After graduating college I was overloaded on theory and in need of spaces of integration and praxis. Providentially, I found the Open Door Community. It was recommended to me by a friend, so the first thing I did was to check out their website. Thankfully, at this point in my life, poorly designed websites were not a major turnoff and I ended up moving to Atlanta and spending a year as a resident volunteer at this community of hospitality and resistance.
Needless to say, while the Open Door has been carrying out amazing work resisting the powers that grind the faces of homeless and imprisoned poor folks, their website didn’t go very far in highlighting that work. So, I was glad to take this project on and now I’m even more glad with what community members, staff, and I have come up with.
In addition to it looking pretty, community members can now edit the content of the site without having to rely on someone who has code knowledge. Some of the features include:
- A photo gallery where Calvin Kimbrough and other community photographers can upload their latest pictures.
- Blog functionality for both news and testimonies augmenting the printing of the community newspaper Hospitality.
- An archive of past issues of Hospitality going back to January 2003.
- And (this is my favorite) integration of community artist Nelia Kimbrough’s fine work throughout the site.
So, go check it out at www.opendoorcommunity.org and let me know what you think.