Story Made Podcast: Recent Episodes
Matt Sawyer
Our conversation this week is with Chloe Maxmin & Canyon Woodward. Chloe is the youngest woman ever to serve in the Maine State Senate. She was elected in 2020 after unseating a two-term Republican incumbent and (former) Senate minority leader. In 2018, she served in the Maine House of Representatives after becoming the first Democrat to win a rural conservative district. Canyon is a political strategist, author, and trail runner who served as Chloe's campaign manager in Maine. Together they wrote "Dirt Road Revival: How to Rebuild Rural Politics and Why Our Future Depends On It" and founded Dirtroad Organizing, where they continue their work empowering the next generation of rural organizers, staff, and candidates. They are both children of rural America, Chloe from Nobleboro, ME and Canyon from Franklin, NC and the North Cascades.
In this episode we talk about the long history of Chloe & Canyon's special friendship, their deep love of their home, family, and the natural world keeping them grounded, finding their way into organizing and political action at Harvard, the brain-drain in rural places, the circle from going away to coming home, listening to stories as a campaign strategy, curiosity replacing fear, understanding moral communities, telling more unified stories to beget social change, and the great work Chloe & Canyon are doing with Dirtroad Organizing.
Check out Chloe & Canyon's work: Dirtroad Organizing
Read their book! Dirt Road Revival
Chloe's appearance on Big Ideas for a Small Planet: Communities
Canyon & Chloe in the film Rural Runners
Mentioned in this episode:
Making Noise: The Story of a Skatepark by Cecilia Cornejo Sotelo
The Wandering House — Cecilia Cornejo Sotelo
How Students Pressured Harvard to Divest From Fossil Fuels
Howard Zinn
Marshall Ganz
Tim McCarthy
Hollowing Out the Middle by Patrick J. Carr and Maria J. Kefalas
King Coal
Weather Reports — Terry Tempest Williams
Cowee School Arts and Heritage Center
Our conversation this week is with Hilda Downer. She's an Appalachian poet, retired psychiatric nurse and English instructor at Appalachian State University, member of the Southern Appalachian Writers Cooperative, and most importantly, a child of Bandana, NC.
In this episode we talk about Hilda's love for Bandana, the mica and feldspar mines as a haven, seeing beauty in what others see as ugly, walking and tasting nature, seclusion as a reason to get together, an infinite connection through landscapes and music, poets projecting themselves into the future, finding her place at Wiley's Last Resort and SAWC, the life and legacy of Jim Webb, poets as legislators of the world, and attention as the rarest form of generosity.
Location: Hilda's home in Sugar Grove, North Carolina
Read Hilda's work:
Wiley's Last Resort
When the Light Waits for Us
Sky Under the Roof
Bandana Creek
Mentioned this episode:
Groundglass by Kathryn Savage
Jim Webb
Wiley's Last Resort
Battle at Blair Mountain by Hilda Downer
Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel Literary Magazine
Mitchell County Historical Society: Bandana
Roan Highlands Ecology
The Year of My Life by Issa Kobayashi
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot
Southern Appalachian Writers Collective
Pauletta Hansel
Legislators of the World by Adrienne Rich
Mountaintop Removal 101 - Appalachian Voices
Appalshop
Our conversation this week is with Vivian Gibson. She's the author of 'The Last Children of Mill Creek' - a bestselling memoir about growing up in the 1950s in a segregated St. Louis neighborhood, a life-long entrepreneur, the Missouri Library Association's 2022 Missouri Author of the Year, a 2020 Missouri Humanities Council Literary Achievement Award winner, and most importantly, a child of Mill Creek in St. Louis, Missouri.
In this episode we talk all about Vivian's memoir, why the story of Mill Creek is so important, writing the story you want to read, the lasting influence of her mother and father, the suprising connections people across the world have to her memoir, sharing Mill Creek through a child's eyes, how Vivian developed her self-definition and confidence, The Last Children making it on syllabi, and the continued fight for recognition and understanding of her home.
Location: Vivian's kitchen table | St. Louis, Missouri
Buy Vivian's book! The Last Children of Mill Creek
Check out Vivian's website: vivian-gibson.com
Go see The Ross Family Exhibition at the Missouri History Museum
Watch & listen to Vivian's TED Talk, 'Deferred Storytelling'
Visit Pillars of the Valley
Mentioned in this episode:
Nikwasi Mound in Franklin, NC
Cowee Mound
Watauga Town
Kituwah Mound
Where's the Reservation? by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle
Rondo Neighborhood in St. Paul, MN
How Interstate 40 changed the face of Jefferson St. in Nashville, TN
Toni Morrison
Belt Publishing
Historian Gwen Moore brings to life a largely untold part of St. Louis' past
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps
Harland Bartholomew: Destroyer of the Urban Fabric of St. Louis
Protest Targets SLU Plan to Tear Down Former Mill Creek Valley Buildings
Urban Renewal and Mill Creek Valley: Decoding The City
Our conversation this week is with Annie B. Jones. She's the owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia, host of the 'From the Front Porch' podcast, and child of Tallahassee, Florida.
In this episode we explore the power of ordinary stories, the beauty and challenges of small-town life and business, how faith built The Bookshelf, her evolution as a From-Away in Thomasville, work as humility, her wonderful team of booksellers and communal support, an honest (and refreshing) take on Amazon, and the strength given by "weak ties" inside a bookshop.
Visit The Bookshelf in Thomasville!
Listen to the From the Front Porch Podcast
Mentioned in this episode:
An Old Fashioned Girl and Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut
The Chumscrubber
Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Wendell Berry
Nora Ephron Documetary - Everything Is Copy
Dragonfly Books in Decorah, Iowa
Ernest & Hadley Booksellers in Tuscaloosa, Alabama
City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, North Carolina
A Novel Escape in Franklin, North Carolina
Independent bookstores turn a new page on brick-and-mortar retailing
Hollowing Out the Middle by Patrick J. Carr and Maria Kefalas
James 1:2 - 4
The Fifth Chinese Daughter by Jade Snow Wong
Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
The From-Aways and The Crane Wife by CJ Hauser
I'm nobody! Who are you? by Emily Dickinson
Sundog Books in Seaside, Florida
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
Our first conversation of 2024 is with John T. Edge. He's an acclaimed author, the host of TrueSouth on ESPN/SEC Network, Director of the Mississippi Lab at the University of Mississippi, the founding director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, resident of Oxford, Mississippi and child of Jones County, Georgia.
