WORCESTER – Cara Berg Powers joked with her friends that after finishing her tenure as a nonprofit executive director she would open a video store, and write a book about “Grey’s Anatomy.”
The former is becoming a reality with the soft opening of Rewind Videos & More at 116 June St. in Worcester on Friday.
Berg Powers pops the cork on the video store as part of a nonprofit, Worcester Community Media Foundation, she created with Bill Shaner, a local journalist who runs the “Worcester Sucks and I Love It” Substack blog. The goal of Worcester Community Media Foundation, Berg Powers said, is to connect people with the tools to create their own media and stories and “shift some of that narrative power back into the community.”
The duo has not determined what shape that will ultimately take, but they are applying for grants for special media projects. Berg Powers said the media created at the foundation could take the form of physical publications or multimedia projects.
Sociologists refer to home as a person’s “first place,” work as a person’s “second place,” and “third spaces” gathering spots outside of those two main places, such as churches, bars, and libraries.
“What we’re trying to cultivate is really a third space, which is something that I think a lot of millennials and younger Gen X folks and older Gen Z folks are really missing,” Berg Powers said.
The store has already received more than 3,000 movie donations. There will have to be an acquisition process as there are some duplicates and people have also donated VHS tapes and blu-ray discs in addition to DVDs, according to Berg Powers.
VHS tapes will be available to rent, but Berg Powers said they’re still deciding if it’s worth it to rent out the blu-ray discs.
Mainstream titles will be available for rent, but there will also be items that are no longer produced that people might not otherwise have access to, according to Berg Powers, who is currently teaching at Clark University. For example, Berg Powers mentions a documentary about Sojourner Truth.
“We’re definitely going to focus on the documentary section,” Berg Powers said. They are also considering expanding into anime and classics, so people know they can come to Rewind and rent “Roman Holiday” or “The Birds.”
Berg Powers is trying to create a similar experience to what she had at an independent video store growing up.
“I went there after school every day when I was in high school,” she said. “I would kind of just wander the aisles and talk to people about what they might like to pick up…and that was a big part of the social space, right?”
Berg Powers eventually worked at the video store while she was in college, said.
That personal experience is something people miss out on when they are streaming content.
Since the video store is run by a nonprofit, Berg Powers said instead of having people pay to rent individual movies, they are offering memberships to Worcester Community Media Foundation.
Different levels of membership come with different perks. The least expensive membership, $10 per month, allows members to rent one DVD at a time with no limit on the amount they can rent per month.
The most expensive membership, $100 monthly, grants members five DVD rentals at a time with no limit on the amount they can rent per month, and also gives them VIP access to Worcester Community Media Foundation events.
A goal of the nonprofit is to be accessible, so Berg Powers said they will be looking at offering co-op opportunities at which community members volunteer to earn their membership. They are also applying to participate in the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Card to Culture program, which would let people that participate in certain government programs such as EBT and WIC to get membership to Worcester Community Media Foundation for free.
Berg Powers said they also want to give young people employment opportunities, so while the store doesn’t yet have employees, they hope to hire youth staff in November.
“In the meantime, we do have a lot of folks who are really excited to (volunteer in the store), some of them did work in video stores, some of them always wanted to work in video stores,” Berg Powers said. Those volunteers are going to help staff the store for the first month.
The soft opening on Friday, Oct. 13, is 4-7 p.m. and anyone is welcome to attend.
“We’re just going to be open for a few hours for folks to finally be able to see inside, see what kind of volunteer opportunities exist, hear some news from us about how it works,” Berg Powers said.
The event will also have free popcorn, which Berg Powers said the store will likely continue to offer in addition to selling snacks and merchandise such as T-shirts and mugs.
The store’s initial hours will be announced at the opening, with those hours expanding once fully staffed.
In addition to the soft launch of the video store, Worcester Community Media Foundation is holding a fundraiser at Redemption Rock Brewing Co. on Oct. 25 at 6 p.m.
During the fundraiser, the nonprofit will screen “Rocky Horror Picture Show.” No tickets are needed, but donations will be accepted at the door.
Kiernan Dunlop is an award-winning journalist who has spent the past five years reporting in Worcester, New Bedford and Antigua and Barbuda. She’s been published in Bloomberg, USA Today, Canary Media, MassLive, and the New Bedford Standard Times, among other outlets. She can be contacted at kdunlop@theworcesterguardian.org.
