Take a journey down the street and across the gravel road to discover the best of independent local culture—from small business owners and craftspeople to artists and entrepreneurs. Each week, Windstream will shine a spotlight on faces and places from around the country, weaving an authentic tapestry of stories about tradition, innovation, and connection to the communities we’re all proud to call home.
AMÉLIE’S French Bakery and Café is giving Charlotte a sweet tooth and a helping hand.
There’s a 24-hour French Bakery and Café that’s way more than an all hours go-to for a hot meal, a cup of coffee, or a strong WiFi signal. Amélie’s, located in NoDa (short for North Davidson), the arts district in Charlotte, North Carolina has become a cultural staple of the community. Not only has Amélie’s committed itself to giving back; it’s also serving up a mean brioche à têt in the process. Check out the photo essay below to learn more about why Charlotte is sweet on Amélie’s.
“When I was growing up, people would ask me what Charlotte was like,” Stephanie Haviv, Amélie’s Marketing and Online Customer Service Manager explains. “I used to say, ‘It’s a banking town.’” That all changed in 2008, when Amélie’s opened its original location. Along with a few other coffee shops all opening around same time, Stephanie says that Charlotte finally got “that coffee culture that every quintessential American town has.” Open 24 hours, and serving a myriad of food items including a full French pastry list and various soup, salad, and sandwich treats, Amélie’s generated buzz in Charlotte from the beginning. The thing that kept the buzz going, however, came from its other contributions to the community.
Community outreach is a huge part of what Amélie’s is and what it stands for as a local business. Amélie’s has become an important part of the fabric of Charlotte, working with a halfway house that helps transition people, women especially, from prison back into society. Amélie’s helps train them and arm them with a skill set to become productive members of society. “Two of the women” Stephanie mentions, “still work with us today.” Along with the halfway house, Amélie’s also works with a rehabilitation center for drug and alcohol abuse, not only helping them recover but also providing them with job opportunities at one of its five locations.
“I don’t know if you’ve seen the sign on the door,” Stephanie inquires, “but we’re a certified safe place, where teenagers and children who feel threatened or abused can come.” Amélie’s entire staff is trained to make sure these individuals are okay and feel safe. Along with that, Amélie’s is a member of the Charlotte business guild for LGBTQ. “We want to be a place where people feel comfortable,” Stephanie explains. “A place where people leave happy.”
Looking toward the future, Amélie’s plans to continue to stick to its values and make community outreach central to its business if it decides to expand to different cities around the country. Stephanie is proud to say that Amélie’s impact will be a positive one, “If we’re in your town, it’s going to be good for everybody.”
HAVOK DESIGNS: Making sustainable beautiful and wearable.
In Charlotte, North Carolina, a design company is changing how people experience and interact with nature through laser cut wooden jewelry, cork wallets, home décor and custom work. Grounded in their motto “Cut from the earth, designed for the distinct,” Havok Designs creates beautiful, minimal pieces that are both eco-friendly and locally conscious. To learn more about Havok designs and its owner, Kristen Shearon, check out the photo essay below.
Kristen Shearon, designer, maker and owner of Havok Designs - started the company four years ago while living in a remote cabin in a Montana forest. At the time, her husband had a woodworking machine in their barn, but during the harsh Montana winter, the machine was inoperable. Kristen wanted a way to continue working with wood in the comfort of her own home. With the purchase of a laser engraver, Kristen applied her passion of crafting raw materials into polished pieces and grew Havok Designs into what it is today.
With an intense closeness to nature and all its beauty, Kristen’s designs tell a story of where she’s been and where she’s bound to go. Her degree in Art and Design from Palm Beach State College in Palm Beach County, Florida helped her find and achieve her unique aesthetic. For Kristen, it’s all about doing simple, well. “It’s hard…” Kristen says, “You have to make sure you edit yourself. You have to contain your thoughts into an easy to understand design.” With pieces that are whimsical and bold, that approach is evident in her geometric shapes and lines. From her time in Montana, subtle Native American influences echo throughout. Havok Designs feature modern silhouettes crafted with a mix of new and old school, traditional techniques.
At their core, all of Kristen’s designs have a common thread: sustainability. Whether it’s the wood and cork coming from a small mill in Missouri, their 100% recycled printed materials, or their supplementary supplies from locally owned American vendors, Havok Designs crafts beauty, responsibly.
Looking to the future, Kristen is excited about where she can take Havok Designs. “I’m always looking for ways to push what the laser engraver can do,” Kristen says. “I want to incorporate all of what woodworking can be nowadays.” Staying true to her aesthetic, Kristen plans to continue growing Havok Designs they way she built it – mixing traditional and modern techniques. “As long as I can keep that going and keep that moving in a successful direction,” Kristen says, “I’ll be happy.”
