The Land’s three-year anniversary party turns out a crowd for community journalism conversation

Nearly 100 people poured into COHatch Ohio City for The Land’s three-year anniversary party on Wednesday, June 7, enjoying a chance to meet other community residents, hear from a panel of community journalists, and join the conversation about the future of news.

The Land’s acting executive director Jeff Kipp kicked off the evening with an overview of the organization’s work and its recent accomplishments, including graduating more than 50 community journalists from its community journalism training program and publishing nearly 50 stories written by community members. “This is real news,” he said. “Including community voices in journalism is incredibly important to how our city grows and develops.”

Raquel Santiago, the emcee for the evening, told the crowd why she decided to get involved in the community journalism program as a mentor. “Everyone has a story,” she said. “The diversity of stories gives our neighborhoods their character. Our job as community journalists is to make sure what happens in Cleveland neighborhoods is heard and understood throughout our region. We help to fill noticeable reporting gaps in Northeast Ohio.”

The panel of community journalists included Detroit Shoreway resident Moses Ngong, Slavic Village resident Sharon Core, and Ohio City resident Nate Flauto. All three journalists talked about how the training program and their subsequent stories have helped them to understand their neighborhoods better, gain a stronger knowledge of how the city of Cleveland works, and become connected to people they otherwise wouldn’t have known.

Moses Ngong talked about his first story for The Land, about an LGBT-friendly fitness studio in Detroit Shoreway that is helping people access an affordable gym and improve their mental and physical health. Sharon Core talked about the Slavic Village gardening and greenspaces she was able to highlight in her neighborhood that others might not know about. Nate Flauto talked about covering traffic calming in his neighborhood and how he had to tamp down his own strong opinions to tell the story accurately, a process he learned from.

“Removing yourself from the story and honoring the voices of the people in the story is a really cool process,” commented Moses Ngong of the community journalism training.

Afterwards there was a rich discussion of ways to support the growth of nonprofit and community news in Cleveland, with questions and comments from audience members. Jeff Kipp wrapped up the evening with a reminder of ways to get engaged, including spreading the word about our community journalism program and upcoming events.