In this episode John T. takes us back to his childhood in Clinton, Georgia, talks about the infuence his mother and father have had on his life, explores the vicissitudes of his career, shares his fascination with lost worlds and underworlds and Underground Atlanta, gives us a lesson on change, and recounts how Oxford, MS became his true homeplace.
All things John T. Edge:
johntedge.com
TrueSouth on ESPN
The Mississippi Lab
Southern Foodways Alliance
Mentioned in this episode:
A Brief History of Thought: A Philosophical Guide to Living by Luc Ferry
My Mother's Catfish Stew by John T. Edge | Oxford American
The Angolite, Prison Acitivist Resource Center
William Price Fox
The Third Life of Grange Copeland by Alice Walker
White Trash Cooking by Ernest Matthew Mickler
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut
Alberto Cruz Art
General Alfred Iverson's Birthplace Historical Marker - Clinton, Jones County, Georgia
Senator Iverson's Speech - January11, 1860
Janisse Ray
King Coal by Elaine McMillion Sheldon
Blair Hobbs - University of Mississippi
Remembering Emmett Till by Dave Tell
Gorilla by Lee Stockdale
Underground Atlanta
Dante's Down the Hatch
Natasha Trethewey
A Place Like Mississippi by W. Ralph Eubanks
Clinnesha Sibley - Story Made Podcast
Our conversation this week is with Garrett Martin: award-winning filmmaker, owner of VentureLife Films production company, and child of Virginia.
Martin has worked on numerous documentaries with his last feature, UNBOUNDED, receiving multiple international awards and has been shown around the world. His current feature, THE RIVER RUNS ON, is making its rounds through the film festival circuit and will premiere in 2023. His clients include organizations such as BBC, The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, National Parks Conservation Association, Eastern Band of Cherokee and more.
Listen to us talk about Garrett's journey to becoming a filmmaker, the mystery and magic of nature, learning to break the rules, chasing after god, searching for meaning and identity with a camera, learning to film while hitchhiking from Newfoundland to Canada, sharing happiness, stories of unreal human generosity, the advenure of a lifetime on the Greater Patagonian Trail, thin lines between life and death, telling stories at home, finding spiritual grounding to solve our greatest problems, and using film to open people up to the magic of the world.
Location: Garrett's home | Asheville, NC
garrettrmartin.com
theriverrunson.com
Watch UNBOUNDED
Mentioned in this episode:
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Time Away From Time by Eliza Edens
Werner Herzog Films
Crumb - A film by Terry Zwigoff
Jan Dudeck - The Quest to Complete the Greater Patagonian Trail
Mile...Mile & a Half (2013)
Nantahala and Pisgah Forest Revised Plan Finalized (February 17, 2023)
Our conversation this week is with Elaine McMillion Sheldon: Academy Award-nominated, Peabody-winning, and two-time Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker, Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, and daughter of West Virginia.
She premiered her latest feature-length documentary, “King Coal,” at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. She is the director of two Netflix Original Documentaries - "Heroin(e)" and "Recovery Boys" - that explore America's opioid crisis. In 2013, she released "Hollow," an interactive documentary that examines the future of rural America through the eyes and voices of West Virginians.
Listen to us talk all about "King Coal", the highlight of her life/career, film and processing grief, fiction as a way to be honest, self-definition and creativity, the importance of watching your tone, overcoming limiting narratives, the struggle of memory and change, the power of having death in your mind, a strange and beautiful funeral, Louise McNeill and other unknown artists, stories as salvation, and the mythic character of Elaine’s papaw.
Location: Elaine's office at the University of Tennessee | Knoxville, TN
Upcoming screenings for KING COAL
KING COAL | Official Trailer
John Prine - Summer's End Offical Video (directed by Elaine)
Find the rest of Elaine's films on her website!
Mentioned in this episode:
The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin
The Other Others – First Law and Songlines
Dr. Anne Poelina
Dr. Mary Graham
Alexis Wright
West Virginia Culture Center
Moments by Mary Oliver
Super Duty Tough Work Podcast
Alysia Santo of The Marshall Project
Howard Berkes
Death and Dying in Central Appalachia by James K. Crissman
The photographs of Finley Taylor
Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose by Flannery O’Connor
Hill Daughter: New and Selected Poems by Lousie McNeill
Our conversation this week is with Nina Parikh - Director of the Mississippi Film Office, filmmaker, producer of Sundance award-winning film 'Ballast', and child of Mississippi.
Listen to us talk about a timeless love story, searching for and deepening roots, the making of 'Ballast' and loving words from Roger Ebert, launching a career in Eudora Welty's living room, 25 years of connecting the world & Mississippi through film, how to get stuff done in a polarized world, belonging and not being enough of anything, and seeing the story in everything.
Location: Mississippi Film Office; Woolfolk State Office Building | Jackson, MS
Mississippi Film Office website
Watch Ballast
Watch The Inspection
Watch Eudora Welty interview about 'A Worn Path' (Feb. 21, 1994)
Rogert Ebert's review for Ballast : "The very life of life" (Oct. 29, 2008)
Selected passages from The Sante Fe and Taos Colonies: Age of the Muses by Arrell Gibson
Our conversation this week is with H.C. Porter - Vicksburg-based photographer, painter, printmaker, owner of H.C. Porter Gallery, and child of Jackson, Mississippi.
Listen to us talk about her initial joys in life, combining artistic interests, seeing Millsaps Avenue, the influence of Studs Terkel and Eudora Welty, the stories behind 'Backyards and Beyond' and 'Blues @ Home', and learning how to tell stories outside of Mississippi.
Location: H.C. Porter Gallery | Vicksburg, Mississippi
HC Porter website
Buy 'Backyards and Beyond' and 'Blues @ Home'
Follow HC Porter on Instagram and Facebook
Our conversation this week is with Brent Martin - author, conservationist, educator, Executive Director of the Blue Ridge Bartram Trail Conservancy, 2022 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award winner, and longtime beloved member of the Cowee community in Macon County, NC.
Listen to us talk about Brent writing a book on the wild and beautiful life of George Masa, William Bartram's story and what he can still teach us two centuries later, the vicissitudes of conservation work, seeing difference differently, finding common ground in the wild, nature and the numinous, and finding/maintaining hope as a member of a horrible species.
