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No task gives me greater pleasure than making something with my hands, which is one reason I wanted to speak with Tess Poe. Over the last three years, Poe has built a business around providing tools and a workspace for “makers”—primarily people who sew and artists who work with fibers and fabrics.
In this interview, I learned how Poe came to the idea after a career spent largely in the public sector and with various non-profits. Poe also gamely answered the question, “So, exactly how harrowing has it been to take the leap and start your own business?”
About Tess Poe: Tess Poe is an entrepreneur, maker, writer, and researcher in Northampton, Massachusetts. In 2011, Poe conceived of Beehive Sewing Studio + Workspace—the Pioneer Valley’s first pay-by-the-hour sewing studio for new and experienced sewists and crafters. She most recently worked as a public affairs specialist with a Federal agency, and provides strategic consulting services to several nonprofit organizations.
Poe began her career in Washington, DC in the late 1990s as an organizer, advocate, and fundraiser for progressive groups such as the International Campaign for Tibet, Amnesty International, ACLU, and Habitat for Humanity. Trained as a geographer, her research and advocacy for environmental land-use planning and “smart growth” led her to a graduate degree in regional planning at the University of Massachusetts in the early 2000s. She then worked as a researcher and community planner at the Federal, regional, and municipal levels. A Long Island, New York transplant, Poe has lived in a converted bicycle factory in Northampton Center since 2010, and in Western Massachusetts, on and off, since 1993.
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