On September 21, 2019, I went on my first mentor team outing. It ended up being the only in-person outing I attended with Team Z. (I did, however, subsequently engage with team members briefly at the 2019 holiday party. We also worked together extensively on Zoom during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, i.e.,…
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Voice Memo: Observations and Reflections Before Picnic
On September 7, 2019, I attended the All Tapestry Fall Picnic. Before participants started arriving, I recorded a voice memo describing the playground where the event was taking place and reflecting on some of the meta questions I was chewing on at the time, including how to form relationships with the youth and how my…
Meeting: Facilitator Training Lunch, Reflections on the Move
I met Hannah and Sam at a deli in Powell Gardens after a morning of hustling around. I thankfully remembered before I left the house that I would need to go to a local music store beforehand to buy an XLR cable to use with my new shotgun microphone, since today would be the first…
Mentors: Another Thank-You Dinner
I arrived early to this second, more regionally targeted mentor thank-you dinner, and passed the time reading in a café a couple doors down from the taqueria. It was the kind of place I think would have felt modestly upscale against the backdrop of the neighborhood’s past identity as a broadly targeted shopping district and…
Meeting & Mentors: Planning & Gratitude at WSCC
I arrived early at the Walnut Street Community Coalition to do some other work and take a call. The cafe was large, and open. It included a book store space, a register with various kinds of gift wrap (including Hanukkah-themed), and a long counter. I noticed prominent tattoos on several employees’ arms. I texted Hannah…
Mentors: First Volunteer Training
Although I had already begun to understand my relationship to Tapestry as genuinely inquisitive, the January 2019 training for new Tapestry mentors was the first engagement in which I took proper field notes. This account and many subsequent accounts are drawn largely from those notes, from which I have removed identifying or seemingly extraneous details.…