Location: Cowee School Arts and Heritage Center | Macon County, North Carolina.
Blue Ridge Bartram Trail Conservancy
Buy Brent's book! George Masa's Wild Vison: A Japanese Immigrant Imagines Western North Carolina
Brent Martin wins Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award
Mentioned in this episode, for you to explore:
William Bartram's Travels
John Lane
Back of Beyond: A Horace Kephart Biography by George Ellison and Janet McCue
Mountain Fever by Tom Alexander
Grove Park Inn detention facility during World War II
The Heart of the Alleghanies; or, Western North Carolina by Ben Grosscup and Wilbur Zeigler
'The Mystery of George Masa' Documentary
The Alarka Institute and Expeditions
Audobon Society Disavows Racist and Slave-Owner Elisha Mitchell
General Winfield Scott begins the Trail of Tears, absolutely not a hero
Emerson's Nature and the Artists by Tyler Green
'Luddite' Teens Don't Want Your Likes
How Tom Petty Barely Held It Together on 'Echo'
Our conversation this week is with Julyan Davis - artist, writer, narrative painter of the American South and West, explorer of lost stories, child of England and citizen of the world.
“If you’re able to find beauty in what everyone else doesn’t consider for a second, there’s a great richness in that. In a way you’ve made your own discovery.” In 1988 Julyan wandered into Sotheran’s Rare Books in London, England and discovered ‘Stars Fell on Alabama’ by Carl Carmer. Transfixed by the state’s history and a 19th century colony settled by Napoleonic exiles, he followed his curiosity to the source. After a few months spent working odd jobs and saving money, he set off on a great adventure from England to the American South – the untidy land of wistful sadness that would shape his art and life. He’d eventually settle in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, finding in them a strange kinship and familiarity to his homelands.
When he was struggling to earn a spot at an art school, Julyan decided to take his own advice. He found the meeting point of all his particular interests and created a life there. He pursued his dream with conviction and certainty for so long that by the time he realized how difficult it would be, it was too late. He was an artist.
In this episode you’ll hear Julyan talk about his great adventure from England to Alabama, walking as a lifestyle, finding beauty where others don’t look, the never-ending story of American Ghosts, connecting Appalachia and the Scottish borders, the art of creating for yourself, creating a timeless children’s story for his son, and much more. I hope you listen!
Location: Julyan's home | Asheville, NC
Visit Julyan's Website!
Buy his debut novel, A History of Saints
Mentioned in this episode, for you to explore:
The Mind of the South by W.J. Cash
Excerpts from The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather
The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
Stars Fell on Alabama by Carl Carmer
Carson McCullers
Searching for the Wrong-Eyes Jesus
Caspar David Friedrich
City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, NC
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Bruce Chatwin: One of the Last Great Explorers
Walking with Werner Herzog
Paris, Texas (1984)
The Story of Picher, Oklahoma
'There's No Memory of the Joy.' Why 40 Years of Superfund Work Hasn't Saved Tar Creek
Cheap Old Houses
Edward Hopper
Andrew Wyeth
Populism and the World of Oz
Dark on Netflix
The Storied South by William Ferris
Helpmate Domestic Violence Services
How Erwin, Tenn. Is Reinventing Its Legacy of Killing Mary The Elephant
The Professor's House by Willa Cather
'Luddite' Teens Don't Want Your Likes
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor
Glenis Redmond
'Weather Vane' by Common Market
'Language of My World' by Macklemore
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
Eugenics and Sex Harmony by Rubin Herman
Landmarks by Robert Macfarlane
Our conversation this week is with Elon Justice - filmmaker, writer, creator of the Appalachian Retelling Project, and child of Pikeville, Kentucky.
"Challenging the narrative of Appalachia - one story at a time." Raised in Eastern Kentucky, Elon heard stories from her family that taught her who she is and where she comes from - and to be proud of it. But she also saw firsthand how negative, steretypical images of her home had the power to cause harm to the people and places she loved. So she decided to do something to change that.
Rooted in co-creation, the Appalachian Retelling Project shares stories that lift unheard voices and give an honest glance into what it means to be from the mountains. The people of Appalachia are tired of others talking about who they are, so this is a space for them to talk back. "Mountains stories, on our own terms" - as they should be told.
In this episode, Elon talks about growing up in Pikeville, the influence of her family, her first recollections of Appalachian stereotypes, moving away for college, her wild and powerful journey to the Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT), why she started the retelling project, co-creation and community-based storytelling, and much more. I hope you listen!
Check out The Appalachian Retelling Project website
and elonjustice.com
Mentioned in this episode, for you to explore:
The Brier Sermon – You Must Be Born Again by Jim Wayne Miller
Pikeville Cut-Through drone video
Hillsville Remembered: Public Memory, Historical Silence, and Appalachia's Most Notorious Shoot-Out by Travis Rountree
Justified on Hulu
John Dils
General William Ratliff
Frank Waller
Effie Waller Smith
The Collected Works of Effie Waller Smith
Breaks Interstate Park: The Grand Canyon of the South
BitSource
Beyond Coal: Imagining Appalachia's Future
Diane Sawyer’s Hidden America: Children of the Mountains
Billy Ray Cyrus' trip to Kentucky on American Idol
We're not going to watch 'Hillbilly Elegy', and we hope you won't either
100 Days in Appalachia on the legacy of Deliverance
The Moonshiner (1904)
The Dollmaker by Harriette Arnow (book, 1954)
The Dollmaker (movie, 1984)
Katerina Cizek
Collective Wisdom - Co-Creating Media for Equity and Justice by Katerina Cizek and William Uricchio
Sarah Wolozin
Elaine McMillion Sheldon
Hollow - An Interactive Documentary
Our conversation this week is with Suzi Altman: photographer, caretaker of folk-art treasure Margaret's Grocery, and Mississippian by way of Youngstown, OH and New York City.
"I couldn't just let that be forgotten or overlooked." When Suzi moved to Mississippi, she received the gifts of friendship with James Meredith, "Preacher" Dennis, and Margaret Rogers Dennis. She gave it right back, working tirelessly to honor, preserve, and amplify James' rightful place in history and save iconic folk-art site Margaret's Grocery. In spite of everything, Suzi keeps going because she keeps her promises. She doesn't wait for the miracle. She sees it and shows up for it every day.