It’s been less than four years since Lexington, Kentucky started granting permits for food trucks. Today, there are over 30 trucks roaming the streets, ranging in style from Mexican to Greek to the cleverly named “Thai & Mighty.” But one epically sized truck stands out from the pack – Rolling Oven Mobile Pizzeria, a literal full-fledged pizza oven on wheels. Check out the photo essay below to learn more about what’s cooking in Lexington.
Founded and owned by Nick Ring in winter of 2013, the Rolling Oven itself is essentially an International truck with an Atlantic shipping container converted to a mobile brick oven pizzeria, making it significantly larger than your typical food truck. A wall of glass displays the interior, including the traditional Italian-style wood-fired oven.
The inspiration for the truck started with Nick’s love of pizza. Growing up, he loved making it at home and continued to do so into adulthood. During his 15-year tenure as a sales rep for Lexmark International, he would travel extensively and during his trips seek out the best pizza in every city he visited. Eventually, Nick got to a point in his career where he wanted to try something different that allowed him to focus on his love of food.
Nick describes the advantages of a food truck over a brick-and-mortar as having a lot to do with location. “If your food’s good but you don’t have a good location, it’s kinda tough,” he says. “But with a food truck, you have the flexibility to say that a place isn’t working so we’re going to try something different.” He also says that he doesn’t need to spend a lot on marketing because the truck itself is an enticement: “When we roll up, people are immediately curious and interested.” All told, the truck makes about 500 to 600 pizzas a week.
There are advantages for the employees as well. “In contrast to working in a restaurant,” Nick says, “where you crawl into the same place every day, you do the same thing, you don’t see anything different, in the food truck you get to visit and enjoy festivals, events, and breweries.”
There are some challenges to running a food truck as well, namely the maintenance on the truck and the lack of storage space. It can also be difficult serving during the colder months since there’s much less outdoor foot traffic. To balance these difficulties, Nick has recently opened a brick-and-mortar version of Rolling Oven in nearby Nicholasville. Not only will that location allow for extra storage of ingredients and supplies, it will deliver a steadier source of income during the winters.
When of the best parts of running a food truck in Lexington, Nick says, is that people want to support small businesses and to try them out. Additionally, the food truck community collaborates on the days and locations where different trucks operate so that customers can get a variety of options and all the trucks can find success. As Nick succinctly puts it, “The food truck culture in Lexington is booming.”
There’s a new food movement emerging in Charlotte, North Carolina, and it’s being led by people like Ann Jacks and her company, Grass-Fed Productions/Rootdown Foods. Check out the photo essay below to learn more about what she’s been up to.
Ann Jacks, a Philadelphia native who’s been living in Charlotte for twenty years, started Grass-Fed Productions/Rootdown Foods in September 2015. The mission of the company is to “make local, small-batch, handmade, Paleo-inspired and delicious foods readily available to the Charlotte area.” Ann specializes in creating products using as many local ingredients as possible, such as cultured butter, beef jerky, bone broth, crème fraîche, cream cheese, crackers, and kale chips.
Though Ann had worked at a charcuterie upon first arriving in Charlotte, it has only been in the past few years that her passion for food has been deeply ignited. She attributes this to the many people coming to the city from places like New York and Philadelphia who are bringing a mentality of high-quality, handmade food with them. “We just demanded better food,” she says.
In the brief time that Grass-Fed Productions has been in operation, Ann has found the local community to be tremendously encouraging. “The support I’ve gotten from the food community has been incredible,” she says. “Within two weeks, I’m in three different stores. I have two different restaurants that purchase from me. They just want local, they just want good food, and everyone is so supportive.”
Ann has found several great ways to get her products to the people. First and foremost are the weekly farmers markets in Charlotte such as the NoDa Farmers Market and the Highland Creek Farmers Market. In addition to that, Ann has been using her experience as a painter to join the popup art scene so she can simply set up shop on a corner and sell her art and her food. Local breweries have also been very supportive, creating space for her to sell her work. Ann describes utilizing social media to attract people to these brewery popup events: “You can get 100 people to come out who wouldn’t normally be at that brewery at that time of day. It’s mutually beneficial.”
As for the future, Ann hopes to, in the not so distant future, purchase her own commercial kitchen in which to work and to potentially hire some staff as she currently does everything herself. But for now, despite 16-hour days, she says she is finding the work incredibly rewarding. “It’s so much fun, I just love it,” she says. “I’m the most happy churning butter.”
