Daniel Egusquiza, owner of the T.E.A. Factory, shares why it is important to him to be involved in the community working to make it a better place. The T.E.A. Factory is a community co-working space for Technology, Education and the Arts located on Canal Street in Reading.
Daniel talks about a very poignant experience he had about 5 years ago when he saw a woman while walking down Penn Street. The impact of that moment shaped his life. It was then that he decided to make this community a better place. He started slowly. He cleaned up his walk and then enlisted the help of his neighbors to clean up the whole block.
Gradually he started getting more and more involved in the community He never saw that woman again but he says, “In a way, it is good because she became every woman, she became you, she became my mother, she became my grandmother, she became my sister, she became all women”. Daniel adds that as a result “Love has always been a key component, like a check mark in my life. If I am doing something I am doing it because I love to do it. I couldn’t do it otherwise”.
Daniel also organized and directs ‘Barrio Alegria Dance Company’ which translates to ‘Neighborhood of Happiness’. He explains, “We look at how to develop leaders through the art of dance. We bring in members of the community who have absolutely no idea how to dance. We start teaching them how to dance and at the same time we give them leadership roles … then we go out into the community and they lead workshops or dance descriptions”.
The name of the dance company is derived from a poem where the writer lives in the neighborhood of melancholy but wants to live in the neighborhood of happiness. Daniel invites you to share the dream of creating a neighborhood of happiness and be an active part of it. He says, “Love is what should drive you and happiness will show the way. Everything follows happiness”.
