A Glimpse into Slice of Culture and our EJCP 100-Days
Growing up, I used to love watching the Today Show and keeping up with local news through Univision, where I became inspired to become a journalist. I used to be so moved by the stories they would share and seeing how important it was for people to have someone sit down with them and listen to what they had to say.
While in college, I quickly came to realize the rush of excitement and fulfillment I would get from connecting with people and sharing their stories through words, videos and images. I became passionate about reporting on different cultures while doing study abroad courses covering stories in Cuba and Vietnam.
I was excited where my passion and drive were taking me, but as I was getting ready to graduate and enter the field, the world halted, and so did I.
Graduating during a pandemic that affected the world, our country, the job market, and our mental health like no other, was difficult to overcome, and if I am being honest, I don’t think I have fully overcome it.
But a big factor that has helped me move forward with things not going as planned is the fact that just because things don’t go as planned, it does not mean better things are not to come from it.
Slice of Culture, my co-founder Adrienne J. Romero, and I are a testament of that.
The beginnings of Slice of Culture
As my co-founder and I were ending our undergrad, we began talking about life. How do we move on from here? Will we ever find jobs? Will we ever gain a sense of certainty again?
We had no clue what we wanted to do with our lives, but we did know deep down, we always wanted to create something meaningful.
We both were born and raised in Hudson County, New Jersey, one of the most diverse counties in the country. We grew up surrounded by so many different cultures and being so curious of the stories behind their people, we decided to start Slice of Culture, a digital publication that highlights the different cultures of Hudson County.
But as we launched on June 1, 2020, there were nationwide protests following the killing of George Floyd, people protesting for a stop to the structural racism that has created inequality and discrimination towards Black people. While covering the local protests, we quickly realized that we needed to do more with Slice of Culture.
And that’s where we sat down again and concluded that we wanted Slice of Culture to not only be something that highlights the Hudson County community but also talks about the issues faced within minority groups.
As two women of color from immigrant parents, we understood the importance of accurate representation and the need for a safe place for people of color to share their stories. That is why Slice of Culture is for the locals, the cultures and aspiring storytellers.
Filling in the gap
As amazing as Hudson County is, it does not get the proper coverage it needs. Usually when you see us in the news, it’s to talk about tragedies, scandals or about certain parts, usually wealthier parts of the area. We aim to fill the gap that many local media news outlets fail to cover.
We want to create a more positive story of Hudson County by highlighting the different businesses, organizations and community members bringing diversity and greatness to the community. We also want to make sure we encourage our readers to be open to the different cultures around them by publishing different cultural recipes and cultural traditions. But as important as that positive narrative is, we wanted to make sure we brought awareness to the issues at home and in our cultures: like discrimination, lack of representation, or lack of resources in low income communities.
CUNY’s Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators Program
Being a part of CUNY’s Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators Program has taught us a lot about the importance of understanding our audience and how to work on bringing sustainable revenues to Slice of Culture.
A helpful takeaway was acknowledging the power of surveying to better understand our intended audience and their needs. This information helps us grow as a publication, but also helps us create value while doing so.
“Ask, listen, act — do it over and over again” — Alan Soon
We are looking to launch a membership newsletter and we want to make sure we are creating relevant content that will convert our readers into paid subscribers by providing content they want and need. As Soon stated, “if you are not creating value, you are not creating revenue.”
Growth
“Knowledge is power” — Francis Bacon
With the knowledge and connections gained in these 100-days, we have gained a lot of personal growth, which you can see reflected in Slice of Culture. We have been cheered on by our mentors, cohort members, and teachers, which has given us the confidence to continue to strive to be better for our community.
Our audience has given us such great feedback of how important they find us to be among the locals, which just reassures us that we are covering stories that really connect with them.
Thanks to our recent grant provided by the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium through our fiscal sponsor, Saint Peter’s University, we can continue to cover more in-depth local civic engagement stories, and hold more community learning workshops to connect locals with professional journalists and teach them how to become storytellers of their community.
At this moment, our team of writers and graphic designers are about 75% BIPOC, which is important to us because as locals who come from different cultural backgrounds, we are best fit to cover their stories.
Slice of Culture has been so blessed to have the success we’ve had in these past three years. But we are so excited to see what more success we can have as we move forward and apply all the skill sets learned from the Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators Program.
