New Jersey Fan Club
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all right what's up everybody we're back
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with another episode of greetings from
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the garden state i'm mike hamm we are
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here in tinton falls today at the
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historic crawford house with carrie
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sullivan from jersey collective carrie
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welcome to the show thanks so much for
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having me it's great to have you so uh i
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need to before we talk about you and
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before we talk about jersey collective
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and everything else you have going on um
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what the crawford house so you're from
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this area right yeah i yeah this i've
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lived in titanfall's i don't live here
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anymore but i grew up here most of my
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life here okay
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child and adult yeah yeah right right
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and then so you knew about this through
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like through what i was a member of the
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historic commission for a couple years
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when i lived here in my twenties and um
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i
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we did our events here we had our
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meetings here it's like a museum and you
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know space that the township uses for
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different things yeah um so not a lot
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going on these days because of sure
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pandemic but yeah um yeah it's a really
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cool space to visit and they do like a
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farmer's market in the summer and stuff
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like that yeah no it's very cool like i
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was kind of walking the ground before
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everybody else got here and then uh and
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then who who let me in what was her name
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stacy
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she's the president of the historic
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commission awesome awesome yeah so she
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gave me the tour of the whole place and
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it was just it was so cool to see like
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all the different like artifacts from
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back when this place was opened or
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opened built and whatever so um very
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cool so like if anybody does have an
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opportunity to come check it out and
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they're into historic type stuff this
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would be a cool place to come um but
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let's talk a little bit about you so
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carrie sullivan uh you're born and
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raised like we said in this area in
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titan falls um take me through like the
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back like your background like tell me
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about how uh like what you do kind of
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how you got started with the stuff that
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you're doing sure um so my day job i'm a
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librarian
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but i'm also the founder and i run a
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project on instagram called jersey
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collective which is um it's an instagram
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account that different people take over
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every week and it's based about new
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jersey it's been going since 2014.
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grown into a couple other things like
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we've had gallery shows meetups things
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like that i also edited a book that's
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forthcoming from rutgers university
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press called new jersey fan club artists
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and writers celebrate the garden state
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and that's pretty much what i do yeah so
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tell me a little bit more about jersey
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collective like what was the idea behind
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it when you first started it so let's
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talk about like like before we do that
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sorry um this is just how i operate i'm
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a little all over the place but tell
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like let's let's tell for people that
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don't know so i took over the jersey
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collective account once uh pretty
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recently yeah very recently actually and
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had a lot of fun doing it and boosted my
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follower account got a good amount which
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was great um but me too um but uh let's
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explain for the people listening kind of
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what jersey collective is if they don't
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already know what it is so um it's an
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instagram account that i started back in
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2014 and a different person takes over
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every week so every week it's a new
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person posting the photos and they can
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share you know whatever they want as
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long as it's about you know to pictures
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taken in new jersey obviously we don't
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that's like our whole thing yeah right
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jersey collective if you're posting
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about like hawaii
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you'd be surprised i had i had a couple
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people early on like posting stuff that
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was taken elsewhere yeah this is the one
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rule pretty much
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yeah
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so it's just kind of like a
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collaborative art project like different
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people get to share their perspective
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and sometimes it's people with a smaller
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audience and they get to share it with a
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larger audience and it's also sometimes
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people with big audiences that come
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share with us because it's just a
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different audience just checking out the
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work and it's just a new way to connect
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with people yeah um and it's just a way
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to give people like an opportunity to
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share whatever they want you know like
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what new jersey looks like to them yeah
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i think my my idea when i started it was