In this episode you'll listen to Suzi's journey to Mississippi, how a photograph started a special friendship with James Meredith, the simple beauty of Preacher and Margaret, her fight to save Margaret's Grocery and her own life, the power of saying 'yes', and much more.
Location: Suzi's home in Brandon, Mississippi.
Suzi Altman's website
The Story of Margaret's Grocery in Vicksburg, Mississippi
Donate to help Save Margaret's Grocery
Mentioned in this episode:
'Tell Me a Story' by Robert Penn Warren
David Milch - Every Story is a "Showing Up"
Brink Lindsey's "The Permanent Problem"
John Maynard Keynes
Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl
Lorelei Books in Vicksburg, MS
40 Years After Infamy, Ole Miss Looks to Reflect and Heal
The Rainbow Room at the Rockefeller Center
Maude Schuyler Clay
Eyes on Mississippi: A Fifty-Year Chronicle of Change by Bill Minor
Willie Tankersley
Dan Rather Interview with James Meredith
Oral history interview with 'Chooky' Falkner
Sacred Space: Photographs from the Mississippi Delta by Tom Rankin
Anson Sheldon, pro-segregation rioter at the University of Mississippi in 1962
Proud to Call Mississippi Home by Checky Herrington
Lemuria Books in Jackson, MS
Derrick Bell, The Man Behind Critical Race Theory
Joe Minter's African Village in America
Our conversation this week is with Lee Stockdale - acclaimed poet, Army veteran, and the most recent winner of the United Kingdom National Poetry Prize.
For 10 years, Lee felt a slab on his head - to infinity in every direction - weighing him down. His father, Grant Stockdale, was close friends with John F. Kennedy and, overcome by grief, jumped to his death ten days after the assassination. Due to the shame, stigma, and guilt, he didn't talk about it. But with the help of an extraordinary therapist, a chance enounter with Patti Smith, and cab ride with Jackie Kennedy, Lee felt the weight lift; the loneliness give way to connection. He started doing the things his father did. He finished college, got married, had children, and built a life worth living. And just like his mother, Alice Boyd Stockdale, he started writing poetry through the grief and into joy and healing.
In this episode you'll hear Lee talk about that journey to joy and healing, how writing brought him close to his father again, the influence of his mother's poetry on his life, the unsung wonder of Alice Notley, and some other fun stories featuring Bing Crosby, Yoko Ono, and Bob Hope.
Visit Lee's website
Buy his book of poems Gorilla
Watch and listen to Lee read his award winning poem, 'My Dead Father's General Store in the Middle of a Desert
Mentioned in this epsiode:
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
Quote from Dante: The Divine Comedy
Midway Books in St. Paul, MN
Where the Roots Reach for Water by Jeffery Smith
James Hillman
Wendell Berry
City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, NC
Grant Stockdale
Can Antioch College Return From the Dead Again?
The Fillmore East
St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery Poetry Project
Patti Smith
Allen Ginsburg
William Burroughs
Gregory Corso
Yoko Ono
CBGB - Bithplace of NYC's Rock, Folk, and Punk Music
Alice Notley
The Village Voice
Robert Wilson
The Talking Heads
the Ramones
Blondie
Are you Jackie Kennedy? by Lee Stockdale
Alice Boyd Stockdale
Humbird Live at Salon Sonics
Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Grant Stockdale in England
The Road to Hong Kong
Jack Paar interview Robert Kennedy in 1964
Brian Lamb
St. Mark's Poetry Project Archive
Alice Notley 101
Alice Notley and the Art of Not Giving a Damn
Ada Limon
White Phosphorus by Alice Notley
Samuel Beckett
Anne Waldman
Mary Oliver
Hannah Kahn
Ladies' Home Journal
Young Man, Strolling by Alice Boyd Stockdale
Our conversation this week is with Castel Sweet: Hip-Hop lover and scholar, Sociologist, Director of Community Engagement at the University of Mississippi, and child of Memphis, Tennessee.
So much good stuff in this episode: Hip-Hop feeling like home. The influence of Big K.R.I.T. and Outkast. The struggle of staying true to yourself. Music opening worlds and reminding you who you are. The disconnect between universities and their local communities. Turning theory into practice. How to make space for everyone. Why representation matters. Sharing knowledge and listening to lived experiences. Consistent curiosity and endless discovery.
Read Castel's Dissertation on hip-hop artists' interaction with their community
Castel's SouthTalks: Does My Message Define My Role?
Check out Castel at TedXUniversityofMississippi
Mentioned in this episode:
Big K.R.I.T.
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Tobacco Road by Common Market
Connect For by Common Market
Rakim
Masta Ace on NPR Tiny Desk
The genius of science: GZA & Science Genius
The Blue Scholars
RA Scion
Nickerson Street Saloon - Vanishing Seattle
Andre 3000 - 1995 Source Awards: 'The South Got Somethin' to Say'
Clipse: 20 Years of Lord Willin'
Three 6 Mafia's influence on hip-hop
8Ball & MJG
Elevators by Outkast
Ludacris
Eliza Edens - 'Ineffable' live in studio
RZA on redefining hip-hip and building generational wealth
Lord Jamar & his contradictory ramblings sum up his soapbox career
The Rural Studio: Educating Citizen Architects
Ways of Being Home and Making Noise ~ The story of a skatepark by Cecilia Cornejo
Our conversation this week is with Jordan Rushing, Warren County's Old Court House Museum historian and child of Vicksburg, Mississippi.
How can you play and still accomplish something cool? I love that question. We talk in this episode about life-changing teachers, the legacy of Gordon Cotton, learning and work as play, Eva Whitaker Davis and the story of the Old Court House Museum, clandestine county seat swaps, iconic election-day debates on the lawn of this building, Reconstruction and diversifying Vicksburg, and much more.
This one goes out to all the teachers who sparked my curiosity and imagination. I owe my life to you.
Location: Old Court House Museum | Vicksburg, Mississippi
Visit the musuem!
Visit Vicksburg - The Key to the South
Mentioned in this episode:
How Eva Whitaker Davis Saved a Warren County Institution
PJ McGann
Jonathan Marwil
Gordon Cotton
Bubba Bolm
The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather
Vicksburg National Military Park
B.L.C. Wailes
Seargent Smith Prentiss
Peculiar Digs: The strange life of Washington Green
How Vicksburg almost became the capitol of Mississippi
Annual Lebanese dinner in Vicksburg
Peter Crosby, Warren County's first black sherriff and the Vicksburg Massacre of 1874
Pat Cashman and The Vicksburg Post
Our conversation this week is with Tema Stauffer - photographer, Associate Professor of Photography at East Tennesse State University, curator, writer, and child of Kalamazoo, MI (and North Carolina, technically). Her most recent work, Southern Fiction, explores settings that shaped the literary imaginations of 20th-century Southern writers. (welcome back to our trusted friend, Eudora Welty!)
