About This Item
- Call NumberOSOS_OH_0113
- Summary(1:20) 28 years old, calling from Bensonhurst -- (1:45) Arrived Brooklyn March 16th to visit girlfriend, looked for volunteer opportunities -- (2:18) Became active with South Brooklyn mutual aid group -- (3:45) Evolution of activities: coordinator, shopping, fundraising -- (4:50) Standardized shopping list ingredients -- (5:30) Mass distribution of premade packages. Local businesses make food and equipment donations -- (7:38) South Brooklyn Mutual Aid origins with Katherine Walsh, Sunset Park, began as response to pandemic -- (8:50) 500 volunteers, communicating through What’s App, Zoom -- (9:45) Mutual aid group feels like family -- (10:39) Worries about grandfather -- (12:06) Expects mutual aid groups to continue to fill important gap in safety net. More equitable than standard non-profits -- (13:25) Critical of typical non-profits’ bureaucracy. Mutual aid groups: all volunteer, horizontally structured, easier for clients to navigate -- (14:50) Aggravated by politically situation. Hopes crisis will inspire more political engagement -- (17:50) Inspired by aid work.
- Date2020-05-13
- Physical Description1 sound file (19 min) : digital, WAV
- CreatorTien, Eric.
- CollectionBrooklyn Covid-19 Stories
- Cite AsBrooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
- Formatsound recording-nonmusical
- Genreinterviews
- NoteAudio interview conducted on May 15, 2020, by Zoe Grueskin. Collected for the Covid-19 Oral History Project through Our Streets, Our Stories, an oral history project of Brooklyn Public Library. This project is a partnership with Services for Older Adults and the Brooklyn Collection.
- SubjectQuarantine ; COVID-19 (Disease) ; Epidemics ; Coronaviruses ; Fraternal organizations
- PlaceBensonhurst (New York, N.Y.)
- RightsThis work is covered by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Users are free to share and adapt the work for non-commercial purposes as long as appropriate credit is given to the source and new material created with this work is shared under the same conditions.
- TitleOral history with Eric Tien on 2020 May 15.