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i was kind of there were a couple things
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going on i was in grad school at the
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time for library and information science
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and i
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i'd gone to film school for my
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undergraduate degree and i worked as a
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photographer for a couple years after
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that so i
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was very used to being like in these
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like creative environments and then
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suddenly i was in grad school and i was
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like writing papers and reading academic
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texts and just kind of like
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it's still kind of a creative field but
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and the people that i was around were
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creative but it just was a little more
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like i felt disconnected from the
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creative
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environment that i'd been in previously
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so i wanted to do something and i
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thought instagram was interesting and
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kind of an interesting way to connect
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with people so that was kind of what i
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was doing personally but then just on a
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bigger level like i've just always been
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really interested in new jersey and
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people's like perspectives of new jersey
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because there's a lot of you know we get
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a lot of from people
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yeah we do
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so and i've always found that
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interesting because like i love it here
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and it's amazing it's like the best
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place in the world i think yeah i'm
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doing a whole podcast on it so i'm on
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board yeah but so i just wanted to kind
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of do something where it was like maybe
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if i had some kind of art project where
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people could share you know what new
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jersey looks like to them people can be
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all of a sudden be like oh this actually
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is a nice place even people who live
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here that don't like day trip around
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like don't know about a lot of the
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places that people share and i just
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wanted something that could kind of
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bring people together around one central
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idea but just give different people a
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chance to kind of explore it yeah for
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sure are there things that maybe like
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going through i mean like you said since
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2014 so basically like seven eight years
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at this point um which is crazy to think
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really yeah you have no idea it's so
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weird
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like
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different people every week for the last
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eight years yeah basically taken over
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that account are there things that have
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happened on that account where you're
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just like oh i didn't even know about
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this
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yeah yeah constantly i'm always seeing
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like museums and stores and parks and
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things that i'm like i've never heard of
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this and yeah like i get out a lot i
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mean not literally these days but like
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normally like pre-pandemic i was you
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know day tripping all the time like
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every weekend that would be like what me
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and my boyfriend like to do is like
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drive to different towns we've never
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been to before and check out like
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museums and restaurants and stuff so
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like i and i read a lot like i you know
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keep up with like weird new jersey and
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yeah so i'm pretty well versed in like
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new jersey stuff but i still like all
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the time i see things i'm like i never i
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didn't know about that or yeah you know
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i so then i go and check it out are
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there any like specific ones where you
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just like were just blown away like you
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saw a picture
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um i feel like i hadn't heard of duke
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farms until a couple years ago
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um in um hillsborough okay it's a
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beautiful park for anybody that hasn't
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been it's huge also it's like massive
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and um i had never heard of it until
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i don't know five or six years ago maybe
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yeah we're going there all the time
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posting pictures from there so i'm
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finally like i gotta check this place
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out yeah um and a lot of just like
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smaller towns too especially in like
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south jersey like i've lived in a couple
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different places in new jersey but
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they've all been like central and north
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so
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sometimes when people post you know
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stuff about like salem county and yeah
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and out that way i'm like i don't know
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who would ever go i've never been out
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that way i mean i have now yeah right
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but at the time like earlier on into the
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project i'm like i've never been to some
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of these towns that people are posting
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about and it's just really interesting
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to learn there's so much history out
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there too and so it was cool to have
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some idea of like oh when i have a
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couple hours and i want to go check it
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out like now i actually have like a
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resource where i can look it through
