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  Interview with Badly Licked Bear

  Interviewer: Angela Soto Cerros; Zoe Forsyth

  Date of Interview: 11-23-2020

  Badly Licked Bear is a member of the Auntie Sewing Squad (A.S.S.). For the first 34 years of their life, they grew up between Ranchos Palos Verdes and San Pedro. Currently, at 42 years old, they live in Los Angeles. They became involved because they felt the obligation to help with the COVID-19 pandemic. Badly Licked Bear has a history of organizing mutual aid and believes mutual aid is a valuable aspect of community building.

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  Interview with Jackie Bell Johnson

  Interviewer: Aja Whittaker; Sierra Wilson

  Date of Interview: 11-23-2020

  Jackie Bell Johnson was born in Baltimore into a community that sustained themselves by being honest and hard-working people, including her father, who was a carpenter. Johnson also grew up being a part of Girl Scouts and earned her Silver. Johnson is currently living in Los Angeles, California, as an art teacher at the local community colleges and is a mother of two. Johnson has used her art as an act of protest and activism; she has carried this ideal into her role as an Auntie in the Auntie Sewing Squad.

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  Interview with Laurie Bernadel

  Interviewer: Marley Dunford; Jackson Baker

  Date of Interview: 12-5-2020

  Laurie Bernadel was born in Queens, New York and raised in North Carolina. Her parents are Haitian immigrants. She attended the University of North Carolina, Charlotte and is now a web developer. Bernadel is a Sewing and Caring Auntie in the Auntie Sewing Squad.

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  Interview with Josephine Chau

  Interviewer: Ariana Moniz; Janelle Weinert

  Date of Interview: 11-24-2020

  Josephine Chau was born in Utah, then moved to Colorado at the age of six. She then moved back to Utah for college then moved to the east coast, where she now resides in Maryland. Both her parents are immigrants, her dad is from China and her mom is from Hong Kong. She is bilingual in Chinese and English. Josephine is married with one daughter. She has a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering. Her career was in the information technology department at the University of Maryland. She is now retired.

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  Interview with Young Mi Chi

  Interviewer: Eimy Martinez; Marlet Ceballos

  Date of Interview: 12-8-2020

  Young Mi Chi immigrated with her family from Korea to the U.S. in 1976. She grew up in Koreatown, Los Angeles, where she was very involved with her faith community. Inspired by her strong Christian values, her passion is to help others. She is currently a transporter and a sewist in the Auntie Sewing Squad.

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  Interview with Colette Drouillard

  Interviewer: Evelyn Paez; Eunice Sosa

  Date of Interview: 11-20-2020

  Colette L Drouillard grew up in Michigan and later lived in various places, including Boston, Tallahassee, and London. She received her PhD in Library Science and is now an Associate Professor in the state of Georgia. During the pandemic, she moved to Michigan to care for her mother and joined the Auntie Sewing Squad to help others.

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  Interview with Emily Duffy

  Interviewer: Zehunna Szestowicki

  Date of Interview: 11-27-2020

  Emily Duffy is a practicing Pagan woman of Jewish descent, currently living in northern California. Her work in the fashion industry has taken her to LA and San Francisco, but is content living out her later years outside the big cities. FIDM taught her how to sew with industrial techniques, which has heavily influenced her mask-making processes. Aside from her work as a professional fine artist--creating sociopolitically significant work--Duffy finds fulfillment in activist work too. From starting an abortion rights club at Cal, contributing to the Howard Dean campaign, and now sewing masks and organizing "asks" with the Auntie Sewing Squad, Duffy is a poster-Auntie; treating all life with respect and equity.

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  Interview with Judith Evind

  Interviewer: Gina Dashiell; Estrella McDaniel

  Date of Interview: 11-17-2020

  Judith Evind was born in 1958 and raised in San Francisco CA. Her grandparents migrated from Ireland and Norway. Growing up, she was involved in different organizations from girl scouts to Anti-War marches. She was a dressmaker for 17 years after obtaining her college degree and now works in immunology.

