Kommon Sense with Katherine Aguilar

June is Pride Month! While Public Hearing celebrates queer all year, we're talking with community members about Pride in Worcester and folx supporting the LGBTQIA2S+ community all year round over the next few episodes. This week, Josh talks with Kat Aguilar, founder of K Sense Co and the admin of Pride Worcester 2022. Josh and Kat talk about the importance of sustainability, community and creating equitable spaces and oppurtunities that others can use and build upon to continue the equitable and innovative work in our city. Tune in and share!

Want to learn more about K Sense Co? Check out her website! 

Public Hearing is a podcast from Action! by Design about our home city of Worcester, Massachusetts and the people we should be listening to—residents, artists, activists, community leaders, storytellers, and those most impacted by issues facing our city. Our mission is to cultivate community through equity, inclusion, and design, and that work starts at home.

Want to be the first to listen to new episodes? Tune in Wednesdays at 6pm on WICN 90.5FM, Worcester's only NPR affiliate station. Not in the Worcester area? No worries, you can listen live at WICN.org

Transcript for this episode

Joshua Croke (00:01):

Hello Worcester and the world you are listening to Public Hearing on WICN 90.5 FM Worcester's only NPR affiliate station or wherever you get your podcasts. I am your host, Joshua Croke, I'm the founder of Action! by Design, where we help organizations, coalitions and cities imagine, and materialize equitable just and joyful communities through art and design. Public Hearing is our show about making public participation and civic engagement, more accessible in Worcester, our home base, and sharing stories from people in our community, doing work that resonates with our commitment of engaging people with purpose. Here at Public Hearing in the month of June, while we celebrate all year, but we always love when Pride Month comes around so we can bring even more attention to the work of folks in our community, supporting LGBTQIA2S+ people. Today, we're talking with Katherine Aguilar the founder of K Senses Co and involved in a bunch of things here in Worcester that we will be getting to in a moment. This is the Public Hearing podcast.

Joshua Croke (01:01):

Born in El Salvador, Katherine is a dual citizen. Graduated from Worcester public schools has a BS in Business Administration, Finance and Economics from Worcester State University. In 2019 she founded her own company, K Sense Co short for common sense. Her shop is currently located inside the Worcester Public Market and is an eco-conscious gift boutique that is supporting over 16 women own businesses across the U.S., and is now featuring three artists from her home country. She organizes pop-up markets and art galleries throughout Worcester, and is always working to make our city an equitable and vibrant place to work and live. She likes to dance, try new foods and handcrafts candles for her store in her free time. She's a proud dog, mama to three pups, Brady, Chloe, and Benito, an auntie, a sister and daughter. Katherine, welcome to Public Hearing. Thank you so much for being on the show today. I always like to extend an invitation to guests to share anything else that they feel listeners would benefit from knowing about you, your background, your experience, your social location, anything you'd like to share before we get started today. So welcome.

Kat Aguilar (02:07):

Well, thank you. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. I think a key piece of information I'd like to share with the viewers is I'm a proud immigrant and I'm a proud Latina first. I try to embody that in everything I do whether it comes to my products in my store, the way I carry myself, being able to be bilingual, and help each other, help others out when it comes to language barriers. I think that is very key to who I am. And I think growing up in Worcester, I I had a single mom. We were low-income you know, free lunch, free everything. I think that's very important to know as well. Even in college, I had, you know, all the Pell grants and all that good stuff. So I really understand a lot of the youth here in Worcester being either an immigrant or children of immigrants how difficult it is growing up in such an urban place.

Joshua Croke (03:07):

Well, thanks so much for being here. I'm excited to chat with you about your journey, your company, and all the work that you're doing here. And we are both now Leadership Worcester alum, right? You just did the program.

Kat Aguilar (03:18):

Yes, I did. I just wrapped it up. We actually have our graduation this week. So I'm super excited for that. I'm a little sad because I've gotten so used to seeing this lovely group of people once a month, that now I don't know what to fill my time with. <Laugh>

Joshua Croke (03:32):

<Laugh> Well, one of the things I know you're starting to fill some of your time with, in addition to being a business owner and working at your shop in the market is supporting and being a part of the Pride Planning Committee for Pride in Worcester, which for listeners is going to be September 1st through the 11th of this year. Worcester does Pride in September, as opposed to June for a handful of reasons. One of which is we have our college students back in the community so they can participate in and join in. So I'd love to hear about kind of your connection to Pride and get how you got involved with the group. And then I wanna circle back around to talk about K Sense Co.

