Thanks for joining us for another episode of Patrons & Partnerships, presented by the Library Partnership Branch of the Alachua County Library District.
Our guest today is JoJo Sacks, the Coordinator of the Civic Media Center, who is here with us today to discuss the history of the Civic Media Center, the services they were able to provide the Gainesville community during the pandemic, and both the Stetson Kennedy Library and the Travis Fristoe Zine Library.
Visit the CMC's website here. For volunteer and donation information, visit their Get Involved page, or find them on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
Visit the Alachua County Library District website to browse our collection and to find other resources and services offered at your favorite, local library!
You can view a transcript of this podcast on ACLD's YouTube Channel.
Thanks for joining us for another episode of Patrons & Partnerships, presented by the Library Partnership Branch of the Alachua County Library District.
Our guest today is JoJo Sacks, the Coordinator of the Civic Media Center, who is here with us today to discuss the history of the Civic Media Center, the services they were able to provide the Gainesville community during the pandemic, and both the Stetson Kennedy Library and the Travis Fristoe Zine Library.
Visit the CMC's website here. For volunteer and donation information, visit their Get Involved page, or find them on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
Visit the Alachua County Library District website to browse our collection and to find other resources and services offered at your favorite, local library!
You can view a transcript of this podcast on ACLD's YouTube Channel.
Hey. Thanks for joining us for another episode of the Library Partnership's podcast, Patrons & Partnerships. Our guest today is Jojo Sacks, the coordinator of the Civic Media Center. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. The second half of the interview will be posted September 23rd.[music]
Eleanore:Hi, JoJo, thank you for being here today. Would you mind giving us a quick history of the CMC?
JoJo:Sure, thank you for having me. The Civic Media Center was founded in ‘93 as a space for folks to come together around different solidarity efforts, as well as for a place where people could get together and read media that might not be as easily accessible in like, school libraries or, you know, back then we didn't have the internet in the same way that we do now. So folks were really looking for a place where they could kind of share ideas, learn. There was a lot of like, Central American solidarity efforts happening in the 90s that folks in Gainesville were organizing around, and some founders that we still have around today give a really good sentiment about how folks were feeling living here while, you know, lots of different international events were happening. And it's kind of evolved over time, but it has remained an info shop, a place for people to read, like, we call ourselves a reading room. And we also, you know, have events and music and kind of are on the beat of community, as well as like, the political organizing. And so we kind of have this cool inter-relationship between the music out of Gainesville, which obviously also has quite a rich, rich history, as well as connecting with local organizers and having a hub for them to meet up and either just hold meetings or hold events. And - I know I got radicalized politically at the CMC when I was in college. And just having like a, you know, a base to go to when things are happening, that people need to express themselves about is something really powerful. And that's stayed constant since it got founded.
Eleanore:So obviously, COVID has forced a lot of organizations to switch gears, and I know the CMC had to do that as well. How did the CMC handle COVID this year?
JoJo:We have been closed to the public since the March that it began and things were kind of first starting to get bad. But while we've been closed, we've done a lot of online programming. We're finally getting back to starting some in person things again, but also being cautious because recently, it seems like things are kind of teetering [laughs] on becoming largely unsafe again, but -
Eleanore:Yeah, the Delta variant.
JoJo:Yeah, it's, unfortunately... Yeah. Eleanore: Yeah. But regardless of that, we've done really awesome programming on Zoom. I think we're all a little bit tired of Zoom recently, but we had music stuff online. Volunteer meetings have stayed on a bimonthly basis instead of every week. But we would meet on Zoom and we still are doing fundraising, we still have like, have had teach-ins online and lots of different educational events. We also now have our courtyard in use so folks who want to meet and do different meetings, or we can have a volunteer meeting in the courtyard. So that's also been like a safe way for us to join together in physical space.
Eleanore:Yeah, get that in-person organizing going again.
JoJo:Yeah, definitely. Beyond that, though, inside of the CMC, we did use the space for lots of essential mutual aid and like, emergency response organizing throughout the entire pandemic. You might have heard of free grocery store? Eleanore: Yes. Cool. Well, they are - it used to be a CMC project at its beginning, where we would just set up a food table in the CMC and folks would come pick it up - with donated food, or with food reclaimed from like, dumpsters and stuff from local grocery stores that have to throw away food that's perfectly good if it doesn't look proper. So that turned into a massive delivery, no-contact delivery program that feeds almost 300 people per week, and a two-day thing that involves so many volunteers - Eleanore: Oh, wow.- and lots of people came together to help out with that. And now it's a little bit of its own group, but we - you know, we function with them and support them. And our volunteers, like, are some of the people who are organizing it. But that has been blowing up over the pandemic. There was also so much support. It had a financial sponsorship through the Human Rights Coalition of Alachua County, so the money was being able to be handled that was coming in as donations, which was excellent. Yeah, but we've also had, like, Gainesville Herbal Aid, who are like a group of local herbalists who have donated so many different tinctures and other med - like herbal medicines to folks. The Dream Defenders and Florida Prisoner Solidarity have, like, used it as a step off point for protests during all this time because we have to remember, last summer was like, a very political summer for, for the world. And so - I mean, so is now. And so those, like, very essential things have still been operating out of the CMC even though we haven't been like, with our doors open to the public.
