The Layered Onion--Peeling Back the Layers

Elena Terry: Weaving Community Through Indigenous Cuisine

Explore Chef Elena Terry’s journey reclaiming Indigenous foods. Discover her mission of community, healing, and culinary artistry at Wild Berries and Tallgrass. Chef Terry is redefining what it means to connect with food, with heritage, and with each other. This is a story of resilience, passion, and the profound power of a shared meal.

Jessica Gutiérrez : Art as Healing and Self-Discovery

Jessica Gutiérrez, artist and mental health therapist, shares her journey of embracing creativity as a healing tool. Discover how chronic pain, trauma-informed therapy, and ancestry inspired her unique collage art, blending personal narrative with universal themes of strength and possibility.

Dani Cordomi: Community and Accessibility in Food

From watching cooking shows with her dad to nurturing a vibrant garden, Dani Cordomi’s life is a testament to the power of food to comfort, connect, and nourish. Join her as she shares her evolving relationship with cooking, the joy of discovering exotic fruits, and her dream of creating inclusive food spaces.

Paul Baker Prindle’s Art Journey and Philosophy

Paul Baker Prindle, the Gabrielle Haberland Director of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, shares a unique path to art. Initially a gifted musician, a serious accident in college redirected Paul Baker Prindle’s focus to visual arts. The accident led to an exploration of memory and trauma, particularly through a series documenting hate crime sites. This work, while visually stark, delves into how the brain makes sense of difficult experiences. Paul Baker Prindle emphasizes that once art is created, its meaning is co-authored by the viewer, highlighting how diverse audiences connect with the work in personal ways. This understanding has shaped Paul Baker Prindle’s perspective on art’s role in making sense of the world.

Poetry’s Power: Finding Your Voice with Rita Mae Reese

Rita Mae Reese describes her path to becoming a poet as a journey of discovery rather than finding a lost voice. She emphasizes the importance of family influence in fostering a love for language and playing with words. Her initial academic pursuits in math and art were short-lived, leading her to the English department where she found a community that felt like “her people.” An early positive experience with a published story, where a stranger connected with her work, foreshadowed the impact she would later seek to create.