Kat Aguilar (04:11):

Yeah, so I actually got introduced to the Pride group through my really good friend, David Connor who's also Leadership Worcester alum. That's how we met. And he was kind of like, just come on in like, come meet everybody. Like the girls are working, like you'll blend in fine. So I was like, okay, let me go. So I went a handful of times, and then I actually just accepted the admin position within the committee, which has been really great cuz it helps me kind of dive in and get my hands dirty which is what I like to do. And I like to crown myself as an organizational queen. So I'm very excited to kind of put, you know, my effect on everything. And so far the group has been really great, very welcoming. It's been really helpful because at first I kind of positioned myself more as just an ally. But as I've kind of been involved with the group and I've been open to like my past experiences and relationships and, and sexuality, I think I'm more comfortable being open as probably more like pansexual bisexual. Like I don't really wanna put a label on it, but I'm swimming somewhere in there. So being around everybody has really like helped me open up.

Joshua Croke (05:23):

Yes, journey of self-discovery. Exactly. We love it. Exactly. We love it. Yes.

Kat Aguilar (05:27):

Yeah. So it's been great so far. Like I said, everyone's super sweet and welcoming, so it's been great.

Joshua Croke (05:33):

<Laugh> yeah. Well and thank you so much for sharing that with me and the listeners, I think, you know, Pride is such a visible component of the queer and trans community, I think, but it can also be something that's very overwhelming.I know when I was coming into my own identity and sexuality and gender, like Pride was this thing where I was like, oh my God, I have to be the most like confident person in myself to participate in this thing. But that is really, you know, what I've uncovered is like not the case. And I like live in this just fluid state of existence between like gender identity, sexuality, and it is just like liberating and like amazing and so welcome to like the Pride community. And it's so great to have you involved.

Kat Aguilar (06:15):

Well, thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Now, like I said, it's really been freeing, you know, just being around so many people that even if they're not the most confident person in the room, they carry themselves with that grace, you know, even yourself, Josh, the way you're so vibrant with the way you dress with the way you carry yourself. It's amazing to see. And it honestly is helpful to other people who are figuring themselves out too

Joshua Croke (06:37):

I so appreciate that. And so K Sense Co talk to me about the company, the inspiration, the work, I know you support a lot of women owned business in that space and the importance of that to you. So tell us more

Kat Aguilar (06:52):

So K Sense is my little baby. I started it when I was 25. I had just gotten fired from my corporate recruiting job. I was really going through a lot of different things. I was like in a really rocky relationship. So I started making candles. I was inspired by one of my old college friends who was doing it out in California. But I really wanted it to be different. So I kept looking at how to be eco-friendly how to be eco-conscious. So even with the materials that we make our candles out of, it's all natural soy wax. I use the highest quality fragrance oils that are like PBA free and all those really disgusting chemicals are eliminated from the process. But the recycling and repurposing of the bottles is really what got me going. It's a lot of work, you know, having to cut the bottle, sand them. I do every single candle myself. I'm hoping in this next year or two, I'll be able to kind of train other people and let go of that a little bit. But every single K Sense candle is handmade by moi and basically, yeah. The other women that I bring into the store, they're all focused on sustainability as well. So some of my greeting cards, for example, they're printed on wildflower seed paper. So when you're done with it you could actually plant it in wildflower seeds will grow

Joshua Croke (08:12):

What? Whoa.

Kat Aguilar (08:13):

So things like that, we have like bamboo toothbrushes cleaning products made out of like aluminum bottles. So we're completely plastic-free, the only like somewhat type of plastic is our stickers, but they're super high-quality vinyl, so they should be super long-lasting. But yeah, it's, it's really nice supporting local women. Being able to kind of know that I'm not in this alone, you know, I like to call my vendors “vend-hers” since it's majority women. Right now we're updating our website to have like a little about me section about them all cuz I do like people to be able to follow them individually and figure out what they're up to as well.

Joshua Croke (08:55):

And that's something that I think is so important and you know, here at Public Hearing, we are focused on how do we realize equitable, just and like joy-centered communities and a component of that I think is sustainability. Really looking at sustainability from like a handful of different angles from climate action, like what are we doing to be more responsible to the planet that we live on so that we can sustain us as, you know, a humanity. But also like how does our community sustain and like how do we build sustainability of our community so that it can grow and strengthen. And so first of all, wildflower seed paper is very joy bringing to me that sounds amazing. So I'm definitely gonna have to come by the shop and if listeners are just tuning in Kat’s shop K Sense Co is located currently in the Worcester Public Market.