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posts people have done and like be like
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oh this would be a cool place to check
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out yeah yeah what i think is cool
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because you know people are listening to
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this and they're thinking like
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photographs like you need to be a
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photographer or whatever like i'm not
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really a photographer but you don't need
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to be one yeah absolutely i definitely
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should have mentioned that that's
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definitely an important part of it too
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is i wanted something that was really
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like
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open and accessible to people and that i
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don't say no to people like i don't let
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um like businesses do it because i'm not
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trying to like turn it into like a
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sponsorship promotion yeah like um it
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gets a little that line gets a little
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blurry with like photographers because
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some people have photography business
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but like it's a photography project so i
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obviously let them do it um but yeah i
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know anybody's welcome to do it and some
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of the people who i think have done like
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an amazing job or people who you know
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prior to to posting on it you know you
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scroll through their instagram and it's
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like maybe they post a lot of pictures
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of like their pets or like food and so i
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didn't know what they were going to do
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but i don't really turn people away like
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i don't feel like it's my place to be
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like oh like your work's not good enough
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like that's just not what i'm trying to
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do it's just because like you said it's
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like almost like how they see new jersey
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like whatever that may be right and
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everyone sees it different and that
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that's all valid and all true like i'm
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not trying to say like oh this isn't you
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know it's their perspective it's a
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personal thing so but yeah i know i've
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definitely
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some of those people really like
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surprised me cause i'm like i don't know
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what this person's gonna post like all
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their pictures are food i don't know
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what they're gonna do and then they take
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like really cool pictures and it's
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sometimes it's not even about the
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pictures themselves it's about like what
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they write with the pictures yeah like
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sometimes people are really good at like
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doing really engaging posts where they
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they explain a lot of stuff like maybe
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they'll go somewhere and talk about the
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history or they'll tell a personal story
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or they'll ask like questions and it'll
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just start really good conversations
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yeah um but yeah now i'm lucky that we
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we have like pretty good commenters for
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the most part and people are like really
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nice and supportive right yeah that was
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a cool thing too like when i when i did
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it and like i said like not really a
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photographer but had just like a lot of
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stuff to share because especially over
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the last since october right doing this
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show like i just had a lot of stuff
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and i was like oh this would be cool to
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kind of get on there and try it out um
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and just like the level of engagement
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from the community that you've built was
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really cool because everyone was just
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like this is awesome and they want to go
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check it out um and all that like one of
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the ones that i did was tamera lane the
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farm animal sanctuary up in montague and
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like when i posted the pictures from
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that people were like this is awesome
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you know i mean it was cool that was a
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lot of fun um
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was there a certain point um you know
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maybe early on or
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over the lifespan of jersey collective
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where it really just kind of took off
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and you were just like whoa like i
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didn't expect it to get to this level
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yeah i mean it's been kind of a steady
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like growth i would say um i'm not like
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a social media person as far as like i
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don't understand the like algorithm and
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the metrics and i try not to like look
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at the insights and all that stuff a
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whole lot like i'm not concerned about
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you know like oh we're losing followers
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or gaining but like i don't really care
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about that like
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it's nice like it was every milestone
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was really nice and it's exciting to see
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it grow but i'm not like a person like
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i'm not spending a lot of time like
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trying actively to grow it like i just
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don't have the time i have other stuff
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going on in my life
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this isn't like my main focus um
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probably somebody who knows what they're
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doing could like take that and like make
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it have a hundred thousand followers in
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a couple months like i'm not that person
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and i'm not trying to like get someone
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to do that for me so
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not um not my focus but yeah i know it's