Eleanore:Yeah, last summer was BLM and it's looking like this summer will probably be about the situation in Cuba. JoJo: Yeah. I knew about the free store; I didn't know that over COVID, it had developed into such an amazing project.
JoJo:That's the free grocery store. We also have something called free store, which is separate - it sounds really similar. The free store is something that happens typically once per month, and the group gets together lots of supplies, like clothing, household things that are donated, and then we set it up like a thrift store inside the CMC and people can take whatever they want for free. Also have that - we're going to start that soon too. The CMC is usually scheduled to the brim - [laughs] Eleanore: Yeah. Normal times have quite a lot of things happening. And we're trying to figure out like, the safest ways possible to keep them going.
Eleanore:I was looking at your site, what day was it that you're officially open? Was it August 6th?
JoJo:Yeah, we haven't set a lot of things in stone. And I think that's because we're kind of monitoring what's happening with COVID, like we had just talked about, but also, we want to make sure that we're not putting anyone at risk by being open to the public. And also understand that like some of the work that's happening, it's like food on people's table or high risk. And so in August, we're gonna be open for those kinds of things, as well as organizers to use our space and meet inside. We're thinking about it being more of a soft opening. And then - we're thinking soft opening, kind of like on a case by case situation, and prioritizing the needs of like, local organizers and activists, as well as mutual aid work. But like a little bit larger than that. And then we're hoping to maybe in September begin our public hours. We're taking it really slow. And I think we will we will make the best decision that we can, you know, when it gets a little closer to that time. We're also a little bit nervous about the students returning - Eleanore: Yeah… We know how that went last year. [laughs] I understand and think the masks makes a really big difference. Because you know, certain folks who can't get the vaccine for whatever reason, like legitimate reason, are kind of invalidated by people just choosing not to get the vaccine. And we never want to make someone feel uncomfortable, who is not able to get it or anything in our space. So that's why we're going to move forward with...just requiring masks inside - Eleanore: Mhmm....and not really speaking about vaccines - of course, prioritizing vaccines. But regardless of that, we need to just continue to mind, like, who we are around, and definitely not trying to host, like, very large events anytime soon, especially indoors. But lots of other places in downtown have never minded that, so we feel a little bit responsible to take care of the people who we know. It's so sad that we can't be together, but we really want to make sure that we're just doing our best.
Eleanore:Yeah, all protecting each other.
JoJo:We - no one's really been in these circumstances before.
Eleanore:Yeah, it's all new. What can the community do to support the CMC at this time?
JoJo:There's a few things that I think are really essential to how the CMC runs. Unfortunately, the first one is that we have to pay our bills every month. We definitely appreciate donations from the community. We don't take large money; we are hoping that we can receive some grants in the future soon. But one thing I really love about the CMC is the majority of our donations are quite small. They're like between 5 and $30 typically. Each of those dollars is, like, just as important to us as anything. And so definitely donations, but also volunteering. The CMC has only been able to be alive for 28 years because of the people who have volunteered. Like I said before, I'm the only coordinator right now. All of the projects that get ideated at the beginning and get fully fleshed out are basically volunteer projects. The free grocery store people were volunteers. Free store people are volunteers. The people who stock our library are volunteers. Coming out to a volunteer meeting that we have twice a month is a really good way to plug in and share what you're interested in or passionate about, as well as take up some opportunities where we have things that need to get done and you can just sign up. But that's kind of the main driving force behind the CMC. Without volunteers, like, we would not have been around this long.
Eleanore:Where can people find the information to donate and attend the meetings?
JoJo:Our donation links are readily accessible on all of our social media, including our Instagram and our Facebook, but we have a Venmo and that Venmo is CMC4ever, and our PayPal is paypal.me/CMC4ever. And then in terms of Facebook, we also put on our events. So all of the volunteer meetings are on there. But if you don't use Facebook like me, you can sign up for our email newsletter, which is on our website. I'm also happy to send it to you. And you can receive updates about events we have going on, and meetings we have coming up on there as well.[music] Thanks for listening to Patrons & Partnerships. If you know an individual or organization you'd like to recommend for an interview, email us at lpsfprogram@gmail.com To listen to more episodes, find us on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Spotify. Be sure to check out the Alachua County Library on Spotify while you’re there for chill playlists to read to, hand-picked by our librarians. September is National Library Card Sign-Up Month, and ACLD is holding a contest to win a $20 grocery gift card to Publix courtesy of the Rotary Club of Gainesville. To enter, sign up for a library card at any of our branches and take a photo with our mega card. Post it on social media and tag us with @alachualibrary. Visit aclib.us/librarycardsignup for more information. Do you have a budding scientist in the family? Join us this fall for Science Tales, a weekly Zoom series every Tuesday at 11 am from September 28th to November 2nd. Library staff have teamed up with UF, Santa Fe, and Alachua County Audubon for a STEM lesson on topics ranging from ornithology to rocketry. For more information, visit our site at aclib.us/sciencetales. The Fall Teen Art Show is right around the corner! Teens aged 12 to 15 are encouraged to submit their work between September 17th and October 15th for the chance to see their art displayed on our website or hung on the Headquarters Gallery Wall. More information, including entry forms, can be found online at aclib.us/teens/teenartshow. The second half of our interview with Jojo will be posted on September 23rd. Make sure to tune in!