Joshua Croke (09:51):

So stop by say hi, buy some candles, buy some wild flower seed paper cards and more. And so you talk about growing up in Worcester as well, and I'd love to hear about some of your experience. You mentioned some of the like assistance that you and your family have received through like, you know, your life. But what are some of the barriers or the opportunities that you've kind of moved through as you've grown up here in the city that have enabled you or maybe made it more challenging for you to pursue business ownership and entrepreneurship?

Kat Aguilar (10:31):

Yeah. definitely it's difficult because I'm kind of thinking back on like middle school, elementary and there was times for maybe for like some context so we grew up from kindergarten to half of sixth grade on Vernon street, so I went to Vernon Hill School. I don't know why, but I'm like maybe there was more white people in the neighborhood, maybe it was a little more affluent. Cuz in the middle of sixth grade I moved to Main South neighborhood and I went to Canterbury Street School, the education went from, I felt like I was at Harvard then I went to community college in comparison and it was maybe a 10-minute drive from each other. The education I was receiving at Vernon Hill School was so much stronger than in the Main South school. So for me, that really made me go from like a kid who was really book smart, who loved reading to now I was in a neighborhood where, you know, you're outside more, you're kind of hanging out with people more.

Kat Aguilar (11:33):

At the time my mom had just bought a house, so she was working more to cover the mortgage rather than rent. And she was a landlord rather than just renting, so that I remember that experience in that time was very difficult. In middle school, I got bullied a lot. I got into a lot of fights. I got suspended a lot. So I understand when kids and parents are talking about like the suspension rate and all that, where like for black and Latino girls, you know, we get in trouble a lot faster. Like I remember the very first time I got suspended, it was because this boy pulled a chair from out under me in the library and I got so upset cuz he embarrassed me in front of everybody. So I got up and I punched him in his stomach and I took the air right out of him, but they got me in trouble before him getting in trouble.

Kat Aguilar (12:19):

Like I got out of school suspension and I think he got like a detention or something. So even in back in those days is like that's not fair, that's not right. But a lot of those difficulties really pushed me and motivated me to always be better, to always be more than a statistic. That's something that really kept me motivated, I don't wanna be a statistic. You know, having teen parents really influenced me to, you know, wanna go to college, wanna graduate, wanna get married before I have children type of thing. And that's pushed me to where I am now. Every time something happens or someone tries to push me down, I get up and I'm like, watch, you're gonna see, you're gonna see what happens when I get back up, and I figure my shit out, you know what I mean? So it's, it's definitely been a challenge, but that all of those challenges growing up in Main South, growing up in Worcester growing up with a single mom really pushed me to be the fighter and the woman that I am now I try to really involve other women and everything I do I try to really take care of, you know, the person that people are looking down on because many times in my life that was me. But thankfully we rose <laugh>

Joshua Croke (13:33):

And one of the things I'd like to underscore there as well, when you're talking about like the data and like not being a statistic, Action! by Design, my company does a lot of work specifically as it relates to eliminating the school to prison pipeline and that pathway of pushing kids out of the classroom and into the juvenile legal system through, you know, juvenile detention centers, et cetera, which is youth incarceration for folks who might think differently about what, you know, happens in those spaces. And unfortunately your stat is a hundred percent correct, like disproportionately black and Latin X women are and girls are suspended at higher rates and disciplined at higher rates than their peers. But even in our data, there is not a lot that's been collected around the impact of the juvenile legal system and school discipline on girls of color because the focus is on boys as well, right?

Joshua Croke (14:31):

So a lot of the data that we see showing up in our discipline, in our juvenile detention facilities, et cetera, is focused on like, how do we address the challenges with young men and boys? And it's erasing a lot of the disproportionality of the impact on girls. So I just wanna uplift that as we're talking about equity and justice in our community, that this is an area that folks need to be cognizant of and especially as we're advocating for educational equity, like excellence that is equitable in Worcester. And I think it's a powerful story that you're telling of the difference within one school district between two different schools that you personally experienced and the unnecessary burden or challenges that our young people have to face by being in environments that are not built to support them.

Kat Aguilar (15:21):

Mm-Hmm, a hundred percent, that's why one of my biggest goals and I've applied for a couple of grants, applying for a couple more, is to do like a summer, it's almost like a mini version of Leadership Worcester for the summer for girls of color facilitated completely by women of color. Cuz for us it's really difficult to see, okay, yeah, I can, you know, be an owner of a company, but what does that really look like? You know, I'm very fortunate that I ended up studying business. It was kind of like it was that or teaching and the teaching salary was just not it for me. <Laugh> so that's why I did business. But I'm very thankful I did because it really helped form me form my actual business and it, you know it eliminated a lot of issues because I did, you know, study the theory of it in school. Definitely doesn't help you and prepare you a hundred percent for when you're actually in the thick of it, but I definitely have, you know, classes and stuff that I could fall back on. But it's super nice to see that, sorry, I like lost my train of thought where I was going

