Hello North Carolina: Stories from Rural NC

Jereann King Johnson is a textile artist, community activist, and founding member of the Heritage Quilters. As part of her work, and with grant support from the Highlander Research Center with the We Shall Overcome Fund, Jereann mentors Warren County youth, and is working to share the storytelling power of quilting. We sat down with her to discuss her work toward building a collective community in Warren County.

There's a new mural up in Morganton, North Carolina! The 13 by 58 foot piece is part of a 3-year initiative to highlight cultural and ecological diversity in Morganton. The project brings together the combined efforts of the Foothills Conservancy, the North Carolina Museum of Art, and TOSS, a Morganton-based arts non-profit. Join us as we chat about the importance of art, community, and locally-rooted wealth with the muralist Alexa Eliana Chumpitaz and Kathryn Ervin, co-founder and director of TOSS.

Over the past months, trails in North Carolina have seen higher use, a product of safety-seeking measures prompted by Covid-19. For Elkin, this highlighted what many in the town already knew; that our natural resources are true assets that can bring joy and satisfaction and even turn around a small town's economic future. We spoke with Elkin local Bob Hillyer, founding member of the Elkin Valley Trails Association (EVTA), a group that has worked hard to counter the loss of industry in Elkin by leveraging a surrounding network of trails to draw hikers, commerce, and community back to their main street.

In this episode of Hello from Main Street, we discuss foraging, gathering, and local foodways with Alex Meander, a feral homesteader, subsistence ecologist, and advocate of wildness. He and his partner Stacey run Ardea Sanctuary, near Shelby, North Carolina.

In the first episode of Hello NC: Stories from Main Street, we chat with AftanCi, a musician and dedicated member of the Shelby community. She discusses her musical influences, the importance of family, and making art in a small town with a long musical history.