This episode will take you many places. Listen to us talk about: The power of just showing up somewhere. Moments of special feelings. The many paths of Southern Fiction. Finding essay writers & serendipity. Artistical influences. The church with no name. Tema's interest in the history of places. The Welty-Evers connection. Driving around and finding out. CITY 2000 police ride-alongs. Bonding with strangers through photography.
Check out Tema's Website!
Buy a copy of Southern Fiction & Upstate
Visit current exhibition at ETSU's Reece Museum until March 1st
Visit upcoming exhibition at MTSU's Baldwin Photo Gallery March 10th-April 13th
Follow Tema on Instagram
Mentioned in this episode, for you to explore:
Charles Baxter
Xhenet Aliu
Lauren Rhoades
Case Cep
Furious Hours by Casey Cep
Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
Eudora Welty House & Garden
One Writer's Beginnings by Eudora Welty
Cecilia Cornejo - Arte la Milpa
Lanesboro, Minnesota
St. Mane Theatre
Humbird
Rowan Oak - Home of William Faulkner
Alice Walker & Eatonton, Georgia
Flannery O'Connor & Andalusia Farm in Milledgeville, Georgia
City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, NC
Reece Museum at East Tennessee State University
Medgar Evers Home
Haunted by a Ghost Town: The Lure of Rodney, Mississippi
William Eggleston
Port Gibson, Mississippi
Fire Engulfs Abandoned North Front Street Building in Hudson
Preserving a Cluster of Fishing Shacks From Hudson's 'Forgotten' Past
The Black Church on PBS
Nan Goldin
Walker Evans
Dorothea Lange
William Christenberry
Carson McCullers
Truman Capote
Where Is the Voice Coming From? by Eudora Welty
CITY 2000 - a record of life in Chicago in the year 2000
Our conversation this week is with Julian Rankin - Executive Director of the Walter Anderson Museum of Art, former Director of the Center for Art & Public Exchange at the Mississippi Museum of Art, author of Catfish Dream: Ed Scott's Fight for His Family Farm and Racial Justice in the Mississippi Delta, and child of both Mississippi and North Carolina.
Lots of good stuff from Julian. The monumental life of Ed Scott. Learning to listen from Willie Morris. Taking the call to adventure. Finding your own voice. Lessons from Larry Brown and the everyday influence of Southern writers. The quiet contributions to the Civil Rights Movement. The nefarious, racist practices of agricultural agencies. Catfishing in Kroger. The unjust and then just end to Ed Scott's story.
Location: Walter Anderson Museum of Art | Ocean Springs, MS
Buy and read Julian's book! Catfish Dream: Ed Scott's Fight for his Family Farm and Racial Justice in the Mississippi
Check out the Walter Anderson Museum of Art
Mentioned in this episode, for you to explore:
Willie Morris
Barry Hannah
John Grisham
Square Books
Bill Ferris: The Man Who Shared Our Voices
Inside Larry Brown's Writing Shack
Hunter S. Thompson
Daniel Wallace
Randall Kenan
Tom Rankin
Mississippi Museum of Art
John T. Edge
Pigford v Glickman USDA class action lawsuit
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
We're kicking off 2023 with the wonderful Ellen Rodgers Daniels - Executive Director of the Mississippi Book Festival, Lemurian elder, photographer, and child of Rolling Fork.
This episode is full of good stuff. The magic of books. Ellen's serendipitous path to leading the MS Book Fest. The realness of John Evans and Lemuria. Meeting your heroes as a job. Loving on libraries. Children's authors doing the absolute most. Vibes and civil discourse.
Mississippi most definitely has somethin' goin' on.
Location: Ellen's mystical black home library. Jackson, Mississippi.
Mississippi Book Festival - August 19, 2023
Ellen's Photography
Due South Co-op
Mentioned in this episode, for you to explore:
On Witness and Respair: A Personal Tragedy Followed by Pandemic by Jesmyn Ward
Erosion: Essays of Undoing by Terry Tempest Williams
Imani Perry
W. Ralph Eubanks
Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Kiese Laymon
Mary Miller
James Kirchick
Eddie Glaude
Morgan Jerkins
Ryan Dennis
Dr. Willie Wright
Alice Walker
Fischer Galleries
Anne Fisher Wirth
My Antonia by Willa Cather
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Cane by Jean Toomer
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
Deacon King Kong & The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
Angie Thomas
Beth Ann Fennelly
Where the Roots Reach for Water by Jeffery Smith
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Dav Pilkey
Robert Luckett
Reverend H.D. Dennis and Margaret's Grocery
Jericho Brown
Jackson Libraries in Disrepair
Long Overdue, the Bookmobile Is Back
Our final conversation of 2022 (!) is with W. Ralph Eubanks - acclaimed author, professor at the University of Mississippi, former director of publishing at the Library of Congress, and fellow University of Michigan graduate.
"The bookmobile opened up the world to me". When those wheels hit the gravel on the road to his childhood home, Ralph found refuge in the cool air and stories contained inside. It was in the bookmobile he learned, dreamed, and imagined the world outside of Mississippi - where he escaped the summer heat and warzone of the Civil Rights era. It was also where he first read William Faulkner and thought someday he, too, could become a great Mississippi writer. And he did. Though he left Mississippi, he found his way home again (as Mississippians are wont to do). Like many writers, Ralph takes on the responsibility to tell real stories about his "old home place", to give something back to the people and place that made him.
There's lots of good stuff in this episode. The impact of a bookmobile. Ralph's unique family history. Civil Rights movement & war strategy. The "burning house" of school integration. Myth, memory, and history. Parchman & finding the denominators. And more than a few books for you to read.
