The GDPW group has made a lot of progress over the past two weeks: our logo and banner are finalized; several data visualizations are close to completion; our social media sites are set up and ready to go; we even have business cards!  So, in many ways we’ve met our milestones, but that means we have new ones now. 

This week we are mostly focused on the class presentation for next week.  We are putting together summaries of each person’s work to date, and collaboratively asking ourselves and each other questions that we feel will come from an audience.  For example, “Why wrestling and not some other sport?”  “What is the point of our data visualizations?”  “What is our story, and why is it important?”  “Why now?” “Why were choices around social media and outreach made the way they are?”  “What was your design vision?” Since it’s kind of a test-run for the final presentation, we are trying to think of the “big” and “clarifying” questions that people may want to know about our project.

We have a hard deadline of April 23 to have our social media and website in a preliminary “live” state so that we can use the Queens wrestling match to really hit outreach.  We’re thinking, too, about images, quotes from social media, and even videos (with appropriate permissions) to add to the final version of our site. Finally, as a team we are coalescing around a narrative:  “the numbers don’t lie” and in fact tell an important story about 90 years of women’s pro wrestling that needs to be told. 

I’m really deep in my outreach role right now. I contacted a bandurist who was written about in Dr. Ostashewski’s article on women in bandura, Nadia Tarnawsky, about doing an interview with us for the history portion of our project. I’ve been particularly excited about this part of the project and started fantasizing about all of the interviews we were going to do and how it would contribute to the strength of the project. Alex provided a much needed reality check during our Thursday team meeting. A full scale oral history project was wayyyyy outside the scale of our project. We all agreed it made sense to take recordings of the interviews for future use and possible publication, but to ultimately stick to our plan and make sure that we meet our deliverable. We’ll talk to Nadia this coming Monday 4/7 and then hopefully Julien and Irene or Teryn from WBENA.

I also created a social media calendar with my wife’s help. I was nervous to make the social media plan, but she helped me understand and personalize a calendar that she was given at her job. I used Canva to create an intro and team page that Tasha was running past Teryn in their meeting this week. I think we will firm things up tomorrow and then our Facebook and Bluesky will be launched! And then we start to curate our online presence.

Things have been running smoothly with our group. Our group chat on signal keeps us connected when we don’t meet.

It was super helpful to stay connected to the team last week on signal as I was sick. I was glad I got ahead with prepping the mapping platform so I don’t feel so behind. It’ll be nice to reconnect this week in class and hear about Leonard’s travels and  Julissa’s and Kelly’s trips to carousels, and updates from class

I went to visit Forest Park Carousel earlier this month, which is in my new neighborhood. The opening date was today, so excited for some warmer weather and to visit!

Last week was productive. During class time, we finalized the fonts which was the last item to complete the brand kit. I created a style guide and organized the graphics for the team to easily access. I also accepted the stipend, now waiting for it to be disbursed.

Taking advantage of Saturday’s weather, I visited the Sea Glass carousel.  It was nice yet a long trip, but the kids had a blast! I had to tell them it was snack time just to get a break from chasing them. I like the fact we are taking the time to visit the carousels because it makes it feel more tangible. I was able to get clarity on pricing for example kids under 12 months are free.

Next steps for me, is to update the data on the Sea Glass carousel. Work on a promotional flyer or card to handout and begin creating content to post on Instagram.

So much is going on, and so many things must be done. There is not enough time, but I want to know who leaked our group topic project to Madison Square Garden. Haha. In all seriousness, I was surprised earlier this week when I received an email to reserve my free press conference tickets for Taylor vs. Serrano 3, who will be headlining an all-women’s boxing event in July at MSG.

It’s just amazing to see this event happening. I should have focused this DH Project on women’s boxing, but it’s too late to deviate. I also enjoy watching boxing; it’s one of the things my family used to do every month when there was a big PPV event with well-known prize fighters like Oscar De La Hoya, Pacquiao, Mike Tyson, Roy Jones Jr, Mayorga, etc. However, my heart and passion lie in wrestling. I wasn’t upset the event wasn’t wrestling. When will there be a women’s card for wrestling anywhere soon? Lo and behold, one of my good friends messaged me this past Saturday.

Right in Queens, there will be an all-women’s wrestling event, Women Crush Wednesday 5, on April 23, hosted by Battle Club Pro (BCP). I immediately bought my tickets for two reasons: I went to the 3rd show for two years, and it was amazing, and second, it feels like a fantastic outreach opportunity. I did pay out of pocket for this event since my group had already decided that on April 23, Cathy and I would be going to another event, House Of Glory’s (HOG) Isolation on April 25 for outreach. Had I known that BCP had this event planned, I would have bought tickets for WCW 5 instead of HOG with our funding. Oh well, I can’t complain. There are two wrestling shows in one week. I haven’t been to an event since December 2024, when I ran a show gauntlet with some friends and saw AEW/ROH (All Elite Wrestling/ Ring of Honor) at the Hammerstein Ballroom for 3 days straight.
Anyway, I am looking forward to April as we are just about to enter it. The group is in the right headspace, and we have goals and assigned tasks to complete this month. We will work together as a team and persevere if we encounter any hiccups. That’s what makes this project the best I’ve ever worked on. I can count on my team, and they can count on me. I wish everyone a fabulous April.