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been really cool to see how it's grown i
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mean from the beginning like there was
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some we've had a couple news interest
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things especially when we had events
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like i've done gallery shows so we had
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like a news 12 new jersey spot a bunch
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of years ago which was like mortifying
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to me now to rewatch like i haven't
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looked at that in years but
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um and you know just like new new jersey
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monthly did a write up on us years ago
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as well so it's just been in like local
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paper stuff too so it's been it's always
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just interesting to see it catch on and
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one of the things that's really cool to
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me to have seen the shift from is like
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in the beginning i'd have to really
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explain what it was to people right and
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and like pitch people to take over and i
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don't have to do that as much anymore
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because a lot of people like see it and
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they're like i want to try this and
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they'll email me so that's been really
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cool and i also like some occasionally
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meet somebody at a party or something
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and like tell them about it they're like
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oh i follow that and i'm like wow like
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that's crazy like that's a weird shift
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when it goes from being this like weird
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thing you do in your house alone to like
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something that
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kind of is bigger than you and people
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know what it is and it has like a life
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of its own outside of you or like if i
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see a sticker on a pole that i didn't
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put there and i'm like that's weird like
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who did that like where did you make it
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like it's cool it's it's cool but it's
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it's weird when something goes from
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being this like personal thing that you
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did to like something that's just like
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yeah i have not like people don't even
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know who i am
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as far like people follow it and they
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don't know like who runs it or whatever
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yeah um talk to me a little bit about
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too because i think it's really
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interesting and honestly something that
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i'm gonna try to do for this show like
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the gallery shows not that i'm gonna do
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a gallery show but like in-person
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events um you know off of something like
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that
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like when you decided to kind of take it
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from just on instagram to being like an
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in-person thing where people can
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collaborate or do different things like
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that it was pretty early on because i
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don't know if you were on instagram back
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in like 2013 2014 but there was this it
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was such a different thing back then and
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i think a lot of people don't who are on
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it now or like started it later like
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don't realize just how different the
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atmosphere is like it used to just be
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this very like
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it was for photography like people
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weren't selling stuff on it yet and it
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was a very different thing but instagram
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used to have these like meetup days and
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they were like a sanctioned instagram
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thing where they would
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like either was a hashtag you would use
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they would encourage you to get out and
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like meet up with people and they would
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mail you like pins and stickers and
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things to give out to people who showed
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up and name tags so they used to do a
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lot more of this kind of like community
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building stuff that they now i think
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they want to be a shopping mall but um
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it's kind of been a really big shift but
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so i think it was back in 2014 it was
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right around the time i was launching
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the project um
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some people that i know now that i'm
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friends with but at the time they were
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strangers but just people in the area
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were putting together one of these insta
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meets that's what they were called yeah
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i don't know that people really do them
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much anymore which makes me sad because
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i met some like so many of my very close
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friends or people i met through
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instagram yeah um yeah it's really weird
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like i don't know people like whose
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weddings i've been to people like very
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very close with them like we met on
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instagram like 2013 2014 and like now
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we're like very close but
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um but yeah so it uh instagram used to
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do these meetup things and they used to
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send out these kits and so
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that was kind of an emphasis for me
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early on was like this is really cool
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this like community aspect where you get
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to actually go out and meet people so i
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started hosting like jersey collective
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insta meets and seeing you know who
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would show up and just like i think
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those days are kind of gone where i can
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like just be like hey we're gonna be at
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this park at this day at this time like
