2020 Currant Annual Report
Letter From The Editor
Currant started from a seed. This seed contained an unregistered DNA: a winding helix of my time across different jobs in different industries, strange meals in new countries, and failed ventures of lives past. In 2017, it fell into the richly and dubiously fertilized soil of Lenape land, now known as New York City and media mecca. Thus started Currant’s quiet germination.
Before the flames that would come to lick up bi-coastal food media in 2020, I felt a spark that wouldn't fade, a smouldering persistence that I couldn’t put a word on—so I started talking about it. My neighbor graciously offered to help with branding and design through his creative studio. My coworker lugged an industrial grade light from Jersey to Manhattan, and we had our first little photoshoot for our first article in my first little apartment.
Three years later, our little seed has sprouted tender and forceful offshoots—behold, proof of life! We're now gaining traction faster than we can keep up with, thanks to the existential accelerations wrought by a global pandemic. History does not relent in reminding us: we implicate each other, and newsflash! We cannot escape each other.
If we're lucky, we're still kicking. And if we're still kicking, we're still creatures that need to eat, through our zealous days of youth and retired days of senility and the muddle that is everything in between. That's why Currant exists: to clear the way through the mud. To uncover and connect food truths, carefully devein systems of their sh*t like our parents do with shrimp, and treat each other with dignity in the process.
Building Currant this past year has felt like an infusion of life, sometimes with the sustaining force of a fluid IV drip, sometimes with the searing heat of a wok flame. Below, we're proud to share a progress report on what we've done, who we've become, and what's to come. Most importantly—please read to the end for our most exciting launch to date: an opportunity to join us as an inaugural community member.
As always, thanks for reading, and stay hungry.
Vicky Gu
Founder
January 14, 2021
What We've Done
Built up: A mighty team. All thanks to our lead feature writer & strategic partner Sarah Cooke, our past marketing intern Meredith Pong, our most recent community & research addition Liza Pittard, and our researcher Brooke Newberry.
Published: 14 thoughtful, long form interviews (32,509 words) and 29 newsletters
Top interviews: An incisive Mayukh Sen, a raw Alicia Kennedy, and a fierce Sana Javeri Kadri
Featured by: Harvard's Nieman Journalism Lab and CreativeMornings
Who We've Become
Spanning Hong Kong to Mexico to Romania to 30 other countries. A warm hello to the influx of European and Canadian friends.
Crossing 36 out of the 50 states in America
Encompassing creatives and strategists and academics, writers and editors and producers, community organizers and founders and technologists
Working across food orgs, media publications, creative agencies, design & innovation consultancies, product and software companies, and more
Info above reflects our email subscribers, intentionally not referencing social media metrics. Our focus will continue to be our larger and deeper channels: newsletter, web publishing, and soon Discord.
What's To Come
Growing the team and contributor base—say hi@staycurrant.com if you're interested in a part-time Editorial Producer or Growth Marketing Lead role
Growing the community—starting with a Discord launch
Developing a sustainable business model—via paid events and gatherings, partnerships with other organizations
Editorial expansion—more interviews, more immersive narrative design, more mediums, larger scope of content
Special projects—open source databases, personal and communal resources, hard-to-categorize fun and useful things
Join Us
Leading to our final announcement: we're launching our Discord community! We had plans to host our first physical dinner party in the summer of 2020, which didn't happen. But one thing lost is another gained. Rather than a soft launch originally focused on the NYC area, we're thrilled to open our digital home to our global audience. Join us as an inaugural member, for free—we only ask for the time and thought you're able to contribute.
We envision it as a few things: a direct conversation between the Currant team and community, a regenerative garden of inspiration and relaxation (via text channels), and a celebratory public-private space to mix our physical worlds (via audio/video channels). Where it goes from there is up to you.
Currant started from a seed and in the past year sprouted into a seedling. In 2021, it'll bloom and evolve into its own species: a flowering hybrid of publication and community, public and private space, passive and interactive fun.
Growth requires water and sun, time and care, luck and diligence. To that end, we're working on a business model to sustain the work and compensate our team and contributors. Stay tuned for more, and we're always open to hear ideas if you have any.
Graphics: Clare Lagomarsino
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