[Noisebridge-discuss] Collecting individual statements: what happened, in your words?

[Naomi Most]

Hi all,

We had a very good community discussion regarding why Mitch, Scotty, and other long-term members no longer feel welcome at Noisebridge on Thursday evening, starting from 6pm and lasting at least until 10pm. 

Many feelings were shared. Grievances aired. 

Overall, the general agreement from the discussion was a sense that we have lost a lot, and gained nothing. 

One of the questions that was repeatedly asked was, why did [person] leave?  

What is painful for me personally is being the bearer of many of these hurt individuals’ feelings and experiences — because many of these people are my friends — and make no mistake, I am quite upset that my friends no longer feel welcome at Noisebridge. 

And because I have stayed in contact with these individuals, I feel compelled both to represent them in absence at a table discussion of “what happened” while also feeling like I need to limit what I say to remain respectful to other individuals’ integrity and autonomy. 

Lately there has been a rash of dialectic purporting to speak for Noisebridge as a community, or some faction thereof.  This type of dialog implicitly minimizes individuals’ lived experiences and obscures the real struggles we are still coming to grips with. 

SO...

I am going to start asking many individuals either directly or indirectly involved with the social scene at Noisebridge over the past year to write — privately — what they think happened. 

Why? 

Because I believe strongly that it is important to understand why we find ourselves in such a dark and vulnerable time in Noisebridge history. 

Feel free to submit one of your own volition without me asking first.  I will definitely be writing my own, in full recognition that my lens is my own and my information has been and continues to be limited. 

I would like for people to understand the reasons why certain long term, very excellent members have relegated themselves to a self-imposed exile as of this past April, because a Noisebridge that continues to ask ME why they left is not a Noisebridge I feel comfortable staying with. 

With love,
Naomi