Create
Community-focused digital magazine to debut Friday
The St Petian is back.
Amelia Bartlett’s St Petian No. 1 (2016)
Although the quirky, full color quarterly only lasted a year (2016-17), it left such an impression on Meiko Seymour that he reached out to the publication’s creator, writer/photographer Amelia Bartlett, to ask if he could borrow the name and start the St. Petian all over again.
Seymour, the executive pastor at Pinellas Community Church, wanted to use the magazine for a higher purpose than Bartlett’s version, which focused almost entirely on culture.
He calls the new edition of the St Petian, which will debut Friday, a way to “platform” the residents of the city. To give everyday people a voice.
“So often we’re trying to address issues in our city and trying to come up with solutions, but it’s very rare that we get down into our neighborhoods,” Seymour explained. “It’s very rare that we get down to the individuals, and how they may be experiencing the city, and things that are maybe happening in the city as a result of policy. Or as the result of an event – even if it’s a positive event.”
The goal, he said, is “Equity through culture, conversation and community.”
And that requires input from every corner of St. Petersburg. “We believe that the expertise of our city resides in the citizenry of the city,” Seymour added. “If you want to know where the best local spots are, ask a resident, right? We have such diversity in our city, not only race and age but also in our restaurants and our coffee scene, our arts scenes and things like that.
“We want to kind of move away from hearing from the same people over and over, and really try to give a space and a platform to those that wouldn’t typically have a way to have their voices heard.”
Each issue of the new St Petian – the plan is for three every year – will be themed. “This first issue is themed around ‘Expectations.’ We went into the year 2020 with great expectations and found ourselves in the middle of a pandemic. In 2021, what did we learn from doing that in the previous year?
“We believe that you can still have expectations, but how you navigate that may be a little bit different than you have in years past. So we watch what’s being posted on social media platforms – what’s being tweeted out by everyday residents – and because of our listening skills, and our team, we’re picking up on themes. How people are talking about what’s going on. And more specifically, in this first issue, how are people talking about moving into the new year?”
Seymour’s team includes veteran journalists and editors, podcast professionals and those with expertise, and attentive eyes, in communication equity. Each issue (online only for the time being) will consist of interviews, questionnaires and curated submissions from readers.
This kind of “true town hall,” Seymour believes, is necessary for the city to move forward, “where we are listening to one another. Where we’re discussing and debating, in a healthy way, the different ideas that come from our own lived experiences.”
Neighborhoods, he explained, all have some differences from one another. “I genuinely believe that we’ve got good and bad and ugly and awesome things, but we miss getting to know what those things are because we generally go to people who are at the systems change level to see ‘What’s going on? What are people talking about?’
“Whereas we really just need to go to the individual resident. And that’s what we’re trying to do.”
