Faces & Stories

There is a recording on my phone. It is from March 11, 2020, starts at about 11:00 a.m., and lasts 37 minutes. Looking back, I realize this is the last time someone walked into my office, took a seat across from me and shared a part of their story. I could not have anticipated that...

“I guess you could say I grew up with one foot on the plow and one foot on Lexington Avenue. You know that Aerosmith song, ‘The Last Child‘? That was like my anthem for a while.” I know the song. And I assume he’s referring to the verse that goes: Get out in the field, Put...

David grew up on a tobacco farm in Boone, North Carolina and was brought up by a single mother who worked as a faculty librarian at Appalachian State University. Though David describes himself as un-homed since 19, he did not experience true homelessness until about a year and a half ago, after completing a detox program in...

I met Joan, the new Garden Coordinator, at the first gardening meeting of the year. Something that stuck out to me was a phrase written at the top of our agenda: Interactive Gardening. While I had a general idea what this meant, curiosity clung to me for weeks until my second meeting with Joan several...