Inaugural Convening Committee Member Survey (Denim Tears)

In our recent meeting with Tremaine Emory and his team at Denim Tears, we presented a proposal that, distilled to its essence, invited Tremaine and his team to do the following (in order):

1. Have a series of mutual learning and sharing conversations (“Palaver Tree Sessions”) with representatives from various DF Member Organizations;

2. Design, in collaboration with DF members, and manufacture a Denim Tears product line—the “Descendants Forum x Denim Tears Founding Collection”—that celebrates and honors Descendants’ ancestral histories and visions for the future;

3. Make that product line available for purchase—with the Descendants Forum receiving a to-be-determined percentage of the resulting profits—in the lead-up to and at the DF’s Inaugural Convening.

In response, Tremaine asked one basic question: What story or stories would we like this product line to tell?

In a way, this question suggested that he either did not fully understand—or was not especially interested in—the collaborative process we had proposed: namely, that he meet with and learn from DF Member Organizations so that, together, they could figure out the answer to that very question.

Given these facts, please respond to the following questions. Your answers will help us hit the ground running when we discuss this potential collaboration in our next Inaugural Convening Committee meeting.