Welcome to the Moth Podcast. I'm Chenjerai Kumanika, a journalist, a member of the Moth

board, a professor at NYU, and your host for this episode. In my job teaching journalism

and critical media studies, I try to create a space for my students to learn, to question, to experiment, and I also

try to prepare them for their lives outside of the classroom, where most of their learning

will take place.

Because the classroom is wonderful, but so much of learning happens beyond its borders,

in social spaces, with family, and struggle, and work, even when we're playing.

And those places are also where we find some of our most important teachers.

As students are returning to school, we wanted to highlight different types of learning,

from mentors, from family members, from stories themselves.

First up, we have Adrienne Lotzin.

She told this at a New York City Story Slam,

where the theme of the night was only in Harlem.

Here's Adrian, live at the mall.

So you could hear them coming from a seem like a mile away.

Thumb, thumb, thumb, thumb.

You could tell there were rows and rows and rows of them.

Thumb, thumb, thumb.

I pulled my bed covers up to my face.

Thumb, thumb, thumb, thump, thump.

And then I could see them.

I could see them coming.

...