The late 1920s were a time of change in Northern Georgia, as the Tennessee Valley Authority built four dams, forever changing the landscape and economy where rivers flowed from the base of the Appalachian Mountains. Not only did the dams provide hydroelectric power and a reservoir of fresh water, but they also created an opportunity to draw in tourists to the once-secluded gently rolling hills and newly formed tumbling waterfalls.
Located just an hour and a half north of Atlanta, Blue Ridge is like a different world on the edge of the Chattahoochee National Forest. Even before Blue Ridge Lake was formed, the area was beautiful. The lake and town are in the fertile river valley that separates the Cohutta Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Cohutta Mountains are part of the oldest mountains known in the world—as they run farther north into Tennessee, their name changes to the better-known Smokey Mountains. With at least 100 miles of hiking trails, the Cohutta Wilderness area is the largest wilderness area east of the Mississippi; the area is so remote that a hiker in spring or fall could hike for days and not see another backpacker. When you're there it's hard to even imagine the hustle and bustle of the Atlanta area is just down the road.
It wasn't until the 1950s that the area became more accessible, thanks to the completion of the Appalachian Highway and the North Georgia Railroad. From there word started to trickle out about the lake and its 60 miles of shoreline. When the Georgia Mountain Parkway was completed in 1986, the once-remote area was established as a beautiful tourist destination.
These days the railroad that once carried lumber, cotton, and other agriculture from the area has given way to the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway, which carries visitors from the historic depot in Blue Ridge along the Toccoa River as it meanders through the hills to McCaysville and beyond. The valley is also filled with orchards and vineyards where visitors flock to get a taste of the many local wines and goodies the area has to offer. The arts scene has also grown—the Blue Ridge Arts Center houses studios, a pottery and kiln studio, and galleries for their artists-in-residence program. Each spring and fall they host Arts in the Park festivals to showcase artists who escape to the region to enjoy the peace and tranquility needed to focus on their craft. If live music or movies are your thing, the Blue Ridge area has that too, with the Pickin' in the Park summer series or the Swan Drive-In Theatre that offers first-run movies on weekends in the summer months.
There's no lack of entertainment in Blue Ridge, but one of the best reasons to visit is the area’s pristine connection to the outdoors—it will take repeat visits to do it all. You can find some of the best trout fishing on the Toccoa River, or simply float the river in a tube, kayak, or canoe. You can hike or mountain bike on the Aska Adventure Trails, or view it all from above via helicopter—or if you're even more adventurous, via zip line. Just down the road is the Ocoee Whitewater Center, the location of the canoe, kayak and slalom events for the 1996 summer Olympics hosted in Atlanta.
For people across Georgia, the Blue Ridge area is a sanctuary of outdoor activities. Less than three hours from Macon and Dalton, the drive goes by quickly as you pass through the rolling hills where the Appalachian Mountains begin.
by David Stringer
David Stringer is the founder and editor of SceneSC.com, a website covering music from South Carolina and beyond. In addition to writing about music, David enjoys live concert photography and attending music festivals. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @SceneSC.
Part MacGyver, part mad scientist, and part therapist.
In Lexington, Kentucky, located off the eastern side of the University of Kentucky campus, there’s a small office. On the outside it could be mistaken for any number of different kinds of small businesses that are peppered throughout the city, but inside people are doing a special kind of sophisticated work. The experts working there have been described as “part MacGyver, part mad scientist, part therapist.” The people who come to them are those who have suffered losses and are seeking to be made whole again. The place is called Hi-Tech Artificial Limbs and you can learn more about what they’re making in the photo essay below.
Founded in 1990, Hi-Tech Artificial Limbs is creating cutting-edge prosthetic limbs but the heart of the business is helping people. The company was started by Jim McClanahan, a certified prosthetist and an amputee, and Maurice Adkins, a fellow amputee who befriended Jim as his patient at another practice. Today, though Maurice has passed away Jim still serves as Managing Owner and President while Maurice’s son, Shayne Adkins, also a certified prosthetist, is Clinical Director and Vice President.
Jim describes his entrance into the field of prosthetics as happening very organically. “I lost my leg but then all of a sudden got placed into something that came very naturally to me,” he says. Three years after losing his leg to cancer, Jim visited the only prosthetist in Lexington for repairs on his artificial leg and was offered a job. Shortly after that, he began his formal education as a prosthetist at Northwestern University. He describes the training program as being very welcoming to amputees, as they would have an intrinsically better understanding of what their patients are going through and empathy is a key component of being a prosthetist. While Shayne, also educated at Northwestern, is not an amputee, he certainly understands the emotional component of what’s required, saying, “You have to match your compassion with your will to help that person.” Then jokingly, “So that’s why I figure my first degree in psychology wasn’t quite wasted before switching to prosthetics.”