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whoever wants to come come yeah because
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now i think we'd get like too many
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people and it would be like an issue
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yeah but we've just got like maybe 30 40
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people sometimes yeah it was nice and
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you just walk around and take pictures
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and people would like take portraits of
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each other just like chat about camera
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equipment or people just use their
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phones or whatever too it's just a nice
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way and sometimes like some of us would
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go out to eat after or something um
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so i always kind of wanted these like
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tangible experiences even though it was
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an instagram based project
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and the art stuff like i have you know
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background in photography too so i
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always like i like attending things like
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that yeah so it's kind of one of those
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cases where i was like i want to
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go to events like this and i don't exist
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so i guess i have to do them exactly
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yeah right no that's awesome yeah but
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the first gallery show i did was pretty
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simple i actually did three the first
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three years of the project where they
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were kind of just like retrospective
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like the first year of the project it
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was one photo from each week of the
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project printed out and they were like
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10 by 10
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squares and i hung them we did the first
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two were at um coworks in asbury park
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and then the third one was at the ymca
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in south amboy in conjunction with an
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arts organization there and we set up
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this like temporary wall and like hung
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them on there and it was a really unique
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space and it worked out really well
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um and then that was in 2017 the third
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one i think and i haven't done one since
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because it just got it's so much work oh
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yeah right and then i you know i started
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getting to the point where i was like
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okay i can't be like paying for this
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anymore so i'd have to find like
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sponsors and that's a lot of work so it
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just turned into this like whole thing
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um
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but i recently did an event with um the
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carteret performing arts center which is
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pretty new um
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and they have this beautiful new space
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and they wanted photography hanging up
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so they got in touch with me and like
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wanted help curating a contest and we
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had this really great event and hung
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they took care of the printing and
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everything and hung the photos um
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so yeah that's definitely something i
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like doing but not like my main focus
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anymore but the annual shows used to be
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like a big thing yeah it just got to be
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too much no i love that yeah and i could
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definitely attest to that like with my
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day job and now trying to put together
15:32
something for greetings from the garden
15:34
state which hopefully will come soon um
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but uh but yeah so that was uh we're
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gonna take a quick break for our first
15:40
after our first segment um so this is
15:42
the greetings from the garden state
15:42
podcast i'm mike hamm we're here with
15:45
kerry sullivan of jersey collective in
15:46
titan falls new jersey at the historic
15:48
crawford house we'll be right back
15:52
it is time for today in new jersey
15:53
history former football player franco
15:55
harris was born on march 7th 1950 in
15:58
fort dix new jersey he graduated from
16:00
rancocos valley regional high school in
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mount holly new jersey in 1968 and
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played for 12 seasons with the
16:05
pittsburgh steelers and his 13th and
16:06
final season for the seattle seahawks he
16:08
was inducted into the pro football hall
16:10
of fame in 1990 and that is today in new
16:13
jersey history
16:17
all right we're back for segment two of
16:19
this episode of greetings from the
16:20
garden state i'm mike hamm we're here
16:21
with kerry sullivan of jersey collective
16:23
in tinton falls new jersey at the
16:24
crawford house uh so in the first
16:26
segment we kind of learned a little bit
16:27
about your background kind of how jersey
16:29
collective got started what it's all
16:30
about and then kind of how it's
16:32
progressed over time
16:34
and one of the things that i know that
16:35
we wanted to talk about during this
16:36
episode was kind of i think this would
16:39
maybe be like an extension of the jersey
16:41
collective brand uh so that's the book
16:43
that you're yeah definitely it's
16:45
launching launched it comes out on june
16:47
17th okay so coming out june 17th so
16:49
this episode's going to post before that
16:50
so we're building a lot of momentum for
16:52
that book it's available to pre-order
16:54
though oh available to pre-order
16:55
excellent um but it is called new jersey
16:57
fan club artisan writers celebrate the
16:59
garden state how to write that down but
17:01
um talk to me about like you know over
17:04
time doing the jersey collective project
17:06
at what point were you just like hey
17:07
maybe we could take all this stuff
17:09
because i would imagine that's kind of
17:10
the impetus behind the book um and make
17:12
it a book yeah it's definitely part of
17:14
it so i
17:16
in addition to doing jersey collective
17:19
and being a full-time librarian i'm also
17:21
a writer and i just for years have been
17:24
working on stuff quietly and like i just
17:27
i love books like i that's my whole life
17:29
is like i'm around
17:30
like
17:35
it's definitely like a people-centric
17:37
business more than like what we're
17:38
dealing with but books are definitely a
17:40
big part of it too um
17:42
but yeah so i just always like wanted to
17:45
do a book or something like i have been
17:47
involved with literary magazine in
17:49
college and and after as well so it's
17:51
definitely like i was always like okay
17:53
how can i make a book out of this like
17:55
that's just kind of always in the back
17:56
of my mind with like everything i'm
17:57
doing i'm like is this a book but um the
18:00
way it kind of came about was
18:02
i want to say it was maybe like
18:04
2016 or 20 yeah maybe around 2016. i was
18:08
like thinking i wanted to launch maybe
18:10
an online magazine that was related to
18:12
jersey collective so it wouldn't be like
18:15
like i just thought it would be cool to
18:16
be able to
18:17
have writing and essays and and more
18:20
detailed stuff than people can post in
18:21
like a caption but to still kind of be
18:23
like under the jersey collective
18:25
umbrella
18:26
um so i thought that's what i wanted to
18:27
do and then the more i kind of started
18:28
like playing around with it and working
18:30
on it i was like actually i think i just
18:31
want to make a book and um
18:33
what i kind of landed on and it took me
18:35
i mean it's 2022 now and it's just
18:36
coming out now and it took it was a lot
18:38
of work and a lot of time and a lot of
18:40
