2015 Longest Table

The Longest Table

Map of the Event

Saturday, October 04, 2015, 5:30 PM, E Park Avenue and S Calhoun Street

Hosted by City of Tallahassee, Leon County, and other partners like Village Square, Leadership Tallahassee, Tallahassee Downtown, and United Way the event billed as the Longest Table is a first year attempt to bring a group of residents of Tallahassee (a diverse group) to a table and have food together. This is to prompt dialog between residents who would otherwise not have met and had dinner together. There was a threat of rain but it didn't rain. In fact the event was moved to this date from the original date of Sun, Sep 27, 2015 due to heavy rain forecast.

The Longest Table was set on North side of East Park Avenue starting from N Monroe Street spanning N Calhoun Street and all the way to N Gadsden Street. I arrived there around 5:00 PM and met some of my friends but mostly spoke to residents with whom I have never had conversations before. I had an opportunity to meet the Mayor Andrew Gillum. We spoke briefly and he recognized me and told me that he just arrived in town and hence couldn't make it to the Experience Asia Festival held just yesterday at exactly the same location.

(With Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum)

I took some food and sat with people and spoke about several topics among them were economic disparity, education, and diversity.