The process of creating an artificial limb for a patient takes about four weeks, though Jim and Shayne say that many first-time patients walk through their doors without a firm idea of what they’re getting into. “The misconception is that we just go and pull a left large leg off of the wall like it’s Walmart,” Shayne says. “People even come in and say ‘I guess I’m here to get my leg.’ There’s in fact an evaluation and everything that we make is a combination of 15 or 20 major decisions – muscle strength, limb length, age, there are so many things to consider.” Jim adds, “People are emotionally confused when they come in the first time.”
Molding the residual limb and testing prototypes are integral parts of the process. “You’re marrying something manmade to someone’s body,” Shayne says. “And just like in real life, if that marriage isn’t good then it’s not going to last long.” Creating a prosthesis requires knowledge beyond just anatomy, but also understandings of kinetics, biomechanics, and physiology. One must be able to match a person’s movements, the gait of their walk, and the alignment of their limbs in order to make a successful prosthesis.
Still, beyond all of the technical prowess, what stands out at the center of Hi-Tech Artificial Limbs is empathy. Jim and Shayne feel they aren’t just providing products for their patients, they’re enabling them to live their lives to the fullest. When Jim and Maurice started the business, they made a deal that they’d never turn a patient down, no matter that person’s financial situation. The process of helping people become whole again is what drives the business and the people in it. Shayne describes the experience of seeing a person walking on a new limb for the first time as being so rewarding, “You could pay me in sand and I’d be happy.”
As for the future, Jim would like to see the next generations of their families move forward with the company. He believes the passion with which everyone in the company does their jobs is what makes the business special. “We have seven to eight really great people that come in here every morning and provide quality care to patience that they truly care about,” he says.
In addition to being able to reengage with everyday activities like running and cycling, they’ve had patients go on to compete in the Paralympics, Special Olympics, and even had one patient win a gold medal as part of the Wounded Warrior softball team. Having crafted close to 4000 unique prostheses to date, the folks at Hi-Tech Artificial Limbs are excited to bring the next 4000 to those in need.
If, as Wildseed Farms founder and president John R. Thomas says, springtime in Hill Country “is the biggest flower show on Earth,” then Wildseed Farms itself might be a close second. Located along US 290 just east of Fredericksburg, Wildseed Farms is a stunningly gorgeous, 217-acre working wildflower farm featuring walking trails, shopping, a cafe, butterfly garden, festival area, and more than 40 different kinds of wildflowers. The farm is also located just down the road from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, which is devoted to conserving native plants. The former first lady was a longtime friend of Wildseed, and cofounded her organization in Austin a year before Wildseed opened its doors.
Wildseed was (and is) part of a movement towards using native plants, which typically use less water and are lower maintenance than non-natives. Back in 1983, the increasing popularity of wildflowers, as well as requests from landscape contractors and the state's highway department, convinced Thomas to transform his sideline turf seeding business into a full-time wildflower farm. In addition to developing machines to plant and harvest wildflower seeds, Thomas also pioneered a method for planting rows of wildflowers on a large scale. And he would need to be able to plant a lot of wildflowers, too, as the intervening years would see Wildseed Farms cultivate more than 1,000 acres across the state. Thomas and his staff are among the world's experts on wildflowers, and proudly provide seeds, design consultation, and advice to 28 highway departments across the country and more than 600,000 mail order customers each year.
Seeing Wildseed Farms in person, however, is the real draw.
With the exception of the dead of winter, there is always something at full bloom at Wildseed. In the spring, the farm becomes a veritable sea of purple and blue. In the fall, it's yellow and orange. More than 350,000 visitors come to soak it in each year, and Thomas loves to meet them.
“Meeting the people is the most rewarding part of my job,” he says. “Being a family operation, we have an opportunity to visit with customers while we're out working at the farms. People like to meet the owner. They appreciate that. So, my wife and I roam around and answer questions about landscaping or how and when to plant wildflowers.”
For those looking to relax, Wildseed Farms offers a healthy supply of chairs, benches, and shade. Visitors can kick back in the butterfly garden; try to spot one of Wildseed's hummingbirds, or pet one of the many friendly cats who roam the property. The Brewbonnet Biergarten serves up delicious specialty foods, beers, and wine, and visitors can choose from a huge selection of local preserves, marinades, sauces, and wines to take home with them.
“The ladies love the shopping,” Thomas says, “and the men love to relax.”
Not only can visitors purchase wildflower seeds from every state, but Wildseed's shops carry a wide variety of flowers, decorative plants, pottery, art, jewelry, clothing, gifts, and much more.