like thought um that went into it but
18:43
the thing i kind of landed on was like i
18:44
really love anthologies as just a format
18:47
because the way it works is like there's
18:48
an editor and then there's just a ton of
18:51
different people's writing in one book
18:53
yeah there's so many amazing anthologies
18:55
that have come out over the years and i
18:56
just think it's such an interesting
18:58
way to experience especially if they're
18:59
focused on a particular subject i think
19:01
it's a really interesting way to
19:03
experience a subject because you get to
19:05
learn about it but through the lens of
19:06
like you know a dozen people or
19:08
something yeah right so you're not just
19:10
getting like
19:11
this author's perspective on this topic
19:13
you're getting like five or six or more
19:15
people's thoughts on it yeah so i
19:17
thought that would be kind of a cool way
19:18
to approach new jersey and it's been
19:20
done before there's been a couple other
19:21
ones but it hasn't been done in a long
19:22
time like the last one i think was like
19:25
10 years ago or so yeah so um
19:28
i thought it could be kind of an
19:29
interesting way to to take jersey
19:31
collective which is a project about
19:32
giving different people voice and just
19:35
to share their perspective on something
19:37
and to kind of translate that to a book
19:38
format so the book um does that it's a
19:42
book about new jersey and it's got it is
19:44
very image heavy because obviously like
19:46
jersey collective and you know photos
19:48
and stuff are important so there's
19:50
photos there's comics there's graphic
19:52
pieces other art pieces and there's just
19:54
a ton of writing too so it's got over 60
19:56
contributors so there's a lot of
19:58
different jersey perspectives in there
19:59
yeah for sure so take me through like
20:01
because we talked about a little bit um
20:03
you just mentioned kind of what the book
20:05
has so photography comics writing um and
20:08
over 60 contributors so take me through
20:10
maybe like the process that it took to
20:12
kind of
20:13
maybe whittle down to like the ones that
20:16
were gonna make it yeah so it was really
20:18
hard because i think i could have made
20:20
like this book like eight times and
20:22
they'd all be very different yeah and
20:24
all be good because there's so many
20:25
talented people in the state or that are
20:27
from here or have some kind of
20:28
connection to it um it was really
20:30
difficult to to figure all that out so i
20:33
kind of had a couple different things in
20:34
the back of my mind i
20:36
wanted a lot of diversity because it's a
20:38
very diverse place i wanted a lot of
20:40
different perspectives i wanted
20:41
diversity in like topics as well i
20:44
wanted history writing sports writing
20:46
food writing personal essays i wanted to
20:49
just cover like a ton of different
20:50
topics so i was trying to balance that i
20:52
was trying to balance making sure all
20:54
the stories weren't from like jersey
20:56
city like yeah i wanted to cover as much
20:58
of the state as i possibly could and
21:00
bring in different parts of the state
21:02
um
21:04
i also was trying to just like get as
21:07
much in there as i could in terms of you
21:09
know different kinds of formats because
21:11
i really like reading comics and graphic
21:12
novels so i thought that would be really
21:14
cool
21:14
there's um cartoons there's a crossword
21:17
puzzle there's turn by turn directions
21:19
for like a bike tour of trenton like
21:21
there's just like some quirky there's a
21:22
recipe like there's just like some
21:24
quirky stuff in there too so i kind of
21:25
wanted it to be something that people
21:26
could pick up and flip through and just
21:28
be like oh wow like just like flip to a
21:30
page yeah right it can be i mean i spent
21:33
a lot of time on putting it in order but
21:34
it could be read in any order like it
21:37
there's different things in it and
21:38
they're not like super connected i think
21:40
they're all kind of in conversation with
21:42
each other i think it's interesting to
21:43
be like oh this person's talking about
21:45
the same kinds of themes that this
21:46
person's talking about but they're from
21:48
different parts of the state and they're
21:49
different ages and so there's definitely
21:51
stuff like that but the way i actually
21:53
approached it was i had um
21:55
for years i've been sort of because i
21:58
read a lot so i would notice people's
22:00
work that i would read online or in a
22:02
book and if they made any kind of
22:03
mention of being from new jersey whether
22:05
it was in their piece or in the bio i
22:07
kind of just like jotted names down like
22:09
i have this very creepy spreadsheet that
22:10
i hope no one ever sees there's like
22:11
hundreds of people's names so i'm like
22:13
this person mentioned new jersey once
22:14
yeah right in this thing um to just kind
22:16
of be like oh if i ever do this book
22:18
like maybe this person would have
22:19
something interesting to say like you
22:20
might be a good person to check in so
22:22
when i got the contract for the book i
22:24
reached out to some people whose work i
22:26
really admired and said would you be
22:28
interested in doing something for this i
22:30
also had an open call so i had i
22:32
accepted pitches and submissions people
22:34
could get in touch with me
22:35
um
22:36
which was really difficult there were
22:37
over 200 that came in that way yeah and
22:40
so many of them were so great and i just
22:41
had to like for space and and because
22:43
they were you know certain ones were too
22:44
similar or whatever had to decline a lot
22:47
so that was um tricky but yeah it was a
22:50
lot it was a lot of stuff and then i
22:51
also had certain topics in mind too or
22:53
it's like oh i want somebody to make
22:54
something on this topic so then i kind
22:55
of tried to find the right person for
22:57
that thing yeah so it was a lot of
22:59
moving pieces yeah yeah i would imagine
23:01
and that was going to be actually my
23:02
next question like you know i you said
23:03
you reached out to people that you
23:05
thought would be good so like basically
23:07
like recruiting people to contribute to
23:08
the book and then also doing the open
23:10
call so i would imagine like when you
23:12
put this idea out there it was fairly
23:14
well received yeah yeah it was really
23:15
interesting i got a ton of just people i
23:18
never had heard of but who were like
23:20
super accomplished and like widely
23:21
published just you know there's so many
23:23
you read so many different things but
23:25
there's still so many more out there
23:26
yeah that you can't possibly know every
23:28
writer in new jersey or every
23:30
comic book artist in new jersey or
23:32
whatever um and even still it's been
23:34
hard like after we've been done with
23:36
this like i had to turn it in back in
23:38
may
23:39
um of 2021 and since then i'm like oh
23:42
man this person's work is so cool like
23:44
this person wrote this thing it's
23:45
amazing like i would have loved to have
23:46
this person in the book and i feel like
23:47
that's just gonna happen for the rest of
23:49
my life oh yeah oh man this story how do
23:51
i not know about this
23:52
right does that give you like uh maybe
23:54
like uh an idea to do like another one
23:58
like or has this been like a project
23:59
that's just taken up so much of your
24:01
time it's like we're gonna give it some
24:02
time before we do the next a lot of
24:03
people keep being like is there gonna be
24:05
a volume two i'm like the first one's
24:07
not even out yet please don't talk to me
24:08
about volume two yeah um i'm not opposed
24:11
to it entirely but i kind of feel like i
24:13
would want to do something a little
24:14
different maybe like yeah like not do
24:16
the same thing again right yeah because
24:18
you don't want to like be like a
24:19
one-trick pony doing anthologies on new
24:22
jersey stuff yeah i think i think i
24:24
could do something different too yeah
24:25
well i'm excited for it because i got
24:27
like a sneak peek and i thought it was
24:28
pretty cool to kind of yeah i didn't get
24:29
a sneak peek no one heard that no it's
24:31
fine yeah but because i'm a very
24:33
important person um but uh but yeah no i
24:36
think that's really cool and i think
24:37
like
24:38
you know
24:39
it's i think it could help
24:42
not only kind of help people that are
24:44
passionate about new jersey but people
24:46
that just like don't know enough about
24:48
like what the state has to offer can
24:50
kind of now like grow
24:52
and like learn and stuff like that
24:54
because that's one of the reasons why i
24:55
wanted to do this is because there's
24:57
just like like you said diversity
24:58
there's different places i mean like
25:00
within an hour you can be like in you
25:02
know newark then get to the beach then
25:04
get to like a hiking spot then go to
25:05
like an amazing restaurant some some
25:07
place yeah and just like it's crazy how
25:09
and it's all
25:10
really close you know
25:12
which i think is awesome and i think
25:13
that people sometimes forget that a lot
25:15
of these things are here so i think it's
25:16
really cool that you kind of tried to
25:17
get as much in there as you possibly
25:20
could i think it's i think it's awesome
25:21
thanks it was hard and i'm sure there's
25:23
going to be people i'm not going to read
25:25
my amazon reviews when that's a thing
25:27
because i just don't want to know i'm
25:28
sure there's a few like you didn't
25:29
mention this place or you just talk
25:31
about that it's like i couldn't possibly
25:33
get everything into one book like it's
25:34
just not possible yeah i had 50 000
25:36
words i had an image allotment like i
25:38
couldn't it's not
25:40
yeah there's too much right it's just
25:41
like when people are like oh you should
25:43
have this place on the show and it's
25:44
like yeah i know but like think of how
25:46
many places and how many people i've i
25:48
could possibly have on a podcast like
25:50