Checkout Ralph's work and buy his books!
www.wralpheubanks.com
Mentioned in this episode:
So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
Willie Morris
Calmly We Walk through This April's Day by Delmore Schwartz
Square Books in Oxford, MS
Escaping the Summer Heat in A Bookmobile
Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
Lad: A Dog by Albert Payson Terhune
Waging a Good War: A Military History of the Civil Rights Movement by Thomas E. Ricks
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
The Toughest Job: William Winter's Mississippi
Salman Rushdie
The Story of Clyde Kennard
A Place Like Mississippi by Ralph Eubanks
Etheridge Knight
Bob Moses
Our conversation this week is with Katie McKee, Profesor of English and Director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi.
What fascinates you? Answering this question honestly can lead to a lifetime of learning and lifelong company from people you can't seem to get enough of - even if they're long gone. For Katie McKee, one of those people is Reconstruction-era writer Sherwood Bonner. Unconventional and impassioned, Sherwood transgressed cultural norms to live and write on her own terms (even if that got her in trouble with the Transcendentalists). She did this all in a period of great transition for the United States and her home state of Mississippi. This intersection of human and history became Katie's fascination, and she turned it into a great book.
In this episode, you'll learn more about the life and work of Sherwood Bonner, Katie's perspectives on teaching literature and film, the significance of the Center of the Study of Southern Culture, and why Katie still believes in the transformative power of literature.
Mentioned in this episode:
Center for the Study of Southern Culture
Reading Reconstruction: Sherwood Bonner and the Literature of the Post-Civil War South
Bill Ferris
Dialect Tales by Sherwood Bonner
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Emily Reeves by Jane Turner
Gentleman of Sarsar by Sherwood Bonner
Like Unto Like by Sherwood Bonner
Wilma Dykeman
Mae Miller Claxton
The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
The Loss of the Creature by Walker Percy
Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard
Fred Hobson
Southern Foodways Alliance
Living Blues
Southern Documentary Project
Willa Cather Foundation (donate and visit!)
Our conversation this week is with Jen Harr, founder of Cornbread & Roses, an LGBTQ+ community space and therapy center in Sylva, North Carolina.
"bread for all, and roses too." CBR is a space for people who don't feel like they belong in this world. Rather than stand idle and passively decry the place she was raised, she came home and started building to make it better. By carving out the space she needed for herself, she made one for everyone. It's one of the greatest acts of love I've ever seen. Thank you, Jen.
In this episode you'll listen to more about the history and work of CBR, Jen's journey back home, the uncritical love of a Rabbi, and plenty of books that shaped Jen's life.
Our conversation this week is with Dawn Gilchrist, devoted teacher, marvelous writer, attender to words, and advocate for social change in her home of Western North Carolina.
"What possibilities lie dormant that can be teased out if I can figure out what engages their mind?” This sums up Dawn's life and career. In every single human story she sees shared humanity. She wonders about people and attends to their words when they decide to share who they are. There's no limit to the impact of a teacher who pays attention to their students. Dawn knew this and knows this still -- the power of curiosity. The depths of a single human story.
In this episode you'll listen to Dawn talk about words as bridges, what happens when we get to know someone we think we hate, seeing and listening to students, and the awesome power of books to change lives. You'll also hear us discuss our "personal canons" with some fun commentary on Willa Cather, 'Deadwood', and 'The Good Lord Bird'.
Dawn wins the Normal Mailer Writing Award for High School Teachers
Dawn's writing for Smoky Mountain News
Mentioned in this episode:
William Shakespeare, Sonnet 73
My Antonia by Willa Cather
The Professor's House by Willa Cather
The Danger of a Single Story by Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
The Marrow of Tradition by Charles Chesnutt
To 'Joy My Freedom by Tera Hunter
The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Conversations with Toni Morrison
27 by Blue Scholars
Marie Junaluska
Cherokee National History Museum
Confederate Monument in Sylva, North Carolina
Appalachian Women's Museum
Wautaga Mound - Mainspring Conservation Trust
tour de bookshop Etsy page
On Writing Well by William Zinsser
One Writer's Beginnings by Eudora Welty
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Dispatches from Pluto by Richard Grant
The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty
The Second Coming by Walker Percy
So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
Barn Burning by William Faulkner
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tome Wolfe
Jane Austen
Postcards by Annie Proulx
The King James Bible
Deadwood
Heavy by Kiese Laymon
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
Our conversation this week is with Clinnesha Sibley: child and mother of McComb, Mississippi, playwright, poet, literary arts educator, and purveyor of real stories.
Who are you accountable to? A simple question brought Clinnesha Sibley back home to do the same thing she did when she was a child: write and tell stories. She thought about the most powerful stories she’d ever heard, and they weren’t on Broadway or at universities. They were in her father’s truck or at a dinner table with family. These are the stories she wants to honor and document. And it's children in McComb she wants to teach and help see the best in themselves.
In this episode you’ll learn about Clinnesha’s journey away from and back to McComb, the value of art and expression in the home, her transition from success stories to love stories, why she decided to work for her hometown schools, and her focus on ordinary people we ignore in popular stories.
Clinnesha's Work:
Black Girl from Mississippi by Clinnesha Sibley
Tell Martha Not to Moan
Love Be Like
Clinnesha Sibley's "Bridges" selected the Black and Brown Theatre
Two Poems: All Lives & Hypephysics
Clinnesha awarded Educator of the Year 2022
Mentioned in this episode:
True Detective Season 3 on HBO Max
Patch Adams scene
McComb, MS: The bombing capital of the world 1964
Langston Hughes
August Wilson
Detroit Riots, Summer 1967
Mother Emmanuel Church Massacre
Making Noise - The story of a skatepark by Cecilia Cornejo
Our first conversation of the season is with the honorable Ebony Lumumba, Ph.D. -- mother to her babies Alaké and Nubia, Department Chair and Professor of English at Jackson State University, and loving champion of her home community in Jackson, Mississippi.
Motherhood is powerful. In all matters of life, Ebony embodies and shares the love mothers gave to her. In this episode you'll hear Ebony talk about the framework to her life, everyday black mothering as resistance, stories as salvation, balancing and completing narratives, and the importance of documenting black lives.
