About
Takes on Tucson

What is Takes on Tucson?

Tucson has always had more going on than most people realize. Takes on Tucson exists to change that — one firsthand account at a time.

My name is Kevin Cassell. I started this site as a writing project for my Foundations Writing students when I taught in the English Department at the University of Arizona. The premise was simple: go out and experience something genuinely Tucson — a band playing a small venue, a street vendor with a loyal following, a scene you’d never stumble into without someone pointing the way — and write about it honestly, in your own voice, with photos and whatever other media brought it to life. Between 2022 and 2023, more than 90 student Takes were published here.

In 2023 I moved from English to UA’s business school — the Eller College of Management — where I teach Business Communication. Since this site doesn’t fit that curriculum, I left it untouched for three years. Now I’m bringing it back — not as a classroom assignment, but as an open community project. Same idea, bigger table.

What’s a “Take”?

A Take is a firsthand feature about someone or something worth knowing in Tucson. It lives on its own permanent page on this site, with the author’s name on it. It’s written in the first person — the story of an actual experience, not a summary or a rating — and it includes photos and whatever other media best captures the subject. One scrollable page that brings everything together in one place.

What you’ll find here now

Most of the Takes currently on this site were written by University of Arizona undergraduates — many of them new to Tucson, all of them discovering that writing carefully about one specific local thing has a way of making it come alive. They tended to cover restaurants, venues, and shops, which made sense given their schedules and familiarity with the city. But the spirit of genuine firsthand discovery they brought to those pieces is exactly what I’m looking for now.

What’s the new focus?

The ninety student Takes that were posted here three years ago barely scratches the surface of what Tucson actually contains. There are scenes and communities here that rarely get covered — not because they aren’t interesting, but because they exist almost entirely on social media without a permanent, searchable web presence to show for it. I didn’t know about half of them myself until my students’ explorations opened my eyes to just a fraction of what’s out there — a thriving yarning and crocheting community, cat cafes, a donut shop specifically for dogs! But there is more… great bands and musicians, open mics for comedians and spoken word poets, themed nightclubs, hookah lounges, specialized spirits bars, kava bars, lowrider culture, muralists, drag performers, street vendors — the list goes on.

Many of these people and communities have loyal followings. What most of them don’t have is one place where their story is captured comprehensively — something Google can find, something they can point people to, something they control and can update over time.

Takes on Tucson wants to be that space. Free of charge, permanently, on the open web.