Joshua Croke (16:27):

Totally happens. <Laugh> totally happens. Well and I was gonna say, I love this idea. It's brilliant. And I think necessary and I'll uplift another local podcast that just started called Don't Touch My Podcast by Giselle Rivera-Flores and Jennifer Gaskin. Yes, Giselle and Jennifer are fantastic. We've had them on the show talking about issues in the community, specifically a handful of episodes ago, we brought folks in to address an article that was in the Worcester Business Journal that talked about like,

Kat Aguilar (17:01):

Oh, the infiltrating the inner circle? Ugh, that article was so annoying to read

Joshua Croke (17:05):

And so, we talked and like really dissected that and what it was saying and the like irrationality behind that position of like, oh, you just have to keep showing up to be included. And the women that we brought in to have this panel discussion, Giselle-Rivera Flores, and Jen Gaskin being two of them talked about those challenges of like, you can't just show up, you know, when you do show up, you have to deal with a whole different layer of exclusion in that space. And so I think it's really critical for young people or young girls in the community to have exposure to things like a Leadership Worcester concept because I don't know about how your experience was through Leadership Worcester, but I know that I was able to connect to many people in the community and that was a gateway to access for things. And I recognized that it was a privilege for me to be able to go through that program and that other people have not. Right. So how do we continue like opening gates for people so that they're able to, you know, more agilely and quickly kind of rise to what they want to be doing and not have to deal with like the BS of barriers and structural issues.

Kat Aguilar (18:22):

That's why I lost my train of thought. I started getting angry <laugh> but you know, that happens when you're passionate sometimes, but no, that's exactly it. And exactly what you said there. Sometimes like I stop, I take a second. I'm like, wow, I really am privileged because like I said, statistically, I shouldn't be in this position that I'm in. You know, I shouldn't have gone through the programs that I've gone through, but thankfully through things like Leadership Worcester having people so supportive of me like Tina Zoldy, for example, she works in the Worcester Public Market, she's the director of the market pantry. She's been one of my most supportive work moms. That's something I've collected throughout the years is a lot of work moms. And they really push me, they're opening up opportunities for me. They're mentioning me in rooms of opportunities that I would've never even imagined.

Kat Aguilar (19:09):

And they're always kind of like, go try this, try this, try that. And now through my Leadership Worcester experience, I collected another work mom, Karen Pelletier that works for the Chamber and she's always emailing me stuff. Hey, have you heard about this? Hey, you should sign up for this. Hey, find out about that. And it's been really nice because even though there's so many opportunities in Worcester, sometimes I can't afford to go to all of them, whether it's financially or time-wise. So what I did is I created a small Facebook group and it's called Women Community Business, and it's all of my friends from high school, past jobs that are either, you know, organizing their own business, their own side hustles. And I have them all together. I'm like, Hey, this is an opportunity I heard of. And they're sharing their own opportunities as well, which is really great.

Kat Aguilar (19:55):

So I like to put my little self-label, I'm a good connector. I like to connect people to opportunity, places, to people companies, to companies. So I really enjoy doing that for the community. And I try to keep the gate as open as possible because there's this quote that I like to live by. It's “sometimes you're not finding a path you're creating that path, but you have to leave it well lit for other people to follow.” So that's something that I try to do day in and day out.

Joshua Croke (20:24):

And I thank you, you just like took me back. I just paused for a second because that's so critical. And I think where my mind is going right now is this like juxtaposition of your story and the things that you're doing and supporting as someone who was raised here, who's starting a business who is doing all that. And the broader like, well, I won't say broader, I would say like a specifically smaller group of people in positions of power in the community that are looking at Worcester's development through a very different lens and is not so much about what I pull from Strong Town's term of economic gardening, but it's like gentrifying economic development and looking at how do we bring in money from the outside instead of how do we support our community in building wealth here and growing and expanding.

Joshua Croke (21:24):

And so I'm interested through your experience through Leadership Worcester, I had a very positive experience and also really challenged a lot of the rooms that we were in because of decisions that were being made about how Worcester's growing and even how we talk about Worcester's growth. You know, I get still frustrated when people talk about the Worcester Renaissance, that's just like a little thorn in my side. I don't know like how others feel, but I think that the challenge with that is it's always this, like reimagining, reawakening, making new, like talking about the city in a way that's like we're starting over. And I think that's really harmful to the work that so many people have done and to your quote, you know, the lit path that others have left before us so that we could step in and do the work that we're doing now. So I'm wondering how you've kind of navigated that through. And maybe some of the things that you've learned through Leadership Worcester or the conversations that you've been exposed to and how our community can really center like equity in our development and focus and pay more close attention to people who live here who have been involved and are working to build their own wealth and are proud to be part of this community instead of just profiting off of a city that's developing.