Thomas says the Wildseed motto is “come for the flowers, but stay for the atmosphere.” In addition to enjoying the walking trails, visitors can create bouquets in “pick your own” fields, and stop for endless beautiful photo opportunities. And while Thomas says that visitors should set aside at least a couple of hours in order to see everything Wildseed has to offer, he also say that many wind up staying much longer than that.
By Bill Colrus
A Connecticut Yankee living in the Tennessee Valley, Bill Colrus has spent more than two decades serving as a writer and editor for numerous publications and media companies. From feature stories to opinion pieces, his work has connected with audiences and won awards. You can follow Bill on Twitter at @billcolrus. (twitter.com/billcolrus)
The year was 1995 – a bygone era during which TV shows could only be watched exactly when they were on, music only existed on CDs and cassettes, and pet supplies could only be procured via a visit to the local pet store.
But a certain company saw the growing potential the Internet offered, and that company was SitStay. Founded in Lincoln, NE, during this momentous time for the Internet, SitStay remains one of the first e-commerce pet supplies companies still in operation. Its mission is to “provide pet supplies and service/therapy dog necessities that are unique, high-end, and quality assured.” Twenty-one years later, the online economic landscape has changed dramatically but SitStay is still going strong.
In order to stay competitive in the modern marketplace, which since SitStay’s inception has seen the big brick-and-mortar pet suppliers extend their presences online, as well as the rise of all-in-one online stores like Amazon.com, SitStay recently hired Jill Liliedahl as their new CEO. Jill cut her teeth at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s NUtech Ventures, the university’s technological commercialization arm that “works with researchers to bring their research into the private sector so companies can use the developments that they've created.” With the expertise she gained there, she was well equipped to help SitStay advance and compete.
Jill describes her experience of joining as taking a fresh look at the company’s strengths: “When I came on board, when the current team came on board, we really took a hard look at what we have here. What's going well and how do we just dig in and focus on that and get really good at those things instead of spreading ourselves too thin? We looked at the service dog industry and therapy dog industry. How can we help those folks? We also have a niche with hard to find and unusual treats. One of our most popular products is dried fish skins and we import them from Iceland. It's something unusual that people can't get anywhere else.”
In choosing to focus on the needs of owners with service or therapy dogs, SitStay was able to hone in on the special needs of those people and their pets. “They're really entering a new time in their life,” Jill says. “They have a lot of questions. They might have this new dog that helps them get around, things like that.” Specialty products include harnesses, heavy-duty leashes, and patches that indicate that the pet is a service animal.
As SitStay looks to the future, it intends to maintain its commitment and passion for ensuring that dogs only receive the very best. As Jill says, “It's really about paring down. Instead of being sort of shallow and wide, we go more narrow and deep in terms of our focus.”
Jill and the rest of the team at SitStay know that a common trait among all dog-owners is an understanding of loyalty. And as their mission statement says, it is their goal to earn that loyalty and live up to the trust and expectations of fellow dog lovers and their cherished pets.
When Fritz and Catherine Gusmer left New Jersey behind for life in South Carolina, there was one tradition they couldn’t go without. “Growing up, as with most people from the North, they went to apple orchards and cider mills every fall for fresh cider, apple cider doughnuts and apple pies. It was a family tradition. They moved down here and that didn’t exist,” said the couple’s youngest son, Matthew Gusmer. Read on the see how Fritz and his family shared their apple orchard tradition with their community and passersby.
So back in the late 80s, Fritz took matters into his own hands and planted an apple orchard on some land in York, South Carolina. It was his attempt at giving his children a tradition he had grown up with, all while getting the family involved in a joint business. As it turns out, it was a tradition that a lot of folks wanted to introduce their children to. Visitors brought their families to the orchard for a day of apple picking and enjoyed the delectable experience of a fresh-pressed cider and hot apple cider doughnut. Before long, the Gusmer’s grassroots business grew and Windy Hill Orchard expanded with agritourism, hosting hundreds of school children each year to pick apples, enjoy hayrides and learn about the process of cider making.
Today, the orchard’s latest focus is on hard cider. In a way, it seems the business was destined to become a craft cidery. “The very first batch of fresh cider they pressed here was when Hurricane Hugo blew through and knocked out all of the power for 10 days,” explained Gusmer. “It was kind of the reason we got into hard cider in the first place. At the end of the season when you have a lot of fresh cider left over, the only way to really preserve it—and the best way to preserve it—is to turn it into hard cider.” So that’s what they did.