Please read her monumental work on black motherhood here:
Of Mules and Mamas: Four Women, Africana Mothering, and Resistance
Mentioned in this episode:
Four Women by Nina Simone
Toni Cade Bambara: Those Bones Are Not My Child
Buchi Emecheta: The Joys of Motherhood
Chimimanda Ngozie Adichie: Purple Hibiscus
Lorene Cary: The Price of a Child
Chinua Achebe: Anthills of the Savannah
Nichelle Nichols
Mae Jemison
Ebony's Lecture on Afrofuturism as Resistance to the Erasure of Black Women
Toni Cade Bambara: Salvation Is The Issue
Toni Seawright: First Black Miss Mississippi
Quilts and Activism
Underground Railroad Quilting Codes
Joseph Conrad: The Heart of Darkness
Chimimanda Ngozie Adichie: Danger of a Single Story
Jesmyn Ward
Story of Ebony's Jesmyn Ward book club at Mississippi State Penitentiary (aka Parchman)
Hoop Dreams Documentary
Julius Scott - The Common Wind: Afro-American Currents in the Age of the Haitian Revolution
Wayetu Moore
A prelude to Season 2, where words from Oseola McCarty and an unforgettable scene from the movie "Pig" bring me back to ground.
Our first conversation of the season drops next Monday! You won't want to miss what our first guest has to share.
NYT article on Oseola McCarty
Mississippi Civil Rights Museum
Watch Pig on Hulu
Our conversation this week is with the illustrious storyteller, award-winning writer, and Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia, B. Brian Foster.
"How can you love something and not like it at the same time?" This question was the center of Brian's monumental book, "I Don't Like the Blues". The better part of five years he spent living in Clarksdale, Mississippi listening to black people talk about their experiences and persective on the Blues - as music, an economic reviatilization effort, and a way of knowing. In that book and everything else he does, Brian exumes and gives life to the stories of black folks in the rural South that don't get their just due.
Like any good ethnographer, Brian goes to the places that are talking so he can listen. In his words: "The dirt remembers. The spirit hollers." To catch the spirits you need a vessel and time. Brian is a vessel, and if you give him time to listen he'll continue to holler so we can hear and know more stories that have long been buried underground.
In this episode you'll hear Brian talk about his own story, his seminal book, defiant challenges to the academe and the "blue-chip" scholar ideal, and how he uses storytelling as a powerful teaching tool. I hope you enjoy listening to him as much as I did.
B. Brian Foster Website
Buy I Don't Like the Blues
Mentioned in this episode:
The Sovereignty of Quiet by Kevin Quashie
Rakim's Classic Interview
The House that Black Built: Black Women, Materiality, and Makeshifting in the Jim Crow South, 1927-1947 by Kimber Thomas
Our conversation this week is with Curtis Rayborn, a living history lesson on Tuskegee, Alabama. He's a former student and employee at the Tuskegee Institute, retired Alabama Army National Guard member, volunteer at the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site, and marvelous storyteller.
"I was dying of curiosity." This is what Curtis remarked about his encounters with one woman who he eventually learned was an important part of the Tuskegee Airmen Experience. He had so many questions. He needed to know more. But he understands that all the knowledge he's gained since moving Tuskegee in 1967 is worth nothing if he doesn't share it. That's how he's lived for over 50 years, learning about the place that shaped him and spreading the word to anyone who will listen.
I met Curtis during my April 2021 visit to Tuskegee at the Rayborn Manor Bed and Breakfast, owned and operated by his wife Leoncia (also an amazing person). His immense love of Tuskegee and its history lit me up so much that I, too, had to know more. So I returned to listen to Curtis share his everyday experiences with the Tuskegee Airmen, the history of the Tuskegee Institute and its impact on him and the world, and so many more cool stories about "little Ol' Tuskegee".
Stay at the Rayborn Manor Bed and Breakfast
Visit the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site
Mentioned in this episode:
The Third Life of Grange Copeland by Alice Walker
Robert Russa Moton of Hampton and Tuskegee by William Hardin Hughes and Frederick D. Patterson
Knowing Mandela by John Carlin
Moton Field/Tuskegee Airmen Special Resource Study by the National Park Service
A Century of Agriculture in the 1890 Land-Grant Institutions and Tuskegee University by B.D. Mayberry
The Fifth Chinese Daughter by Jade Snow Wong
Lionel Richie
The Commodores
Our conversation this week is with author, herbalist, and supreme champion of reading and literacy, Renea Winchester. "When you see people, what are you going to do with it?" Renea asks this powerful question, and her own answer is to write stories of the unseen. Her debut novel, "Outbound Train", crystallized when she saw a young girl looking at her through the window of a trailer in her hometown of Bryson City, NC. That girl wouldn't let Renea go, and she knew deep inside that's the story she had to tell. So she wrote to honor what she saw, where she came from, and the people who made her.
Renea's book teaches us to be rather than to seem. Instead of focusing on images through a screen, we must look directly at what's real in front of us. Who knows what you'll see. You might not write a novel about it, but you can do something to help other people see it, too.
Buy Outbound Train!
Learn about the effects of National Parks on Appalachian Communities
Our conversation this week is with John Evans, founder and owner of Lemuria Books in Jackson, Mississippi.
"It's all about the book, baby." For John, life really is that simple. He built Lemuria as a place to share books, not sell them. Only minutes from his childhood baseball fields, he created a space for people to discover, connect, dream, and remember. He brought the world of words to his hometown and books to life for people to experience together. But he couldn't do it alone. The wonderful booksellers and writers and community members and patrons from across the globe are the joy of his life's work. They're what make it real, and that's all he ever wanted.
In this episode, you'll learn the history of Lemuria Books, hear stories about John's writer friends (feat. Eudora, Leonard Elmore, and Jim Harrison!), get a window into the beauty he sees in Jackson, and find a model for how to live well and true. Thanks for sharing your life with us, John.
Lemuria Books!
Our conversation this week is with Lacy Arnett Mayberry - a writer, teacher, literacy advocate and kindred Catherian spirit. We met after I bought a t-shirt from her Etsy shop and decided to DM her about an interview, so you know it's on brand. This episode is universally cool, but especially for super fans of Willa & literature. We nerd out on all things Cather, which reveals important perspectives about how to live well and true. We talk about how reading can open the world to a child. Lacy gives us a family history lesson and how deeply that history informs her own fiction writing. We also discuss why proceeds from her shop go to Chicago Books to Women in Prison, and another family story that made strong her commitment to literacy for everyone. You'll hear gems about motherhood, writing as play, and why you should wear author t-shirts because they might make you new friends in Kuwait.
Buy stuff from Lacy's Etsy shop
Support Chicago Books to Women in Prison
Our conversation this week is with Travis Rountree. He's an Assistant Professor of English at Western Carolina University, scholar of rhetoric and public memory, and a natural connector of people and ideas.
