In this talk-come-poetic ethnography, Dr Jenna Ashton meanders through the streets of an unnamed city. Spatial and sensory encounters bring her into contact with the emotions, bodies, and mess of the city’s lively inhabitants. We are always in community, making community, whether we desire it or not. The instant we enter the atmosphere of another, we and they are permanently changed. For better or good? It’s complicated. To tell such stories that care for shared grief, joy, and love is our task, our burden. Through our storytelling, our heritage-making and creative archiving, we rewrite the layers of cities some would permanently erase and oppress. Storytelling allows us to hold places differently, together.