Hurricane Hugo inspired Fritz Gusmer to get the permits to become a bonded winery in the mid-90s. This decision would end up working really well for Matthew, who went off to college only to graduate during the economic downfall of 2008. His plan to for work for a big bank didn’t pan out, and when his parents needed help with the orchard, things just kind of fell into place.
Today, the original farm stand where fresh-picked apples, jars of apple butter and doughnuts were sold from now serves as the hard cider bar. Several tap handles pour award-winning craft varieties ranging from the crisp English-style “Ginger Gold” to the fruit-forward “Gala Peach,” a slightly sweet blend of hard cider with local peach juice. “Hoppin Johnny,” a popular pick oozing with floral aromas and citrus, is the first commercially dry-hopped hard cider on the East Coast. Currently, many of these hard ciders can be found on tap throughout bars and restaurants in North and South Carolina.
Though hard ciders are seeing a resurgence, it isn’t a new fad. Deeply rooted in American tradition, cider was perhaps the most popular alcoholic beverage during colonial times. In apple-growing regions, it wasn’t a rarity to drink a pint or more a day starting as early as breakfast. The mildly alcoholic beverage is resistant to bacteria, unlike the often-dangerous water supply at the time. As an added bonus, cider was thought to have several healing properties, especially for soothing an upset stomach.
Ciders are typically listed alongside beers on tap, interestingly, hard cider is actually produced like wine. “It’s the fermented juice of an apple rather than the fermented juice of a grape,” explained Gusmer. “There is no brewing. So that’s really the main difference as far as production. But it drinks a lot more like beer because it’s lower in alcohol and has a little bit of carbonation to it.”
Though it sounds simple, cider is a time and labor intensive process that starts with growing quality apples, harvesting during fall, fermenting and blending for several months, and finally bottling the finished product. Every year from mid-August to Christmas, Windy Hill greets curious visitors looking to taste the hard-earned fruits of this tough labor. During peak time, from late September through October, two to three thousand people might stop in for a cup of cider and a sweet treat on any given day during the weekend. On certain Saturdays, there can be up to an hour wait for donuts, which are made on-site on old-fashioned donut machines. Children especially enjoy feeding the resident pigs and chickens, taking hayrides and picking apples, while adults sit back at communal picnic tables with a pint or flight of Windy Hill’s crisp ciders, passing on one family’s tradition to another.
by Lauren Blake
Lauren Blake is a full-time corporate copywriter and a freelance lifestyle writer during her “time off.” When she’s not writing about food and drink, travel, weddings, local businesses, or any other topic of interest, she’s supporting live music venues or exploring the great outdoors. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @palieblake.
A Cup of Common Wealth: Embrace Community. Serve Others. Create Culture.
In the heart of Lexington, Kentucky, there’s a coffee shop exactly like all the rest in town. Except that it’s not at all. Sure, it serves caffeine in a myriad of forms but immediately upon entering, you can sense something is different. There’s a warmth and a liveliness that even first-time visitors pick up on which only deepens the more frequently you go. It may be the friendly and knowledgeable staff or it may be the person singing the theme song to SpongeBob Squarepants in exchange for a free cup of coffee. The one thing that is totally clear is that A Cup of Common Wealth is on a mission that extends far beyond just serving coffee. Check out the photo essay below to learn more about what’s brewing at Lexington’s A Cup of Common Wealth.
Founded in July 2013, A Cup of Common Wealth was the brainchild of Salvador (Sal) Sanchez and Chris Ortiz, a pair of entrepreneurs and coffee enthusiasts. They set out to create a coffee shop experience based on a simple mission statement – “Embrace community. Serve others. Create culture.” Alexandra Canada, the shop’s Community Relations Coordinator, says, “Every decision we make, every step we take, every latte that we create needs to revolve around those three things.” And while Chris left the company in 2014, Sal and the team continue to pursue those principles as heartily as ever.
Alexandra describes the tone of A Cup of Common Wealth as being a huge, friendly community. In addition to providing enthusiastic and helpful service, Sal encourages employees to sit with customers during downtime, engage them, and essentially make friends. “As soon as people walk through the door, they’re part of our big ol’ coffee family,” Alexandra says. The sense of family is definitely noticeable, as during this conversation customers kept arriving who Alexandra knew and greeted by name.
Coffee culture can essentially be broken down into three waves, and A Cup of Common Wealth tries to dabble in and accommodate all of them: First wave coffee consists of simple sugar-and-cream diner coffee; second wave errs more towards the lattes and Frappuccino’s you find at chain coffee stores; and third wave consists of pour-over coffees and espresso bar-style drinks. Alex says, “We don’t want anyone to feel like they can’t find something that they like here.” Baristas are also encouraged to share information about coffee with customers but to never impose judgment on any person’s taste.
