real-world communication, I’m hosting a ZOOM! 😬 Let me explain.

Tomorrow—for the first time—I’ll be meeting with the paid subscribers of this newsletter. I haven’t earned enough money to fly them all to Charleston, so the most equitable way to make this meetup happen is online. And since I want to see people’s faces, I’m hosting this online meetup via video chat. I don’t know how many subscribers are going to show up but, whoever does, will be giving the inside scoop on what’s next for Black Food Fridays.

You still have time to become a TASTE BUD, we don’t meet until tomorrow at 3 PM EST. But trust, I’ll be doing more of these so even if you can’t sign up now, you’ll have opportunities in the near future.

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POWER TO THE PIZZA!

One of the things I will be spending time on, during my TASTE BUDS hang session, is the aforementioned People’s Pizza Party! For the unaware, after he-who-shall-not-be-named became President (🙄) I wrote two newsletter articles: The first one explained my idea on how pizza can be a source of power for localized political action, while the second gave step-by-step instructions on how to make it happen.

And thanks to the homie Kenni, who runs the South Carolina Housing Justice Network, I’ll finally be able to put this idea into practice! We’re co-planning the FIRST #PeoplesPizzaParty and my TASTE BUDS will be getting all the behind-the-scenes information, related to this inaugural event, on tomorrow’s call. My hope is that once people see us pull off a #PeoplesPizzaParty, they will be inspired to do the same for local issues that matter to them! If you’re interested in hosting one right now, read the articles and go for it. Otherwise, you’ll have a case study to work from by late May.

I appreciate Kenni for trusting me to help spread the work on housing inequities, especially as it relates to rental evictions in my hometown of North Charleston. If you’re a South Carolina resident or someone who owns residential property that is rented in South Caroline, visit their website for more information on all the work the SCHJN is doing.