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…
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.…
Although I would not yet apply for Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval for my research for many months, and I wouldn’t start taking long-form field notes until my next engagement, I nevertheless think of my participation in this holiday party in late 2018 as the beginning of my formal ethnographic presence with Tapestry. This event…
I arrived 20–30 minutes after the start time Hannah had given me, possibly because Beaumont Square is near where I was living at the time and I was trying to squeeze too many things in before walking over. However, I think I was also operating on the assumption that as a matter of ethnographic presence,…
On November 19, 2018, I met Sam for the first time. I rendezvoused with the co-directors at a major transit hub, and we walked a couple blocks to the nearby lobby of the Hotel Downtown. They told me they frequently take meetings there. I have returned myself at times when I’ve been in the neighborhood…
