Co-Created Artifact: Team Z’s Story

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Three “final” cuts of this video exist (cf the challenges of sharing The Summer Camp and the relative simplicity of sharing Yesenia’s Story, which is audio only):

1. The version here is the Researcher Mix for use in publications and presentations. It complies both with Tapestry’s policies for protecting the identity of youth participants and the terms of this project’s IRB protocol. In cases where Tapestry is explicitly named in the voiceover, we recorded pseudonymous and non-pseudonymous versions of the speaker’s line. The need for this action was a useful prompt for revisiting the research framing of the project.
2. The [Tapestry] Mix was produced for Tapestry’s use, at their own discretion, in trainings, recruiting, and online. It conforms to Tapestry’s youth-protection practices but not those of the research protocol and will not appear in research publications or presentations.
3. The Team [Z] Mix was produced for the team itself for members’ personal use only. The major difference between it and the [Tapestry] Mix is that it includes some alternate versions and alternate crops of photos that do not conform to Tapestry’s youth-protection practices. Primarily, these choices reintroduce images of Zoe’s face.

Annotated Script

Zoe: So first off, what season?

Fade in “Good as Hell” by Lizzo

Victoria: Summer

Zoe: What’s your favorite era?

Victoria: Mmmm, ‘20s.

Zoe: 1920s? OK. Choose a color.

Victoria: Blue

Zoe: OK, and now I’m done with the outfit and you get some good lighting.

Liz: Ooooooooh.

Victoria: Nice. So this is a blue long dress with flowy ruffles.

Liz: Very cool.

Prerecorded part ends here.

Zoe: I guess you’re wondering what we’re doing and how we got here.

Begin section about the early days.

Zoe: When I joined [Tapestry] I thought it was going to be like therapy.

For the research version

Zoe: When I joined Tapestry I thought it was going to be like therapy.

Zoe: ‘Mentor’ sounded like another word for therapist. But they were normal people, it wasn’t uptight. We just hang out.

Liz: When we started, the Rec Center was our home base. We would meet there, and there was always something to do. When we wanted some time to ourselves, we’d go up to the rooftop garden.

Begin section about hard days.

Ellie: We have been through a lot together, and some of it has been hard.

Zoe: What we try isn’t always fun. I don’t like hiking!

Victoria: But you tried at least. We will try anything.

Liz: We’ve experienced a lot of change together. One of the biggest changes was losing Peg.

Zoe: There was never a dull moment with Peg, she always had the best stories and so much wisdom to share.

Liz: We were at her funeral and at the reception we were looking at books that Peg had written and illustrated. 

Zoe: Her husband Bill came and told us how much she talked about us, how much we meant to her. It made me feel important.

Liz: The night of the funeral we all met up and wrote letters to Peg. We read them to each other and celebrated all the things we wanted to remember about her.

Ellie: It was good that we could grieve together. We still write to Bill a couple times a year, and it helps us keep her memory alive.

Victoria: He always says how vividly he remembers her excitement about going to our meetings.

Ellie: Our mentor team has evolved, but that means the circle of support just keeps growing.

Begin the section on fun days.

Liz: But still, the main theme of our team is fun.

Zoe: My pizza was really good because I put a lot of olive oil, mozzarella, and pepperoni. The dough was round and perfect.

Liz: And like we said, there were fashion shows.

Zoe: We went to Macy’s and picked different categories: skater boy, goth girl, princess. We voted on each other’s looks.

Victoria: For birthdays, we usually keep it small.

Zoe: But for my fourteenth, we went to a fancy Italian place.

Begin section about the future

Victoria: Going forward, we want to be able to return to some of our favorite activities.

Zoe: Cooking

Ellie: Swimming

Victoria: We hope to branch out for new adventures.

Zoe: Like a trip to Great America.

Ellie: Who knows, maybe even a past mentor meet-up on the East Coast?

But really most of all, we’re most excited to hug again.

Fade in “Good as Hell” by Lizzo. Roll credits.

Ellie: I’m just curious if you have any plans for bloopers.

Zoe: No, it’s just that you love Taylor Swift.

Liz: I don’t love Taylor Swift. I like Taylor Swift.

Zoe: I breathe Taylor Swift.

Ellie: Aluminum linoleum.

Liz, Ellie, Victoria, Kyle repeating: Aluminum linoleum.

Zoe: What am I supposed to say?!

References