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  Interview with Cristina Gonzalez

  Interviewer: Adamaris Cruz Santiago; Rudy M. Soto

  Date of Interview: 11-20-2020

  Cristina Gonzalez originally is from California, more specifically from West Los Angeles, however, she currently resides in Virginia along with her husband, who together have five children. Gonzalez has had the opportunity to work as an Archeologist and Historian, due to her degrees in Archaeology and Anthropology. There she took part in an Oral History study centered around African Americans living in Downtown San Diego. She currently runs her own business alongside her husband and navigates homeschooling for her children. Cristina joined the Auntie Sewing Squad because of her disappointment in the U.S. government's failure to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, Gonzalez holds the role of a “sewist” on the Auntie Sewing Squad.

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  Interview with Yessica Gonzalez Rodriguez

  Interviewer: Charles Scrivner; Peyton Huck

  Date of Interview: 12-10-2020

  Born in Nayarit, Mexico, Yessica Gonzalez is a queer, immigrant organizer who serves as a consultant for the TransLatin@ Coalition and a sewer for the Auntie Sewing Squad. Growing up in a low-income household, sewing served as a creative outlet for Yessica to self-determine their gender expression and navigate their teenage years. This skill would ultimately serve Yessica well in the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic, during which Yessica now sews masks for underprivileged communities as part of the Auntie Sewing Squad.

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  Interview with Judy Heyboer

  Interviewer: Clarissa Perez; Johnnie Urquidi

  Date of Interview: 11-21-2020

  Judy Heyboer was born in Southern California and had very active liberal parents which led to her involvement in politics and activism. She is a public school teacher of 30 years. As a bilingual elementary teacher, she has taught transitional kindergarten through third grade and is now teaching special ed. She first became involved with sewing and mutual aid when she joined Afghans for Afghans, which made warm winter clothing and blankets for people in Afghanistan. In the Auntie Sewing Squad, Judy sews masks.

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  Interview with Sandra Hise

  Interviewer: Caitlyn Vieira; Leila Henderson

  Date of Interview: 11-20-2020

  Sandra Hise is one of the original Auntie’s in the Auntie Sewing Squad. She’s done all sorts of work from being a Sewing and Care Auntie. She’s sewn, ran errands, shared materials, as well as provided support and tutelage to the new members. She is a retired high school English and Media Arts teacher from the Los Angeles Unified School District. She grew up in Los Angeles, California but made many trips back to the South to visit her family. It was in her teens that her mistrust for organized religion and zeal for social justice was born, as she lived through the radical and social unrest of the 1960s. Mutual aid and helping others is nothing new to Sandra Hise, so joining the Auntie Sewing Squad was a perfect fit.

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  Interview with Lisa Kawamura

  Interviewer: Nancy Cornejo

  Date of Interview: 11-25-2020

  Lisa Kawamura grew up in San Gabriel, CA and received her bachelors and masters at San Francisco State University. She is a faculty in the Communications Department at California State University, San Luis Obispo. She is an activist who has served as a union representative and is a member of Tsuru for Solidarity.

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  Interview with Katy Korkos

  Interviewer: Jennifer Villa; Gioana Perez

  Date of Interview: 11-16-2020

  Katy Korkos is an artist, sewer, restaurant owner, and now blissfully retired. She is of Jewish descent, born and raised in the Bay Area of California but currently resides in New Mexico. From her early years of adolescence, Korkos was an activist with her family, fighting for people's civil rights and freedom, and doing anything possible to make this world a better place. She fights for what she believes in and continues to try and spread positivity. She spends her days reading up on latest issues and making masks for the people that need them. Korkos joined the Auntie Sewing Squad for their passion, dedication, and organization, and for those very reasons she chooses to stick with them till the very end. Korkos is a prime example that we should never stop learning, seeking answers to difficult questions, and never give up hope.

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  Interview with Sylvia Kwon

  Interviewer: Adrian Arredondo Gomez; Melissa Horta Gutierrez

  Date of Interview: 11-21-2020

  Sylvia Kwon has been living in California for 20 years but she grew up in the Midwest. Her parents are first generation Korean immigrants. She started sewing for her son's ballet studio and ever since then found interest in sewing, she’s very creative and learned how to sew on her own and started with very little basic things. Sylvia Kwon is very centered around her community; she not only helped sew costumes for her son's ballet studio but has also sent around face masks that she’s made. She’s made over 1000 face masks as well as sewn a quilt for a school fundraiser.