Travis teaches us about the power of retelling stories. How and what we remember can obscure a narrative, sometimes causing immense lasting harm. When a story is told so many times and has so many versions it becomes hard to see through the smoke. So how do we get to the truth? We talk about retelling and Appalachian narratives using his awesome work on a 1912 courtroom shootout in Hillsville, VA. Travis also discusses his advocacy for people who feel like they have to hide, particuarly through the LGBTQ Oral History Project and Sylva Pride. His capacity to care for others is mighty. He's a a true citizen-scholar and devoted teacher, and uses his own power so one day we can tell a different story about our world. And his version is one we want to make true.
Our conversation this week is with Kelle Barfield, owner of Lorelei Books and champion of Vicksburg, Mississippi.
Kelle shows us that we are what we do. Everything she does is out of love for her hometown and its people, and they love her right back. She saved Lorelei Books. She sits on the County Board of Supervisors. She works with the public education system and is using her PhD program knoweldge to improve it. She is fighting to restore historic architecture across the city. She owns a city block to bring people together and show the world the beauty of Vicksburg. She believes it is a jewel and wants to help it shine. Every town needs a bookstore. It also needs a person like Kelle.
Visit and Support Lorelei Books
Our conversation this week is with Lauren Rhoades. One of the first friends of the project, Lauren is a literature and arts lover, life-giving gardener, marvelous writer, and a proud resident of Jackson, Mississippi.
I met her when she served as the Director of the Eudora Welty House & Garden, though she is now at the Mississippi Arts Commmission. This conversation happened during one of Lauren's last days at the Welty House. You'll hear about her first time touring the house when she moved to Jackson, lots about Eudora's life and writing, and many grand threads of connection. Visit her website to read her awesome work! And of course visit the Eudora Welty House & Garden when you're in the great city of Jackson.
laurenrhoades.com
Eudora Welty House & Garden
Our conversation this week is with Rachel Hudson, Assistant Curator at Rowan Oak, historic home of William Faulkner.
Rachel found her way to Oxford, Mississippi for college, where her literary knowledge and some fantastic serendipity got her a role at Rowan Oak. You'll hear her talk about Faulkner's life and lore, her own experiences at Rowan Oak, and how we can still examine the old literary canon to explore our contemporary issues -- problems of the human heart in conflict with itself. We also discuss the lineage of feral cats in Oxford and more funny Faulkner stories, true or not. Rachel is committed to her work, and believes places like Rowan Oak gives people something that lasts. In a world of constant acceleration, we need somewhere to slow down, to remember.
Visit & Support Rowan Oak: rowanoak.com
Our conversation this week is with Mae Claxton. A professor of English at Western Carolina University. A Eudora Welty scholar. A dedicated teacher. She wants to resurrect and uplift the stories that haven't been respected or told. Her life mirrors her curiosities, moving from her homeland in southern Georgia to her home now in the Southern Appalachians. Her desire to learn from and about women writers led her from people like Eudora and Flannery O'Connor to unsung Appalachian writers like Wilma Dykeman and Lillian Smith. Kindred spirits are Eudora Welty lovers, and it felt right to share Mae's insights with you before I travel to Mississippi later this week.
Mae's books at University of Mississippi Press
Horace Kephart: Writings
Our conversation this week is with Tracy Fitzmaurice. Tracy is the country librarian in Sylva, North Carolina -- a dedicated steward of one of the world's most vital and radical institutions. You can't be bored with her. In this episode, we discuss the antedote to fear, stories from her childhood in Norwich, England, the important work she does at the library, and lots about death. We also learn to ask ourselves: "Did you think you would never reach the point to which you are constantly heading?' You're in for a treat with this one.
Jackson County Public Library
Fontana Regional Libraries
Our conversation this week is with Eliza Edens, a Berkshires-bred, Brooklyn-based singer and songwriter. Eliza's music captures the intangible beauty of our world. It beckons you to pay attention, be astonished, and go deep beneath the surface to find the infinity within us. The power of her songs is derived not from the quantity of words used, but from the fact that she believes every word she sings. Her debut record, "Time Away From Time", will stand the test of its subject as a galvanizing force for a life well-lived. This episode is full of wisdom on authenticity, change, and reflection. You'll also learn about Eliza's favorite podcast episode to fall asleep to and hear her spontaneously sing a rediscovered tune. Listen to her music, give her money, and send her good vibes here:
Eliza Edens Website
Support Eliza on Ampled
Eliza on Instagram
Eliza on YouTube
Our conversation this week is with Ashlee Wasmund. Ashlee is an Assistant Professor and Program Director of Musical Theater and Dance at Western Carolina University. She's also the Founding Artistic Lead at Calliope Stage, a non-profit theater organization in Sylva, NC. Ashlee is a finder, looking everywhere for stories that need to be told. The glint of wild in anyone's eyes is something she aims to untame and set free. She believes learning about difference should be fun, even when it's hard. Replace fear with curiosity and your entire world will open up. And that world is full of what Ashlee sees everywhere - "magic". Calliope Stage
ashleewasmund.com
WCU School of Stage and Screen
Our conversation this week is with Rachel York-Bridgers. Rachel is a member of the English faculty at Western Carolina University, and is also an environmentalist, poet, filmmaker, and true citizen scholar. She wants us to love the world because we will only save the things we love. Art, stories, and reflecting on the beauty we see reminds us of all that is worth saving. And the most vital tool to keep our world alive? Imagination.
Our first conversation is with Cecilia Cornejo Sotelo. She is a filmmaker and instructor of Cinema & Media Studies at Carleton College in Northfield, MN. Guided by the concept of la milpa, Cecilia's vision for filmmaking is sharing. Her stories are about belonging and displacement, including Making Noise - The Story of a Skatepark and Ways of Being Home - Between Northfield and Maltrata. No matter what she creates, it's always rooted in community. For more on Cecilia and her work: artelamilpa.com The Wandering House
Carleton College Profile
The best things in life are born from great questions. Our project is no different. This episode tells our story and how one big, never-ending question 10 years ago changed everything. True to form, Eudora Welty helps me reveal the common threads through years of serendipitous events - each one an act of listening. Story Made is about the confluence of what I remember joining together, and living again.
Introducing the Story Made Podcast, where we explore how stories make a difference in our lives. Essay and intervew episodes are coming soon! In the meantime, check out our website and social media pages to see where we're going and who we're talking to.