Director of Membership and Outreach at the Somerville Media Center, Erica.

By JT Thompson

Erica, in her early 30s, is the Director of Membership and Outreach at the Somerville Media Center (formerly SCAT). We meet at a window table at bloc 11; she has short brown hair, large, black framed glasses, a loose blue cardigan over a white t-shirt, and a calm, open, good humored manner that must put newcomers to the Media Center at ease.

Erica loves facilitating people’s projects – “the Media Center is a place where people can make dreams a reality” – and her relaxed generosity of spirit makes her both easy and inspiring to talk with. She had a childhood of being considered ‘other’, of having to suppress herself, and she has devoted most of her adult life to working with community access media organizations – helping people to find their voice and communicate openly with their communities.

Erica had a rural upbringing in upstate New York, in a region with “rolling hills, where you knew all your neighbors, even if you lived 10 acres of woods apart. It had a small town feeling – not ethnically diverse. My peers drove 4-wheelers and snowmobiles to school.”

Erica loved the outdoors as a kid.

“There’s such a lack of green space here in Somerville, but I get what I can,” she laughs. “Our house was on an acre of land, we literally had a forest as our backyard. I’d hang out with my dad, who did a lot of gardening, and he gave me a lot of hands on teaching, showing me tomato plants, basil, wild lavender. I rode 4-wheelers a lot, caught crawfish in the stream out back, built forts. It was all super hands on. And I also loved me some video games!”

The outdoors is also a big part of what Erica loves about America.

“I love our state parks. I’ve been fortunate to travel around a lot of our country. There’s so much beauty, and infrastructure which was put in place by former leaders, like Teddy Roosevelt. The Southwest, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah. They’re very much preserved, there’s not a lot of development. It’s nice to feel insignificant. I mean the Grand Canyon – what?! I’m just a particle in this whole thing. And it took moving away to realize how beautiful my home was.”

But being a kid in a rural, small town environment was personally challenging.

“The social environment wasn’t easy when I was growing up. It’s challenging when you don’t align with the majority opinion. In your formative years, you’re not sure of your placement in the social circle. In high school and my 20s, I was forming forward thinking, progressive values. When I’d go back home – people hadn’t moved away, or challenged their preconceived notions of the world.”

“I came out at 21. The community wasn’t super supportive, and there had always been bullying in school. So you suppress. Anyone who’s ‘other’ can relate. Later I got more comfortable, bolder. But that was hard in a small town environment. People who weren’t necessarily mean will sometimes join the bullying out of peer pressure.”

Erica says all this without a trace of bitterness, just a calm assessment of the realities she faced.

At state college in Oneonta, New York – “another rolling hills, small town environment” – Erica got a degree in Media Studies and Mass Communications. Then she came to Boston to get a masters in Communication Studies at Suffolk, with a focus on Media Studies.

“That was my big city move. But it’s a manageable city. Then, after graduating, my partner at the time and I felt done with the Northeast. We decided on Albuquerque, New Mexico. She said, ‘I had family who once lived there.’ That was enough – I was sold! We found a place on craigslist, and were glad when we got there to find it actually existed,” Erica laughs.

“That experience really changed my life. The pace of life is calmer. It’s the land of mañana – yeah, yeah, we’ll get to it …. Very different from East Coast urban environments. There was a strong sense of stopping to appreciate the simple pleasures of life. Gorgeous sunsets every day. The smell of balsam, of cedar, and pinon.”

“And it was my first chance to learn what it is to be part of a community. I worked at a public access TV station, a parallel to what I’m to what I’m now doing in Somerville. I was listening to people’s concerns and struggles and issues. Water rights. Immigration. I was a minority, a white person from the Northeast. I like feeling uncomfortable, and then figuring it out.”

“But the whole support system for freedom of speech in the Southwest is not as strong as it is here. We all got laid off, a local politics thing. I was 27. I didn’t really want to move, it was where I had really discovered my own position in the world.

“But I came back East, and got my job at SCAT – which we’ve rebranded as the Somerville Media Center, to be more open and fluid to where we’re growing as an organization. I just celebrated five years there last month.”

I ask her what she likes about Union Square.

“There’s so many different things happening in the city – it’s a really active population here, very concerned with the history and future of Somerville. There’s ways people can be channeled into a specific cause. It’s such an interconnected city. I love walking down the street, saying hello to people, having that Mr. Rogers moment. It’s a strong community environment. And there’s delicious food!”

“What do you love about your job?”

“What don’t I love about my job!” She rests her hands thoughtfully against her cheek for a moment. “I love helping inspire people to see value in their opinions and ideas. If someone comes in with an idea for a radio show, or an open mic – heck yeah! I love to brainstorm with people, to work with someone with an activated energy, to help harness that. People come in just glowing.”

“It’s a space where you can make dreams a reality, whether you’re a resident, or a non-profit, or a local business. We just worked with the Union Neighborhood Council to invite in and record the candidates for the Council, to help amplify those causes out to the Somerville community. I like being a community builder, a bridge builder. I feel rewarded by helping others.”

“What do you love most about your life right now?”

“At the prime age of 33, I feel at a really good place of self- confidence. I had a few obstacles this year. My nana – who was my rock, my mentor and source for raw, comic relief – passed away in April. And then following that my apartment caught on fire, and I lost all of my personal belongings. I could be resilient, or dwell on it. I chose resilience. I’ve got a great support system of friends, family, colleagues.”

“And I feel that choice in my work as well. There’s chaos around us, but there’s a lot we can do locally. You put out good energy into the world, and hope that comes back.”

“What would you most like to accomplish in the future?”

“Personally, I hope that the Media Center continues to be in the prime center of Union, continues to be a force down here. It’s all uncertain, right? I hope I can continue to get to live in Somerville, and do what I’m doing. The future is uncertain. You’ve got to keep an open mind, keep being positive.”

“My secret future goal,” she says with a big smile, “is to travel around the country and record people’s oral history.”

“Are there other things you love about America, or that you think are great?”

Erica sits quietly for a moment.

“Something I love, something to be proud of in this country, is that we are encouraged to celebrate and express ourselves, the way we want to. Of course there are restrictions, depending on who you are, and where you live. But the right to express ourselves is part of the Constitution. We need watchdogs, a free, responsible press, to hold people in power accountable. More than ever, we need to tap into our rights, and make sure they’re preserved.”

“And great … are there things I think are great.” She pauses, then laughs. “Hmm.” She looks out the window, then back at me.

“It’s funny being asked this now. I just got back from Europe, and had my mind blown there. We are kind of egotistical, we think we’re always right. But we are also a strongly positioned people, because of our freedom to have dialogues, to organize anything, to engage people, and challenge them. Mindfully of course.”

“But we can keep the dialogue strong. Our greatness is in our access to do those things.”