Kat Aguilar (22:43):

Yeah. I am probably very similar to you then in our Leadership Worcester experience, because I would always go in with a very open heart, very happy, very cheerfully, listening to everything going on. But as soon as somebody would say a bold, like a blanket statement that was false, I'd be like, oh, mm, Nope, sorry. That's incorrect. My experience in Worcester is actually X, Y, Z. And to some people it's kind of been eyeopening and to some people are like, oh, okay. Like she knows what she's talking about. You know what I mean? So really just depended on the situation. But when it comes to overall, when people talk about this whole Renaissance, this whole rebirth, it is frustrating to me too, because there is so much, that's already been happening in Worcester for decades, for generations. You know what I mean?

Kat Aguilar (23:29):

And for my family personally, I don't know if you've ever heard about the murder that happened in 93 with the police, it was Cristino Hernandez he was murdered by Worcester Police in kind of the same way that George Floyd was murdered. That's actually my family member, that's my uncle. So for me, Worcester PD has always been like a very evil being, you know what I mean? But kind of growing up and seeing like where the budget is and seeing all these different things going on, I've brought that experience a lot into different rooms. You know, I let people know, Hey, this isn't just something that happens elsewhere. This has happened to Worcester and this has happened to my family. So for us, Worcester's a bittersweet place. You know what I mean? Like, it's very painful here, but it also has opened up a lot of opportunities because my, you know, my grandmother, my great-grandmother, you know, they've all been here.

Kat Aguilar (24:22):

They've all worked. They've all pushed us to continue working, to continue going to school, to continue being a change maker, you know, from where we come from, it's a super, super, super poor country, but we're all people that are willing to give, even if we have nothing, you know, I will share my last $5 for us to go get a sandwich and split it so we both ate that day. You know what I mean? That's just the type of family that I come from. And we're not the only Worcester family like that. You know what I mean? It's very, very common to find people like that in Worcester. You know, there are lots of young men and women, especially Latinas, there's a lot of people in the churches that are driving change that know what the people need and want.

Kat Aguilar (25:07):

But if our city counselors, if our, you know, our new incoming city manager being a Puerto Rican man, you know, maybe these things will make change. Maybe these things will kind of get all of our leaders and organizers to focus on what's already happening. Worcester isn't in a rebirth. We're just kind of putting the magnifying glass on who's already here and they need to take that and run with it. And they need to stop bringing in so many developers like Vernon Hill, the neighborhood I grew up in so many of the beautiful three Deckers have been bought out by developers who don't care. They don't care. The neighborhoods are dirty, they don't come in snow they don't come and plow, you know, clean up the snow. So there's so many things that the city's like, oh, well, we're gonna bring in developers because it's good for our tax bracket or it's good for the money coming into the city, but it's like, yeah, but in real life, the quality of life, isn't that great, the fireworks every other Friday. So annoying my dogs in my building go crazy. You know what I mean? Like, it's a beautiful thing, but there's also disturbances when it comes to other people.

Joshua Croke (26:13):

Well, thank you. I could not have summarized and spoken those truths anymore articulately. So thank you. And I wish that we had more time today because there's so much more that I want to dive into with you. And I so appreciate you sharing some of your story and your background and highlighting the like structural harms that are caused by institutions like police force and things like that. And I'm sure for listeners will want to expand on and have more conversations around these things as well, which we will always continue to do here on this show. Thank you to you Kat for coming on the show today, and thank you listeners for listening to Public Hearing our podcast and radio show that airs Wednesdays at 6:00 PM on WICN 90.5 FM Worcester's only NPR affiliate station and can be heard wherever you listen to podcasts.

Joshua Croke (27:02):

Our show is about Worcester, community engagement and elevating resident representation and decision-making spaces. I'm your host Joshua Croke, at Action! by Design we engage communities with purpose. As a designer committed to equity, I know that when we build systems, programs and initiatives that meet the needs of our most marginalized and vulnerable populations, we meet the needs of everyone, this work benefits all of us. Connect to and support Public Hearing @publichearing.co. If you have an idea for their show, let us know shares, likes and follows really help us out. We will connect to K Sense Co and all of the gram social spaces, websites that you have. Our audio producer is Guiliano D’Orazio, who also made our show music. Also, thanks to Molly Gammon and Kellee Kosiorek who also support the production of this show. And as you know, the work continues Worcester. Thanks for listening.