this it's like it's like a never-ending
25:52
supply sure you know like everybody has
25:54
a story everybody has something they can
25:56
do and contribute and all that kind of
25:57
stuff but it's just about like making
25:59
sure that you're putting the right stuff
26:01
out there to kind of get in front of the
26:02
right people and one thing i think i
26:04
hope the book does as well is like
26:06
inspire people to maybe write some other
26:08
stuff or photograph things or draw it or
26:11
whatever like if they feel like their
26:13
perspective is not in the book or their
26:14
hometown's not in the book like
26:16
please make art about it like i want to
26:18
see it you know like i just couldn't
26:20
include every possible corner of the
26:21
state yeah it just wouldn't be it's just
26:23
impossible but like i hope that people
26:25
are like oh it's valid to make work
26:27
about my relationship to new jersey or
26:29
it's valid to be thinking about like my
26:30
relationship to home or whatever um and
26:33
to like make work about it and find
26:34
places to put it even if they're just
26:36
putting it up on instagram or whatever
26:38
yeah 100 i love that um so the book
26:41
again is new jersey fan club artists and
26:43
writers celebrate the garden state so
26:45
we're going to take our second break of
26:47
this episode our last break um this is
26:49
greetings from the garden state i'm mike
26:51
ham we're here with kerry sullivan of
26:52
jersey collective
26:53
in titan falls new jersey at the
26:55
crawford house we'll be right back
26:58
it is time for your new jersey fun fact
27:00
of the day did you know that cape may
27:01
new jersey is the oldest seaside resort
27:03
in the united states and that is your
27:06
new jersey fun fact of the day
27:10
all right we're back this is the last
27:12
segment of our episode with carrie
27:14
sullivan of jersey collective in
27:15
titanfalls new jersey at the crawford
27:16
house obviously greetings from the
27:17
garden state and i am mike hamm as
27:20
always uh so kerry first segment your
27:22
background background new jersey
27:23
collective second segment we learned
27:25
about the book uh new jersey fan club
27:27
artists and writers celebrate the garden
27:28
state which was really cool to kind of
27:29
learn about how you put that all
27:30
together and the different types of
27:32
things that people can expect when they
27:33
order it when they pre-order it or if
27:36
they miss the pre-order part and they
27:37
can just get it in june um you know that
27:39
would be great too so one of the things
27:41
that i think when when we talked about
27:44
having you on the show
27:46
the one thing that i knew we were gonna
27:49
crush the one segment even though we've
27:50
crushed this whole episode uh is the
27:52
community aspect because that's
27:54
literally what both of these projects
27:56
are built upon yeah and that's like my
27:59
favorite part of these episodes is doing
28:01
the community side of it because i think
28:03
like you know it's cool to learn about
28:05
like a restaurant in morristown or learn
28:07
about you know like the farm animal
28:09
sanctuary like i mentioned earlier or
28:10
what you're doing um but i think it's
28:13
really cool to kind of see like how
28:14
connected our communities are
28:17
um so maybe kind of like talk to me a
28:19
little bit about your
28:21
um
28:22
perspective on the communities that you
28:23
found yourself in the communities that
28:25
you've built
28:26
yeah so i mean in the instagram side of
28:29
things i feel like that was a really
28:30
important part of how jersey collective
28:32
got started like i mentioned the insta
28:33
meets and other events and things like
28:34
that but there's also there's so many
28:37
other new jersey instagram accounts um
28:40
i'll just name a couple but there's like
28:41
there's a ton like nj spots is really
28:43
big new jersey isn't boring there's um
28:46
the adventures ones there's like south
28:47
jersey adventures north jersey
28:48
adventures um greetings from the gardens
28:51
yes of course greens from the garden
28:52
state
28:53
jersey shore hurricane news posts a lot
28:55
of stuff and like repost people's photos
28:57
there's there's a ton like i could keep
29:00
listing things all day there's just new
29:01
jersey like there's like so many um and
29:04
i know a lot like a lot of people who
29:06
run these accounts i've met a lot of
29:07
them we've done work like done things
29:09
together like collaborated on meetups i
29:11
had a meet up years ago with um
29:14
nj so i think it was just me and nj
29:15
spots and maybe south jersey adventures
29:18
was part of that one too
29:19
where we went to a park together and it
29:22
was like there were like 100 people
29:23
there yeah like all these people showed
29:24
up because we all of our audiences saw
29:27
it and we were you know all posting
29:28
about it and so there were just amazing
29:30
people showed up and like i never i
29:32
didn't know about this person all of a
29:33
sudden i'm talking to them about like oh
29:34
you should take over jersey collective
29:35
and yeah um you know people all just get
29:37
to know each other that way so that's
29:39
definitely been like a core part of why
29:41
i wanted to run this kind of project and
29:43
why i keep doing it almost 10 years
29:44
later right yeah exactly and i think
29:46
it's what i think it's cool is you know
29:48
maybe at the beginning when you were
29:50
like talking to people and being like
29:52
hey you should come and take over the
29:53
account for a week and now it's like i
29:55
think when i saw you put out like a
29:58
request for people to come and do it but
29:59
it's like the next available spot you
30:01
had was like june right um usually it's
30:04
like a couple months
30:05
there was a period of time where it was
30:07
like over a year which is why which was
30:09
not great to deal with because then by
30:11
the time it got closer and i would email
30:13
people being like remember you signed up
30:14
for this thing a year ago they're like
30:16
oh i don't want to do this anymore i
30:18
don't live in new jersey or whatever
30:20
like so
30:21
now it's a little more manageable i try
30:22
to keep it so that it's like maybe i
30:24
have a month or two booked like i think
30:25
right now uh it's february and i think i
30:28
have all of march booked as well there
30:31
might be like one week in march open
30:33
still i can't remember so that's a
30:35
little easier to deal with because it's
30:36
a shorter turnaround time yeah but yeah
30:38
i try not to post too much about like oh
30:40
we need people to take over because
30:42
sometimes people cancel last minute and
30:44
i'll do that to try and get somebody to
30:45
fill in which is really great because
30:47
yeah that was really helpful and it was
30:48
a great week and everybody loved it um
30:52
but yeah so i try not to post it too
30:53
much because then sometimes i get
30:54
inundated and all of a sudden it's like
30:55
we're four months out like this is not
30:57
helpful yeah i like having things
30:59
scheduled but then i know what happens
31:00
is four months later people are like oh
31:02
right i forgot about that i can't do it
31:04
anymore yeah um and then like the book
31:06
two obviously like i would imagine is
31:08
like an extension of that community and
31:10
then did that help you get um expand the
31:13
community even more because i feel like
31:14
people that maybe aren't like too
31:16
well versed or whatever or don't really
31:18
use instagram all that much but does
31:20
that open up some doors to like connect
31:22
with new people definitely i think so
31:25
jersey collective is obviously a big
31:26
part of why i was able to have get this
31:28
opportunity like when i wrote my book
31:29
proposal and when i pitched it it was
31:32
you know i have this platform i have
31:34
this established community i i know a
31:36
lot of people who are creatives in new
31:37
jersey like that was obviously all a big
31:38
part of like why this book was
31:40
attractive to rutgers university press
31:43
um and what gave me like kind of you
31:44
know some authority and and whatever to
31:46
do it but it's definitely not like the
31:49
jersey collective book like yes i feel
31:51
like in my head they're they're very
31:53
related but they're not
31:55
like the same thing yeah so there's some
31:57
people there there are photographs in
31:59
the book for sure but it's not as
32:01
photography heavy as people might think
32:03
it's going to be like it's definitely
32:05
it has a lot of photos but it's
32:06
definitely there's a lot of illustration
32:08
as well
32:09
um and there's yeah it's definite
32:10
definitely different people i mean i'm
32:12
using jersey collective to promote it
32:14
very heavily because that's the
32:15
possibility i have and i think they're
32:17
going to love it like i think anybody
32:18
who follows jersey collective and likes
32:20
jersey collective is going to love this
32:21
book because it's
32:22
totally their thing like it was created
32:24
with
32:25
by the same person who made jersey like
32:27
it all came from the same brain so
32:29
um
32:30
yeah but i definitely it's definitely
32:33
expanding i mean there's six over 60
32:35
contributors in the book and some of
32:37
them didn't know about jersey collective
32:38
beforehand some of them did and so that
32:40
you know they post about it and share
32:42
things and then it just keeps spiraling
32:44
and growing and yeah so i guess one of
32:46
the other questions that i had as we
32:47
mentioned earlier that you knew about
32:49
like you you learned over time doing
32:51
jersey collective and i'm sure the book
32:53
too about places that maybe you didn't
32:55
know about um beforehand and all that
32:57
kind of stuff but uh maybe take me
32:59
through just like you know how you've
33:01
seen the new jersey community as a whole
33:04
and obviously there's like a lot of
33:05
different types of communities here
33:07
but just like maybe the collaborative
33:09
nature like the um you know all that
33:12
