Soap gets laundry done. Conversations get democracy going!

In February of 2024 WNYC launched a project called “Suds and Civics” in which the Community Partnerships team visits eight different laundromats across the New York City metro area monthly to have community conversations about the issues that matter. 

The team of two — made up of Community Partnerships editor George Bodarky and Assistant Producer Jodi Malarbe — has a lot of ground to cover. The laundromats they visit are in East New York, the Bronx, Queens, Harlem, Staten Island, Paterson, New Jersey, Huntington Station on Long Island and in Beacon, New York.

The project came about because Bodarky did a story, years ago, about English as a Second Language (ESL) classes in a laundromat in Washington Heights. 

“In the back of my mind it sat with me,” he said, “just how well the laundromat worked as a place to convene community and to bring people together. People were very receptive and they also had time between washing and folding clothes!” 

When it came time to imagine an engagement project around the 2024 elections, he resurrected the laundromats idea. He thought that this would be an opportunity to get into neighborhoods across the metro New York City area and engage with diverse audiences less likely to be the typical public media audience.

“We’re using it as a forum to discuss issues that matter and to bring us together around issues that touch our lives,” Bodarky explained. Conversations revolve around all kinds of issues: inflation, political polarization, guns, voting. 

Bodarky said he finds it valuable to understand people’s interests around participating in our political process, or not participating. Also understanding “what we can do as a public media institution to help bridge any gaps that might exist in terms of people who might not have the tools or resources to be more politically active.” 

Photo: WNYC's Community Partnerships editor George Bodarky talking with Tim Hunter of NYC Votes at Star Laundromat on Staten Island. (WNYC / Jodi Malarbe)

Poster: Credit to WNYC

Objective

According to Malarbe, the objective of the project is “to make sure our newsroom is engaging with people that we don’t normally engage with.” She said that so far people told her they are grateful for the project because they felt like their voices are normally left out of the stories that media tells. 

In addition to bringing those voices onto the air, Bodarky added that they wanted to come at political stories from an angle where people’s concerns are central, not politician’s. The team also wants to make sure that people understand that their voice matters in this conversation and that the station is using the information gathered to help inform their newsroom about issues of concern in varied communities across the metro area. “Really allowing the community to shape the narrative around what matters,” said Bodarky. 

The Challenge

The biggest challenge is getting these stories out to people beyond WNYC’s traditional audience. The conversations that take place in the laundromats are recorded and Bodarky brings them back to the station where they are featured on Morning Edition and All Things Considered (a dozen stories thus far). Sometimes the station hosts live broadcasts from the laundromats as well. 

But, Bodarky said, “we want to make sure that the impact becomes large. Even on busy days, when we spend time in laundromats it seems like we are only engaging a small group of people at a time. The challenge is allowing the work that we're doing in laundromats to spill out beyond the laundromat into the larger community. How do we take what we’re doing beyond our core audience?” 

The Solution

Bodarky didn’t want “Suds and Civics” to be a transactional process. The Community Partnerships team goes back to the same laundromats each month, and keeps in touch with the people that they meet to make it part of an ongoing conversation, asking: “What do you need from us? How best can we serve you?” 

“I think many of the people that we are engaging with never knew who we were before we met them in the laundromat. I think what it does is build a relationship and hopefully keeps them coming back,’ Bodarky said.

Since they may not be listening to WNYC or engaging with their digital content, the team has devised other methods of connecting the people they meet with these stories. People who were part of these “Suds and Civics” conversations receive a monthly newsletter from Malarbe and Bodarky that includes links to the on-air stories that were produced from these conversations. 

“And then maybe, in a perfect world,” he said, “they become users of our content! But in any case it is a way to help bridge any communication gaps and to provide resources.” 

In addition, the insights gathered at laundromats are put into a database that Malarbe has created. These spreadsheets lay out what people care about, what matters to them and serve as a record of what people are talking about and caring about in East Harlem, the South Bronx, etc. Malarbe shares these data with the newsroom to inform ongoing coverage. 

The Takeaways

• For Malarbe, it comes down to how you prepare to have these spontaneous conversations: “The realization that you are going to have to have a 30 second pitch to get people to talk to you. You don’t know the state of mind that the person is coming into the laundromat with. They don’t necessarily expect someone to talk to them! So, reminding yourself and them that we’re both just humans here and having a conversation.”

• Bodarky said this is a model that can be replicated — at a barber shop, a diner, wherever, “Showing up and being a constant in the community is really important. Being willing to take the time to go back to eight different laundromats, it really does take time! But the rewards are rich. People are appreciative of the fact that we’re there to listen.”

• In a huge metro region like New York City, the question for community engagers is, “Where do we begin?” There are so many different people, so many different communities, so many different issues, so many different demographics that could be engaged. The laundromat becomes a common denominator.
  “The reality is it gave us a place, a central location, and allowed us to meet a great diversity of people. It's not a very specific focus. It's not the new voter or it's not the Latino voter. It’s the everything voter.”
  So, if you just don't know where to begin, begin somewhere that is a kind of town square in a way, where people in your community are already gathering.”

Bodarky told the story of a woman he spoke with recently who had a message for political candidates: “We only hear from candidates when it's time to vote. But they should come to our churches, come to our schools.” And then she turned to Bodarky, “Just like you’re doing now,” she said, “asking questions and listening.”