It’s easy to forget how fortunate most of us are every day and how little it might take to suddenly find ourselves in a far more difficult situation. It’s also easy to feel overwhelmed by the problem of poverty and helpless to do anything about it.
The photojournalism project “40 Nights in Lincoln: Surviving Poverty” is out to address both of these issues by both raising awareness and providing concrete steps to making a difference.
A number people from different non-profit organizations will be in attendance, and the event is hoping to provide a forum for people to network and exchange ideas.
The project was put together after Nathan Chandler, freelance photographer, approached Community Action Partnership of Lancaster and Saunders counties about publicizing their work, and together they came up with the idea.
Community Action has been around since 1965 with a mission to fight poverty in local communities. Rebecca Christensen, director of resource development for Community Action, said they try to take a holistic approach to family development and help families work towards long-term self-sufficiency.
“You build a relationship with a client, and you really work with them to establish the goals and the things that they need to do, that they want to do,” she said, “The clients are the ones that are in charge of their own destinies; we work around their goals for themselves.”
For the project, Robby DeFrain shot video and Chandler took photographs of some of Community Action’s clients. The preview premiere at the Bourbon Theatre will feature this video, and a number of Chandler’s photographs will be on display all over the theater.
Chandler said the project is about more than social awareness; it’s about bridging the gap between wanting to help and actually doing something.
“We want people to take action,” he said. “We don’t want people to show up and go home knowing that there’s probably opportunities (to help) out there and not sure exactly how to go about it.”
Christensen said they’re going to tell people how they can help donate and about volunteer opportunities for different organizations in the community. They’re also going to inform people about how they can advocate for low-income people.
“They often don’t have a voice or don’t have a way to get their voice heard, so we’re going to share some ideas about how we, as a community, can help them advocate for their needs,” she said.
Each of the photographs in the exhibit will be accompanied by some text explaining that particular person’s situation. Chandler said many of the people are at major crossroads in their lives, and they tried to highlight that.
“But really, it’s to show that we’re all in this together, that each of us is really, honestly, just a few steps down the road from winding up in the same kind of poverty as these people,” Chandler said. “It happens to anybody and everybody.”
The exhibit will appear in its completed form at the Noyes Art Gallery beginning May 7.
joedelich@
dailynebraskan.com
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