Hilda Downer

Chloe Maxmin & Canyon Woodward

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 [https://www.dirtroadorganizing.org] Read their book! Dirt Road Revival [https://www.dirtroadrevival.com] Chloe's appearance on Big Ideas for a Small Planet: Communities [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1486221/?ref_=ttep_ep11] Canyon & Chloe in the film Rural Runners [https://vimeo.com/663434221/cc2be85c42]   Mentioned in this episode: Making Noise: The Story of a Skatepark [https://vimeo.com/250481736] by Cecilia Cornejo Sotelo The Wandering House — Cecilia Cornejo Sotelo [https://thewanderinghouse.com] How Students Pressured Harvard to Divest From Fossil Fuels [https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/harvard-fossil-fuel-divestment-won/] Howard Zinn [https://www.howardzinn.org] Marshall Ganz [https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/marshall-ganz] Tim McCarthy [https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/timothy-patrick-mccarthy] Hollowing Out the Middle [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/206257/hollowing-out-the-middle-by-patrick-j-carr/] by Patrick J. Carr and Maria J. Kefalas King Coal [https://www.kingcoalfilm.com] Weather Reports [https://hds.harvard.edu/news/weather-reports] — Terry Tempest Williams Cowee School Arts and Heritage Center [https://www.coweeschool.org]

Hilda Downer

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 [https://redhawkpublications.com/Wileys-Last-Resort-Poems-p480242302] When the Light Waits for Us [https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/product/when-light-waits-for-us-hilda-downer/] Sky Under the Roof [https://english.appstate.edu/research/sky-under-roof] Bandana Creek [https://www.amazon.com/-/he/Hilda-Downer/dp/B009NNTW72]   Mentioned this episode: Groundglass [https://coffeehousepress.org/products/groundglass] by Kathryn Savage Jim Webb [https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj_xKmz8cGEAxX4g4kEHbQ_CpQQtwJ6BAgUEAI&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pbs.org%2Fvideo%2Fwileys-last-resort-khahad%2F&usg=AOvVaw0I50qoGtd4GHMx_jl24euT&opi=89978449] Wiley's Last Resort [https://www.wileyslastresort.com] Battle at Blair Mountain [https://wildgoosepoetryreview.wordpress.com/2013/02/14/hilda-downer-battle-at-blair-mountain/] by Hilda Downer Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel Literary Magazine [https://uacvoice.org/2020/03/pine-mountain-sand-gravel-the-literary-magazine-of-the-southern-appalachian-writers-cooperative-by-mike-templeton/] Mitchell County Historical Society: Bandana [https://mitchellnchistory.org/tag/bandana-north-carolina/] Roan Highlands Ecology [https://www.roanhighlands.org/ecology#:~:text=The%20Roan%20Highlands%20represent%20one,endemic%20or%20regionally%20rare%20species.] The Year of My Life [https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520329034/the-year-of-my-life-second-edition] by Issa Kobayashi The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/44212/the-love-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock] by T.S. Eliot Southern Appalachian Writers Collective [https://www.sawconline.net] Pauletta Hansel [https://paulettahansel.wordpress.com] Legislators of the World [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/nov/18/featuresreviews.guardianreview15] by Adrienne Rich Mountaintop Removal 101 - Appalachian Voices [https://appvoices.org/end-mountaintop-removal/mtr101/] Appalshop [https://appalshop.org]

Vivian Gibson

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 [https://beltpublishing.com/products/the-last-children-of-mill-creek] Check out Vivian's website: vivian-gibson.com [https://www.vivian-gibson.com] Go see The Ross Family Exhibition at the Missouri History Museum [https://mohistory.org/exhibits/seeking-st-louis]  Watch & listen to Vivian's TED Talk, 'Deferred Storytelling' [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfMqIzXVeMc] Visit Pillars of the Valley [https://greatriversgreenway.org/millcreek/]   Mentioned in this episode: Nikwasi Mound [https://www.nikwasi-initiative.org] in Franklin, NC Cowee Mound [https://www.mainspringconserves.org/projects/cowee-mound/] Watauga Town [https://www.mainspringconserves.org/projects/watagua-mound/] Kituwah Mound [https://visitcherokeenc.com/blog/entry/discover-kituwah-mound-cherokee-mother-town-at-two-upcoming-run-walk-events/] Where's the Reservation? [https://www.salvationsouth.com/wheres-the-reservation-annette-saunooke-clapsaddle-cherokee-culture/] by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle Rondo Neighborhood in St. Paul, MN [https://libguides.mnhs.org/rondo] How Interstate 40 changed the face of Jefferson St. in Nashville, TN [https://www.wkrn.com/hidden-history/black-history-month/how-interstate-40-changed-the-face-of-jefferson-street/] Toni Morrison [https://www.britannica.com/biography/Toni-Morrison] Belt Publishing [https://beltpublishing.com] Historian Gwen Moore brings to life a largely untold part of St. Louis' past [https://www.stlmag.com/longform/history-gwen-moore-st-louis-past/] Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps [https://www.loc.gov/collections/sanborn-maps/about-this-collection/] Harland Bartholomew: Destroyer of the Urban Fabric of St. Louis [https://nextstl.com/2021/04/harland-bartholomew-destroyer-of-the-urban-fabric-of-st-louis/] Protest Targets SLU Plan to Tear Down Former Mill Creek Valley Buildings [https://www.riverfronttimes.com/news/protest-targets-slu-plan-to-tear-down-former-mill-creek-valley-buildings-40841634] Urban Renewal and Mill Creek Valley: Decoding The City [http://www.decodingstl.org/urban-renewal-and-mill-creek-valley/]