kind of stuff because i think that
33:13
sometimes people like look at new jersey
33:14
and they're just like like you said
33:15
before like yeah like they give us a lot
33:17
of but at the same time i think the
33:18
people that are from here and that are
33:19
passionate about it like are yeah you
33:22
know and i think that's really cool um
33:24
so like was that one of the things like
33:25
maybe some things that you learned that
33:26
you didn't really realize you were gonna
33:28
learn about like different communities
33:29
that you started to kind of get involved
33:31
in and all that kind of stuff yeah i
33:33
mean i think people who are really into
33:34
new jersey are super passionate about
33:36
new jersey i mean like what you're doing
33:38
and like something like weird new jersey
33:40
these were all kind of things that i
33:41
like i pointed to some of these other
33:43
really popular projects when i was
33:45
working on my book proposal was like
33:47
like where new jersey's been going for a
33:50
while since like the 90s yeah i think so
33:52
like 30 years yeah and they're still
33:54
going really strong they're super
33:55
popular like people are not sick of that
33:58
idea like people have
34:00
hunger for learning more stuff about new
34:02
jersey so i think people from new jersey
34:04
who like love it or super passionate i
34:06
mean i think about like chris gethard
34:08
who has a whole podcast also about new
34:10
jersey is the world yeah and he wrote a
34:12
really great essay for my book as well
34:14
um and he's been doing events for the
34:16
podcast too which are really cool yeah
34:18
yeah he's got like a um residency at the
34:20
house of independence houses it's like
34:22
once a month he's doing something
34:24
um and then there's like jack antonoff
34:26
is super into like his band bleachers
34:28
but also like just he's always talking
34:29
about new jersey um someone interviewed
34:31
him for my book as well
34:33
a piece that they talked to him about
34:34
like why the piece of the essay is
34:36
called why do they hate us and it's
34:37
about like where did this idea even come
34:39
from people don't like new jersey and so
34:41
he interviewed a couple people um other
34:43
like scholars and stuff too which was
34:45
really interesting but yes i think
34:46
there's like people who are just super
34:47
passionate about new jersey and like
34:49
want to talk about it and want to share
34:51
with people like actually like you're
34:52
wrong like this place rules like yeah
34:54
people always like to hate on the best
34:56
you know yeah i mean it's interesting i
34:58
don't i don't know it's definitely an
35:00
interesting thing i mean i went to
35:01
college out of state and i went to
35:03
philadelphia so it wasn't like that far
35:05
but there were people from all over the
35:06
world there and like
35:07
all over the country and people who'd
35:09
never been to new jersey and people
35:10
who've never been to the east coast and
35:12
so a lot of people were just like oh
35:13
like you know kind of like oh sorry
35:16
gross like i'm like what are you like
35:18
what like
35:19
so i started in college at a school in
35:21
uh pennsylvania also and like the first
35:23
few things were like oh jersey like
35:25
jersey trash and i'm like i'm not trash
35:28
first of all
35:29
like i'm awesome
35:30
and so is new jersey but uh then came
35:32
back and went to tcnj but i digress yeah
35:35
no it's funny though because some of the
35:36
people i met too are like from
35:38
pennsylvania you know philly suburbs and
35:40
stuff and would like say really weird
35:42
things about new jersey but then i've
35:43
come to find out they've spent like
35:44
their entire childhood going to wildwood
35:47
every summer for like a month and i'm
35:48
like that's part of new jersey like yeah
35:50
like i mean i know it's not the jersey
35:52
that you see when you watch like the
35:54
sopranos and you see like the you know
35:56
opening credits where they're by the
35:57
turnpike and stuff so like people but
35:59
then there's also like jersey shore and
36:01
like people just have all these weird
36:03
notions of what new jersey looks like
36:04
and i don't think they're all accurate
36:06
yeah no i totally agree with that like
36:07
when you know like you said like the
36:08
sopranos intro like they did the super
36:10
bowl commercial too and it's like the
36:11
same type of thing yeah it was awesome
36:13
but then like my parents live up in
36:15
sparta so it's like literally just farms
36:17
right all over the place and when like
36:19
people from other schools that like you
36:21
know i've gone to and whatever maybe
36:23
came over my parents house they're like
36:25
this is still in new jersey yeah like
36:27
yeah like that's what's so cool about it
36:28
because like we said you can get all
36:30
these different places and all these
36:31
different types of experiences all
36:33
within like this really compact area
36:36
which i think is what like are one of
36:37
the things that makes it so great but
36:39
then it also adds in to just like from
36:41
the community side like all the
36:42
different people that it like it can
36:44
produce yeah for sure which i think is
36:46
really cool and like what's been really
36:48
fun for me doing this project is just
36:50
like you get to meet so many different
36:52
people from so many different areas and
36:53
walks of life and
36:55
whatever i think it's just
36:56
awesome yeah i mean there's so many
36:58
different scenes so many art scenes and
37:00
different cities have their own stuff
37:02
going on like i've been to like art
37:04
shows in newark and camden and trenton
37:06
and just like you know these are major
37:09
cities but a lot of people even people
37:10
in new jersey like think there's nothing
37:11
going on there there's no reason to go
37:13
there like there's like great
37:14
restaurants in these places too and like
37:15
museums and art collections and like
37:17
things to do and but just a lot of
37:19
people just discount new jersey as a
37:21
whole gets discounted pretty big but
37:23
then there's also places within new
37:24
jersey that people just write off
37:25
completely yeah they get like a bad rap
37:27
and you know but like if you go through
37:28
like the ironbound in newark you are
37:30
going to get like an amazing meal no
37:33
matter what restaurant you walk into and
37:35
i've you know i've experienced many of
37:36
them but um but that's awesome so uh if
37:39
people are listening to this episode and
37:41
they're like oh i want to check out
37:42
jersey collector's instagram page let's
37:44
hit him with the instagram handle it is
37:46
just at jersey collective easy enough um
37:48
and then the book so again the title of
37:51
the book and i wrote it down so i didn't
37:52
forget new jersey fan club artisan
37:54
writers celebrate the garden state uh
37:56
you said it's available for pre-order
37:57
where yes um wherever you'd like to get
38:00
your books but i
38:01
if you would like to consider to
38:03
purchase them from a new jersey
38:04
independent bookstore that would mean a
38:06
lot to me and i think that's important
38:08
to do and they can do that through yeah
38:10
a lot of them have it available for sale
38:12
on their websites now or you can just
38:14
call your local or stop into your local
38:16
bookstore and ask them about it you can
38:18
order it directly from the publisher
38:20
bookshop.org i have all links to
38:22
everything as well on my website which
38:24
is kerrysullivan.com
38:27
njbook
38:29
awesome does jersey collective have a
38:31
website it does it's
38:32
jerseycollective.org okay got it so i'll
38:34
make sure that i put all those your
38:36
website the jersey collective website uh
38:39
where they can you know get the book the
38:41
handles whatever um i think it's like so
38:44
cool so this has been an awesome episode
38:46
so far and it's like cool that we were
38:48
in here like again yeah this place means
38:50
a lot to me i spent a lot of time here
38:52
when i was younger
38:54
in my 20s yeah it's just like what i
38:56
find hilarious too is like you're living
38:58
up in like the nutley area i'm living up
39:00
in morristown and now we're here in tim
39:02
falls doing this episode so we didn't
39:04
make it easy on ourselves as far as like
39:06
a commute but i mean it was just like
39:08
like this is another spot which i think
39:09
is so cool about new jersey is like i
39:11
didn't know that this was here and then
39:12
you mentioned it and i was like yeah
39:14
like let's do it yeah you know which i
39:16
think is yeah it worked out awesome um
39:18
so anything else you got for us i don't
39:20
think so yeah it's great talking to you
39:22
thank you so much this was amazing and
39:24
uh so i'll make sure again i'll make
39:25
sure that i put all those uh links and
39:28
the title of the book and where they can
39:29
get it in the show notes so make sure
39:30
you go check that out launching in june
39:32
is there a specific date yeah june 17th
39:34
june 17th um and then it'll be on
39:37
shelves too i would imagine yeah right
39:39
yep yeah you'll be able to see it at
39:41
bookstores yeah yeah awesome exciting um
39:44
but yeah great so kerry again thank you
39:46
so much for doing this with us um i'll
39:48
make sure that i put greetings from
39:49
thegardenstate.com and our email address
39:51
as well in the show notes so if you want
39:53
to reach out to the show tell us what
39:54
you think about this episode that would
39:55
be great make sure to like subscribe
39:57
leave a review all that kind of stuff
39:59
give everybody a follow here jersey
40:00
collective if you don't somehow not
40:02
follow them already um and uh so this
40:05
was the greetings mcgartner state
40:06
podcast i'm mike hamm we were here with
40:08
kerry sullivan of jersey collective in
40:09
titan falls new jersey at the crawford
40:11
house thank you for listening and we
40:12
will catch you next time
40:22
[Music]
40:22
[Applause]
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[Music]
40:30
[Music]
40:49
you