Possibly the most unique feature at A Cup of Common Wealth is its pay-it-forward system, which allows customers to purchase beverages for other patrons. You can pay the amount of a specific drink, like a small coffee, or you can pay $5 so the recipient can pick any drink. In terms of who gets the beverage, you can give it to a specific person (like one free cappuccino for Jane Smith) or to a person of a particular occupation (like a nurse, EMT, or firefighter). You can also give it to anyone who performs a task on the spot, such as doing ten pushups, giving everyone in the store a high-five, or the aforementioned SpongeBob Squarepants sing-along. Pay-it-forwards can be found written on coffee sleeves lining several walls of the shop.
While having a fixed, solid mission, the team at A Cup of Common Wealth is also open to new ideas and exploration, holding brainstorming sessions every six months to discuss ideas of new things to do with the business and potential directions for the future. With a growing community and a worthwhile mission, the future of A Cup of Common Wealth looks bright.
The Lyric Theatre: Honoring the past with a vision for the future
In 1948, Lexington, Kentucky saw the opening of the Lyric Theatre, the first – and at the time, the only – venue in the city that permitted African-American patrons. During its early years, the Lyric, saw all manner of performances – movies, fashion shows, vaudeville acts, local concerts, and pageants. Local talent cut their teeth on the Lyric’s stage while renowned musicians like Ray Charles, Count Basie, and Cab Calloway wowed audiences with historic performances. The theater regrettably closed its doors in 1963 due to financial instability but, in 2007, the Lyric was purchased by the city of Lexington and reopened in 2010 for a new generation. Check out the photo essay below to learn more about what what’s happening at the resurrected Lyric Theatre.
Located on Lexington’s East Side, the Lyric Theatre was originally built as a movie house, but since it reopened the facility has doubled in size. Ashley Smith, the Development Coordinator at the Lyric, describes a space that went from 13,000 square feet to 29,000 and now includes a small museum, an art gallery, a community space, and a courtyard. The main performance space seats up to 526 people and hosts a variety of film, music, and theatrical performances.
The Lyric Theatre now serves as the only art institution in Lexington with a special emphasis on African-American culture. The work the theater presents and produces is selected by the theater’s director, Donald Mason, and a programming advisory board made up of individuals who represent a swath of diverse backgrounds within the city and the region. Additionally, the Lyric’s Board of Directors boasts the largest African-American membership of any board in Lexington and consists of government officials, educators, and non-profit leaders who provide a great diversity of perspectives.
Ashley describes their efforts as extending beyond just serving the African-American community. The broader work of the Lyric is to celebrate diverse cultures and to stage performances that start conversations and challenge comfort zones. She also noted the positive impact the presence of the theater has on its neighborhood, which went into decline when the Lyric closed in the ‘60s but has seen a resurgence since it reopened.
Music has always been a central component of the Lyric’s programming – from jazz to R&B, to folk. One of the theater’s longest-running musical affiliations is with Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour, a non-profit program described as a one-hour musical conversation focusing on the artists and their music. Previously performed at the Kentucky Theatre, they are now hosted every Monday at the Lyric, where their performances are broadcast on both commercial and noncommercial radio, as well as PBS. Ashley says Woodsongs has been a great opportunity to gain new patrons who otherwise may have been held back by pre-conceived notions about the Lyric and the neighborhood.
Ashley says that one of the main goals of the Lyric is to stay top of mind; to ensure that their work is relevant and accessible to the people of Lexington. As the theater’s 70th anniversary draws near, the eye is on diversifying programming and striving to be a leading voice in the arts. With the passion and support the theater is finding, which includes everyone from Lexington mayor Jim Gray to senior citizen volunteers who had attended shows there back in the 40′s, 50′s, and 60′s, the Lyric Theatre is sure to find success for many years to come.
Cleveland East Suburbanaires: With A Song In Their Hearts
Barbershop.
Whether your knee-jerk associations with the word are of red, white, and blue spinning poles and floors littered with hair clippings or of groups of men in straw hats singing tightly harmonized music from the early 20th century, the term harkens back to something classic and communal. In an effort to preserve the latter tradition, barbershop chorus the Cleveland East Suburbanaires have been singing classic ditties together since 1951. Check out the photo essay below to learn more about what keeps attracting people to this time-honored musical style.
Headquartered in Euclid, Ohio but with members hailing from all over the Cleveland area, the Cleveland East Suburbanaires have been singing barbershop music around the area and the country for well over half a century. Current membership includes Chorus Director Jim Koenig, whose father is also a singer in the group, and Herb Ramerman, the group’s longest-standing member, having joined in 1974.