Annie B. Jones

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! [https://bookshelfthomasville.com] Listen to the From the Front Porch Podcast [https://www.fromthefrontporchpodcast.com] Mentioned in this episode: An Old Fashioned Girl [https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/An-Old-Fashioned-Girl/Louisa-May-Alcott/The-Louisa-May-Alcott-Hidden-Gems-Collection/9781665926188] and Little Women [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/292496/little-women-by-louisa-may-alcott-with-an-introduction-by-regina-barreca-and-an-afterword-by-susan-straight/] by Louisa May Alcott God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater [https://www.penguinrandomhouseretail.com/book/?isbn=9780385333474] by Kurt Vonnegut The Chumscrubber [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0406650/] Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House [https://louisamayalcott.org] Gilead [https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/marilynne-robinson] by Marilynne Robinson Wendell Berry [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/going-home-with-wendell-berry] Nora Ephron Documetary - Everything Is Copy [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/going-home-with-wendell-berry] Dragonfly Books in Decorah, Iowa [https://www.dragonflybooks.com] Ernest & Hadley Booksellers in Tuscaloosa, Alabama [https://www.ernestandhadleybooks.com] City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, North Carolina [https://www.citylightsnc.com] A Novel Escape in Franklin, North Carolina [https://anovelescapefranklin.com] Independent bookstores turn a new page on brick-and-mortar retailing [https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/independent-bookstores-turn-a-new-page-on-brick-and-mortar-retailing/2013/12/15/2ed615d8-636a-11e3-aa81-e1dab1360323_story.html] Hollowing Out the Middle [https://www.beacon.org/Hollowing-Out-the-Middle-P840.aspx] by Patrick J. Carr and Maria Kefalas James 1:2 - 4 [https://www.bible.com/bible/97/JAS.1.2-4.MSG] The Fifth Chinese Daughter [https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295745909/fifth-chinese-daughter/] by Jade Snow Wong Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin [https://www.boswellbooks.com/opening-letter-0] The From-Aways [https://cjhauser.com/about-us] and The Crane Wife [https://cjhauser.com/about-us] by CJ Hauser I'm nobody! Who are you? [https://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/roomitem/im-nobody-who-are-you/] by Emily Dickinson Sundog Books [https://www.sundogbooks.com] in Seaside, Florida Salvage the Bones [https://www.charmcitybooks.com/item/gpSpF5NUuGT6wqnoG8NLpw] by Jesmyn Ward

John T. Edge

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 [https://www.johntedge.com] TrueSouth on ESPN [https://www.espn.com/watch/series/8c2947d7-778c-45e9-9b6e-b4db8fe41fac/truesouth?om-navmethod=espn%3Aglobalsearch%3Aresults] The Mississippi Lab  [https://www.mississippilab.org] Southern Foodways Alliance [https://www.southernfoodways.org]   Mentioned in this episode: A Brief History of Thought: A Philosophical Guide to Living [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/a-brief-history-of-thought-luc-ferry?variant=32205815283746] by Luc Ferry My Mother's Catfish Stew [https://oxfordamerican.org/magazine/issue-106/my-mother-s-catfish-stew] by John T. Edge | Oxford American The Angolite, Prison Acitivist Resource Center [https://www.prisonactivist.org/resources/angolite] William Price Fox [https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/26/books/william-price-fox-southern-novelist-is-dead-at-89.html] The Third Life of Grange Copeland [https://www.lemuriabooks.com/The-Third-Life-of-Grange-Copeland-p/fe51899053.htm] by Alice Walker White Trash Cooking [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/213671/white-trash-cooking-by-ernest-matthew-mickler/] by Ernest Matthew Mickler God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater [https://penguinrandomhousesecondaryeducation.com/book/?isbn=9780385333474] by Kurt Vonnegut Alberto Cruz Art [https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t2V2To-rRMQ/YJtm17muRMI/AAAAAAAANI4/Z9xijDCP_x0Yb12FsXc9d8_DlnO7jWmAQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/%252465.jpg] General Alfred Iverson's Birthplace Historical Marker - Clinton, Jones County, Georgia [https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=24994] Senator Iverson's Speech - January11, 1860 [https://www.nytimes.com/1860/01/11/archives/senator-iversons-speech.html] Janisse Ray [https://janisseray.com] King Coal [https://www.kingcoalfilm.com/screenings] by Elaine McMillion Sheldon Blair Hobbs - University of Mississippi [https://english.olemiss.edu/blair-hobbs/] Remembering Emmett Till [https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo28300786.html] by Dave Tell Gorilla [https://www.leestockdale.com/gorilla] by Lee Stockdale Underground Atlanta [https://dlg.usg.edu/record/geh_forwardatl_8]  Dante's Down the Hatch [https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/digital/collection/ajc/id/4764/] Natasha Trethewey [https://natashatrethewey.com] A Place Like Mississippi [https://www.lemuriabooks.com/A-Place-Like-Mississippi-p/9781604699586.htm] by W. Ralph Eubanks Clinnesha Sibley - Story Made Podcast [https://www.storymadeproject.com/podcast/episode/1cb7db42/clinnesha-sibley]