When I first joined Maker Jawn in the fall, Lauren, the lead Rodriguez mentor at the time, led me into the back of the library and showed me a little garden she had started. There were chili peppers and swiss chard growing. Even though it was too late in the season for us to plant anything else, I was totally… Read more →
Author: clarissa
Sawing and Shushing: How Makerspaces Exist in the Library
This is what I love about Maker Jawn. I’m sitting on a 6 foot plank to keep it still while one of our Makers furiously hacks it with a saw. Sawdust flies up into our noses and settles on the carpeted floor. The table shudders, the saw grinds and barks at the cheap wood. After a 4 inch piece of… Read more →
Maker Jawn at Net Tuesday
About two weeks ago, Maker Jawn gave a presentation in collaboration with Net Squared, which is a global network that gathers together nonprofits and activists, tech leaders and funders, and everyone who’s interested in using technology for social change. We decided to focus on storytelling and technology while also acknowledging the role storytelling plays in legitimizing our program’s narrative.… Read more →
Happy Belated Birthday, Dr. Seuss!
This year at Rodriguez, we celebrated Read Across America by throwing a birthday party for Dr. Seuss. Read Across America is an annual reading motivation and awareness program that calls for children to celebrate reading on March 2, which also happens to be the birthday of Dr. Seuss! Sara Palmer, the Children’s Librarian at Rodriguez, told me that RGR had celebrated with… Read more →
24 Butt Street
Sustainability is a huge part of Maker Jawn, whether it’s an overt value or not. This past month at the Rodriguez library, I’ve started to notice just how often it is our projects center on repurposed materials, and the role that certain individuals in the community play into that value. Whether it’s the kind elderly woman that drops off old… Read more →
Credit Where Credit’s Due
At Maker Jawn, as in any creative space, taking credit for an idea is a nuanced statement. How different does an idea have to be from somebody else’s before it is considered appropriation or “copying”—a favorite accusation at Maker Jawn? At the Rodriguez library, it’s a very popular project to build houses out of cardboard and fill the house with… Read more →