As I’ve mentioned in class, I would like to spend the semester reporting on anti-government protests in Poland and the shrinking Polish community in Greenpoint.
The first idea, the anti-government protests, came to me when I was reading one of the Polish political magazines available in the United States. One of the articles spoke about protests that a duo of Polish college students was organizing. The protests were to take place in several big cities across the country and they were fully organized through Facebook. Surprisingly, the organizers refused to take funding from the biggest pro-democratic committee in the country, commonly known by its Polish initials–KOD. Several printers proposed to print protest signs for free. Now that the protest took place, it might be a good idea to try to reach out to the organizers via Facebook and interview them about the protests, why they organized them, how they think they proceeded and what they intend to do in the future. Since this article is likely to take some time, it will likely not be the first assignment I hand in.
In the meantime, I would like to interview a Polish business owner to see how they are dealing with the gentrification of northwestern Brooklyn and the shrinking Polish community in Greenpoint. In particular, I would like to interview the owner of a Polish bookstore. How has the business changed since the bookstore opened? How many Polish businesses in the area were closed? Has the bookstore been dealing with a lot of hardships to keep it afloat? Was it able to attract new audiences?