Justin Glanville
Photo courtesy of Ideastream Public Media
Justin Glanville is a multimedia storyteller for Ideastream Public Media, Cleveland's NPR and PBS stations. As Senior Producer - Community Storytelling, he is dedicated to working with Northeast Ohioans to tell their own stories.
A native Northeast Ohioan, Justin began his career in New York City, where he worked for the Associated Press covering daily news and off-Broadway theater. After returning to Cleveland, he worked as an urban planner. He now combines his passions for storytelling, people and places through his work with Ideastream Public Media, including its first-ever community storytelling initiative, “Sound of Us,” which tells stories Northeast Ohioans want to tell, in their own voices, and serialized narrative podcasts, including “Inside the Bricks” and "Mary & Bill: An Ohio Cold Case."
Justin is also the founder of Sidewalk LLC, a revolving collaborative of urban planners, placemakers, writers and artists who work together to tell the story of people and places. Sidewalk uses the tools of journalism and urban planning to strengthen community and inspire ideas for positive change.
Justin is the recipient of multiple awards both for his own work and for stories produced with community members, including an Edward R. Murrow regional award and nods from the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists and the Ohio Associated Press Media Editors.
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Your background is fascinating to me, specifically your education and training in urban planning and how you have evolved that into the creative work of community storytelling, which seems to call back to your interest in literature and obviously your experience in journalism.
I'm curious how this evolution played out and if there was a moment in your planning career where you realized a need to tell these stories? How did that realization come about and how did you begin to work toward the direction you find yourself in now?
It's really been a back-and-forth feedback loop for me in terms of career. I started out as a reporter for the Associated Press in New York City. I realized after a few years that a traditional, fast-paced newsroom environment wasn’t the right fit for me – I felt pressured to get scoops and beat the competition whereas my natural inclination was to go slow, to spend the time necessary to understand people and communities. I also wanted a deeper sense of connection with the place I lived, and to get involved in some of the decision-making and policy on which I’d been reporting.
So I decided to move back to my hometown of Cleveland and study urban planning. After getting my degree, I worked as a project manager for a nonprofit that helped plan parks and public spaces. I loved having the chance to think more analytically about neighborhoods and how they worked (or didn’t) – but guess what felt missing this time? Writing and storytelling!
I ended up taking on a few projects on the side that allowed me to write about urban planning and neighborhoods, and that evolved into going freelance. My elevator pitch was that I “used storytelling to help inform urban planning processes.” A lot of my clients were nonprofits and foundations who wanted to understand the people they served in new ways. They realized the traditional methods of urban planning such as community meetings and surveys could only capture so much about the lived experience of actual residents – and even then, mostly the extraverts and the people with extra time on their hands.
That work continued to evolve until I was able to craft a few collaborations with Ideastream, the local PBS and NPR affiliate – who eventually hired me full-time. They’ve given me an awesome platform to do what I love, which is to help tell people’s stories in a way that can connect us across geography, while giving those in power new ways of understanding what others actually want and need. I think it’s all jibed with the cultural moment we’re in where we’ve realized there are all kinds of stories we haven’t heard over the years, and we need to do more to tell and listen to them.
“Trust equals paying attention, and paying real attention takes time. ”
I assume that much of your process relies on trust and relationship building, which often moves much slower than the pace of work deadlines. I am very interested in your creative process and how you balance the overarching story with the genuine human connections required to tell those stories authentically?
I'm interested to know if and how your planning background plays a role in that creative process and how you approach storytelling and organization of those stories?
I think what most helps me build trust is less any formal training than having a natural curiosity about, and empathy for, other people that’s grown as I’ve gotten older. As that’s happened, I’ve realized that if I want to tell other people’s stories, I’ve got to gain their trust. Trust equals paying attention, and paying real attention takes time. I think in a lot of professions we can be very transactional – and not only that, but transactional in a one-sided way (what some call extractive). As a reporter: “I need your quote; thank you, I’m gone.” As an urban planner: “I need you to fill out my survey; thank you, I’m gone.” But what I’ve realized I can offer back (in addition to money, which is sometimes appropriate but sometimes not) is my attention and my time. We all love to be heard. But we love REAL hearing. We sense rushed or fake hearing from miles off, and resent it.
Inside the Bricks is a fantastic series. As a writer and artist who has spent the bulk of my career working in creative placemaking, community development, and neighborhood revitalization advocacy, Season 2 was specifically inspirational.
You dove into nearly every aspect of the conversations this work takes, from the aspirational and anecdotal community experience to the technical and policy aspects. Creative people, including entrepreneurs, are fascinating because they are both causers of and affected by "gentrification."
I wonder in hindsight what your takeaway is about the role of the arts, artists, and start up small businesses in changing neighborhoods. What is one thing creatives can do to mitigate displacement while also ensuring their own affordable opportunities?
I’m so honored you felt that way. The second season of “Inside the Bricks,” covering the gentrification of my neighborhood, was probably the hardest project I’ve ever done professionally, because it was so – well, close to home. For example, I interviewed my own husband about how he felt about our role in the neighborhood’s change. Yikes! And I REALLY wanted to present all viewpoints fairly, and not come across as a privileged white person complaining about something that doesn’t affect me nearly as directly as it does others (e.g., people of color, people in poverty).
In terms of how creative people can mitigate change, one thing that people I interviewed told me repeatedly (in different variations) was that if you’re an active participant in your neighborhood – you belong there. Meaning that if you try to get to know your neighbors, you get involved in the block club or the community garden, you send your kids to local schools, you simply sit on your front porch – you’ve got a stake there beyond the financial. That’s something I reflect on a lot as I continue to live here.
Photo courtesy of JustinGlanville.com
Your company, Sidewalk, is directed at exactly the question above. As a creative working with multidisciplinary artists to tell community stories, what is the most surprising challenge you've had?
I love working with other creative people. Some of my favorite collaborations are with visual artists – illustrators, graphic designers, photographers – probably because that’s not my wheelhouse and it’s always enlightening to see how they view the same world. I’m not sure there’s been a challenge that’s particularly surprised me, but I think in general the big challenge in any collaboration is to make sure everyone is feeling creatively satisfied and that their voice and viewpoint is being heard.
Sidewalk and OHMI Midcoast seem to have a lot in common. What do you think the outcome or gain is if our regional cities better understand their similarities?
We’re so fragmented as a state here in Ohio – perhaps in part because we have so many larger urbanized areas. We end up competing with each other over what feels like dwindling resources (jobs, funding, people) rather than cooperating. I think that’s true of the Great Lakes region as a whole. Let’s talk about and celebrate our shared assets (fresh water, beautiful forests and farmland, accessibility) rather than putting each other down.
I am always interested in the many ways writers find to thrive in their lives. You've found so many ways to tell stories and exercise that creative outlet. However, at the end of the day, I gather that you're still someone who loves reading and writing fiction.
What are you working on now and how do you view that body of primarily personally-driven work compared to your more professional and career-driven outlets? Do you think of it more as hobby or personal sidework, or do you see it all as connected in some way to your story (e.g. Lou Reed's if you put all the songs together that's his great American novel)?
Thanks for this thoughtful question! I actually find myself reading and writing less fiction these days than I have for a long time. I think that’s because I’m feeling fulfilled working on (and consuming) true stories. For a while, I struggled to “let go” of the practice of being a fiction writer and reader, because it has been part of my identity. But everything is temporary; everything is a phase. Right now, I’m in a part of my career and life where I’m thrilled to be able to tell stories of real life.
Read and listen to the full story by Justin Glanville at Ideastream Public Media.
