What are people in Providence passionate about? How two Instagrammers are finding out

It was Aaron Loewenstein's first week at a new job, when you’re just starting to get the hang of things like the new computer system and who your work friends might be, when one of his co-workers asked him a hard-hitting question.

What are you passionate about?

“I don’t want to know, like, where you went to school. I want to know what you’re passionate about. That’s my go-to question,” Lucas Taxter said. “What do you love to do? What are you passionate about? That’s why I asked him, just out of the blue.”

And a kind of alchemy happened.

It turned out they were passionate about basically the same thing: learning about people. And having heard it, Loewenstein couldn’t let the question go, so he came back to work the next day with a pitch for Taxter: Let’s go ask more people that question and record it as a series of street interviews.

“I had just met him, so I was low-key like, damn, that’s a good idea,” Taxter said.

They had the idea in January 2023. The forecast said the weekend was going to be frigid, but they had momentum, so they made a plan to go to the Michael S. Van Leesten Memorial Bridge in Providence anyway. Taxter almost called it off because it looked like it might rain, a great cover for nerves. But they went. They did four laps before they had the nerve to stop anyone.

When they stopped the first person, a street photographer they’re still in touch with, he said absolutely, he would do the interview. Everything opened up.

“After that first one, it was just so much easier,” Loewenstein said. “A little like a flow state.”

What is Passion Street Media?

After the first interview but before the first post, the pair settled on Passion Street Media as a name, setting up the Instagram account @PassionStreetMedia. They also have accounts on TikTok and YouTube.

Instagram is their main account, though, with more than 18,000 followers and 380 posts as of mid-February.

Over the last year, hundreds of people have said yes to being known, some hesitantly and others with confidence, as if they’ve been waiting for someone like Taxter, who does the interviews, to come along and ask them.

Almost all the videos are a variation on the same three questions – what are you passionate about, how does it make you feel when you are doing that thing, and do you have a special message for the world – but they have a way of bringing out the paradox of what makes us unique and what makes us the same.

What are people passionate about?

Since it started, Loewenstein and Taxter have gone out just about every weekend, mostly in Providence, to ask people what they’re passionate about.

They’ve learned they can’t predict with any consistency who will say yes to an interview or what people are going to say they’re passionate about. They’ve decided that most people should be less scared of talking to strangers. It’s made them more grateful, and, in Loewenstein’s case, less socially anxious.

Taxter asks the questions. People have told him about all different types of passions, from Spanish literature to historic building restorations, video game creation to kendama, music to encouraging people.

“I feel like the platform is kind of a gallery in a sense of like the amount of different things there are to do out there, so you can mix and match and try new things like pottery or painting or photography,” Taxter said. “I forget who said it, but she said, 'We get to play.’ And yeah, we do. We get to play, just try new things and enjoy yourself.”

Getting out there and pursuing their passions, people tell Taxter, makes them feel “free," "like time melts away,” “the most confident I’ve ever felt in my life,” “like it opens my soul,” “alive,” and “like every cell in my body is smiling.”

It echoes what Loewenstein and Taxter say when they talk about working on Passion Street Media.

What have they learned about Providence?

The best conversations, the duo says, are the ones that happen off-camera. By doing this, they’ve formed friendships and really gotten to know people. They don’t have a favorite interview, but they do love hearing the young kids talk about their dreams.

And they like what they’re building.

Loewenstein is from Rhode Island, but Taxter moved here recently. By doing this, he says, he feels like he’s found a place.

“I didn’t know Providence was called the Creative Capital. I get it,” Taxter said. “Now, I feel like everyone here is an artist of some sort of medium, which is so dope, because I’m an artist myself, and I feel like I belong here, right off the bat.”

For Loewenstein, it’s given him a new way to see the city.

“The spirit of Providence is kind of the underdog,” he said. “Everyone is like thanks for putting Providence on the map and for the positivity. I think it’s cool, because Providence is such a small city, and it needs more love, I guess.”

“I get that feeling too,” Taxter said. “I heard a kid say it’s the smallest city with the biggest dreams.”

What’s next for Passion Street Media?

Their dreams are big, too.

They’re hoping to grow the page. They’ve started a new series where people can submit questions for them to ask called "Crosswalk," and they recently started a YouTube series they call their Passion Tour, where they visit the workspaces for some people’s passion.

They hope to one day get to the point where they can travel with the page.

That’s the hope, Taxter said, but “the universe might have something three times between than what our ideal image is, so we’re just going with the flow, because we would do this regardless. ... It’s that fun.”

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: What is Providence passionate about? Passion Street Media finds out