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Interview with Kathie Adams
Interviewer: Georgina Marin; Nayialena Avraam
Date of Interview: 12-7-2021
Kathie Adams currently lives in Los Angeles, California. Growing up she changed schools often because of her dad’s profession, but was always the best math student. She formerly worked in an aerospace industry and currently works as a private practice psychotherapist. She has an undergraduate degree in psychology and engineering and graduate degrees in organizational management and psychology. During COVID-19, she joined the Auntie Sewing Squad and one hundred masks each week.
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Interview with Erica Almaguer
Interviewer: Genevieve Salinas; Alexis Hernandez
Date of Interview: 4-29-2021
Erica Almaguer is a Latinx woman who is from the Bay Area and a mother of three. She received her Bachelor of Arts from San Francisco State University (SFSU) and she is the current director of the Early Childhood Education Center (ECEC) at SFSU. Before joining the Auntie Sewing Squad, she made scrub caps for nurses and doctors.
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Interview with Wendy Bable
Interviewer: Rocio Ponce-Montanez; Yelitzi Ortega
Date of Interview: 11-30-2021
Wendy Bable is a white, cis, neurodivergent woman who is from and currently resides in Pennsylvania. She works in theater, but when COVID-19 pandemic hit, her contracts were cancelled. After making masks for local nurses, she wanted to find ways to serve Native American communities so she joined the Auntie Sewing Squad in late April of 2020.
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Interview with Anne Bagasao
Interviewer: Kayla Dizon; Jacelynn Esteban
Date of Interview: 4-28-2021
Anne Bagasao is a wedding planner in Southern California who got involved with the Auntie Sewing Squad during COVID-19. She is a daughter of a Filipino father who migrated from the Philippines as one of the first “Manongs” in Los Angeles and an Appalachian mother from the rural midwest. Her role in the Auntie Sewing Squad is a Super Auntie, a founding Auntie who expedites and distributes, for her section in South Pasadena.
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Interview with Cenders Bailey
Interviewer: Viviana Martinez; Ayva Savoy
Date of Interview: 12-1-2021
Cenders Bailey is an African American woman who is empathetic to disenfranchised communities. She is retired physician’s assistant, a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and a Sewing Auntie in the Auntie Sewing Squad. She learned to sew from the women in her family and used her sewing skills to make masks during COVID-19.
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Interview with Meg Batzer
Interviewer: Jade Leavitt; Katarina Cerda
Date of Interview: 5-7-2021
Meg Batzer, a lifelong Michigan resident, practices complementary medicine in her self-owned clinic while also serving as a member on the County Board of Commissioners. Having a background of serving her community, Batzer jumped at the opportunity to help during the COVID-19 pandemic. She became a member of the Auntie Sewing Squad, making more than five hundred masks for those in need.
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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 Adriana Camarena
Interviewer: Jocelyn Mendoza; Kimberley Aguilar
Date of Interview: 5-3-2021
Adriana Camarena is from Mexico and has spent time in the Uruguay, before becoming a resident of the Mission district of San Francisco in 2008. She is a writer, journalist, a lawyer, as well as a community activist that focuses on ending police brutality and supporting families who have been hurt by police. Camarena is a part of the Auntie Sewing Squad and tries in many different ways to find solutions that can provide emergency relief aid in creative ways.
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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 Tobee Chung Vanderwall
Interviewer: Saul Bruno-Gonzalez; Horacio Barajas
Date of Interview: 11-29-2021
Tobee Chung Vanderwall identifies as Chinese, Japanese, and Scottish. Born in Hawaii, she grew up and attended schools in San Francisco, California. She studied biochemistry at a research lab, taught at a middle school, and is now a mother of three children. She became politicized through the Black Lives Matter Movement at the start of the Trump presidency. As someone who learned to sew from her mother, she joined the Auntie Sewing Squad because she saw a need and had the sewing skills to meet the need. During her time in the Squad, Chung Vanderwall played a role in initiating the name change for the Fu mask pattern.
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Interview with Vibrina Coronado
Interviewer: Shakyra Lopez-Valdez; Sophia Vargas
Date of Interview: 5-4-2021
Born near Palm Springs in a small town called Banning, California,Vibrina Coronado came from a multicultural background; her father was Mexican American and her mother was American Indian. Vibrina Coronado received her Master’s Degree from New York University in Performance Studies. During this pandemic she joined the Auntie Sewing Squad and made masks to help out communities in need and hospitals because they felt that the government was not providing people with the proper protection. Today Vibrina sews and designs clothing and has even sewed a wedding dress. Coronado also helps out individuals coming from recovery from substance abuse.
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Interview with Janet Cowperthwaite
Interviewer: Nicholas Romero; Carlos Lopez
Date of Interview: 5-11-2021
Janet Cowperthwaite graduated from college at San Francisco State University and has now been a San Francisco resident for 40 years. She is an arts manager for the nonprofit organization, Kronos Performing Arts Association. She serves as a Caring Auntie in the Auntie Sewing Squad.
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