Depending on the needs of a given performance, the Suburbanaires may perform as a full chorus or may send a four-man delegation to perform as a quartet. Of his love of singing in a quartet, Herb says, “You get four guys in a circle and the chords just explode.” Herb’s quartet within the group has been performing together for over 40 years, with gigs ranging from Jacobs Field to Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, where they were the first-ever barbershop quartet to perform.
Herb recalls one memorable performance at a local high school. As they entered they received looks of puzzlement from the students, who weren’t quite sure what they were in for. The Suburbanaires’ first song was met with a standing ovation. Soon after the performance the students at that school organized their own barbershop group, which is still active years later.
Membership ebbs and flows, Herb says, with the group roster consisting of 85 singers when he joined but currently is at 25. He considers finding new members the biggest challenge for the classic group today, feeling that given the ready availability of so much music, people see it more as a consumable and less as an activity they can share with others. They understand that there are differences between modern music and the traditional songs the Suburbanaires sing, but there’s actually been a movement towards more interesting and complex arrangements in order to draw young people in and help keep the tradition alive. It’s become a passion for Jim to figure out ways to bring in new members, saying, “Being actively involved in music is a wonderful release.”
When asked what keeps bringing people back to barbershop, Jim says, “The draw is that it’s wholesome. It’s not based on politics or religion, it has a message of happiness.” The basis is a camaraderie above those things, they say, with them not even knowing the careers of most of their fellow members. It’s easy to lose track of simple joys amidst the hustle and bustle of work and technology. That’s why the Suburbanaires seek to slow things down and bring them back to the basics; It’s not about setting the world on fire. It’s about coming together and enjoying a history of shared stories, old jokes, and a mutual love of music.
In Charlotte, North Carolina, multimedia artist Tom Thoune of Sweet Gum is taking broken bits of things found and things given in order to make new, original pieces of art.
Legendary folk artist Howard Finster created album covers for R.E.M. and Talking Heads, contributed paintings to the Library of Congress, was profiled in Life and Esquire, and appeared on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. His work can be seen in the Smithsonian, the American Visionary Art Museum, and the National Portrait Gallery. But, in a life filled with legacies, perhaps his biggest legacy is Paradise Garden, a four-acre property near Summerville, Georgia, where Finster worked tirelessly to create more than 46,000 dated and numbered pieces of outsider art and a park where future generations could benefit from his message of hope.
Finster was a Baptist preacher, musician, and self-described “master of 22 different trades.” He built a roadside museum honoring inventors in Trion, Georgia. Later, after retiring and moving to nearby Pennville, he started work on his Plant Farm Museum in order "to show all the wonderful things o' God's Creation—kinda like the Garden of Eden.” Fifteen years later, he was fixing a bicycle when he said a voice spoke to him and “paint sacred art.” Finster answered the call, and Paradise Garden was born.
Finster began to work feverishly day and night, using tractor enamel paint to transform plywood, bottles, cans, bottle caps, and other items worthy of the trash can into art. The art was inspired by the visions he saw, and featured magical worlds, historical figures, celebrities, Bible verses, and other hand-lettered messages. It also became much sought after by collectors.
“Howard was known for his art and for his view of upcycling the most mundane items into something that inspires a vision that was to be shared then, now, and in the future,” says Jordan Poole, executive director of Paradise Garden. “With his visions, he became the internationally known grandfather of Southern Folk Art.”
His artistic vision extended to Paradise Garden. Equal parts park and museum, the garden eventually included not only Finster’s paintings and sculptures, but also a meditation chapel; the “World’s Folk Art Church;” a covered “Rolling Chair” gallery featuring his and other artists’ work; and a mosaic garden adorned with various plates, toys, mirrors, marbles, and other assorted items. Couples came to the garden to get married in the church, and celebrities also visited.
Finster viewed his album covers and other work with R.E.M. and Talking Heads as part of a bigger spiritual mission. "I think there's twenty-six religious verses on that first cover I done for them,” Finster said of Talking Heads’ Little Creatures album. “They sold a million records in the first two and a half months after it come out, so that's twenty-six million verses I got out into the world in two and a half months!"
Finster became increasingly famous. By the early 1990s, however, bothered by the increasing number of visitors and attention, Pauline Finster convinced her husband to move to a home closer into Summerville. Howard spent less time working and maintaining the garden, and his untimely death in 2001 nearly meant death to the garden as well. The garden’s swampy locale started to overtake the property. Art and structures began to decay, and the garden was locked up. For more than a decade, visitors had to make an appointment to see it.
A couple of years before Howard’s death, his daughter Beverly bought the property and later incorporated the nonprofit, Paradise Gardens Park & