A Battle Cry for Gifford Park: Feed the People Remembers Media Corp.
by Taylor Thornburg 6/7/21
Rest in peace, Media Corp. Long live Media Corp. These nine words are a battle cry for Omaha’s Gifford Park community. The visual artist Jessie Fisher and the poet Amanda Huckins opened Media Corp. in the working-class neighborhood in 2018. Media Corp. was many things, among them an urgent social experiment. What happens when the community takes space and holds it without an agenda? Without revitalizing or incentivizing the use of an all but abandoned building, who comes to use it and how? When Fisher and Huckins invited the community in, the community flourished. They rented the space at 515 N 33rd Street, a large but severely dilapidated house, and opened it up to the community to come in, use and experiment with as the community saw fit. Whether they knew it or not, they opened a space that centered their community, already in dire need of a community center. Feed the People was among the many community-centered projects that flourished after running through Media Corp. The building’s landlord evicted Media Corp. in July 2021 to renovate the building, most likely as a luxury dwelling or commercial property. While this iteration of Media Corp. may be over, the projects that it incubated are not.
Feed the People began a little before this iteration of Media Corp., it will last long after this iteration of Media Corp., but it will never forget this iteration of Media Corp. Feed the People began distributing free food and household goods to Omaha’s communities in Gifford Park in 2017. Literally, Feed the People began in the park. Feed the People settled on this location to serve the people who lived there. Motivation for this location included the nearby Refugee Empowerment Center, which according to its website, resettles refugees in and around the area who have little more than $1,000 to spend over their first 90 days in the United States. Additionally, the median household income in Gifford Park is just $38,000 according to city-data.com, barely half of the median income for the Omaha metro area. Diverse student populations also choose to settle in Gifford Park due to its central location between the two major universities in town, the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Creighton. Between 2017 and 2018, Feed the People endured the brutalities of Nebraska’s summer and winter weather to serve the people in the park once a month every month. At the time, it made sense. Where else would a new community-centered program settle other than a central, visible, open, and accessible location?
Sometime in the early months of 2018, Media Corp.’s founders invited Feed the People to share their communal space. Feed the People’s organizers jumped at the chance to distribute food from a dry place in the rain, a warm place in the winter, and a cool place in the summer. The main street style location on North 33rd Street – a commercial artery in the neighborhood – seemed to be as visible and accessible as the park too. As it happened, Media Corp. was the perfect soil for Feed the People’s growing roots. Feed the People invited attendees to commune on the porch in the summer. In the winter, Feed the People invited them inside to warm up and talk between picking up pantry items and other chores. Feed the People grew as the community grew. Dozens of community members began congregating at Media Corp. on distribution days. Some organizers broke off to form a tenant’s union to help with common complaints tenants had about their landlords. Others devised Communism 101 classes to elevate the political and social consciousness of their fellow community members. Through Feed the People, organizers connected the community to Media Corp.’s other programs like the Midtown Mutual Aid Network, Residents are Experts, and the space’s intermittent art and poetry shows. Media Corp. connected the neighborhood, helped feed it, and improved the quality of life for countless numbers of people. Everything was beautiful until suddenly it wasn’t.
The COVID-19 pandemic was the beginning of the end for Media Corp. After March 2020, Media Corp. could no longer offer the range of programs it offered even days before, but Feed the People and the Midtown Mutual Aid Network continued operating out of its space, meeting the needs of an already stressed and newly beleaguered neighborhood. Fortunately, as the pandemic wore on, these programs thrived, serving more people better than ever. Unfortunately, as the pandemic ended, the real estate market also thrived. In the booming real estate market that closed out the darkest chapters of the pandemic, Media Corp.’s landlord serendipitously decided to clean up the property and renovate it for more mainstreamed use at a more mainstreamed premium. Unable to remain in the building during renovations and overlooked by the landlord as potential tenants when it reopened, Media Corp.’s current iteration closed for good after July 2021. Fortunately, Feed the People still lives. Although Feed the People no longer operates in Media Corp., its organizers serve the people and remember Media Corp. Feed the People remembers the value in community space and the limitless potential of connected community members. Without revitalizing or incentivizing the use of an all but abandoned building, the community came together to build power, meet its own needs, and thrive where it once only survived. When the community took the space Media Corp. provided and held it, the community found its center. Larger and better connected than ever with roots that run deep in the community, Feed the People stands behind Media Corp. and what it represented. Feed the People stands for a united community. Feed the People stands for a centered community. Feed the People stands against the irresponsible and irredeemable mismanagement of Media Corp.’s former space at 515 N 33rd Street. Feed the People stands against landlords and the ways in which they recklessly winnow away the public good for private profit. Rest in peace, Media Corp. Long live Media Corp. These nine words are a battle cry for Omaha’s Gifford Park community.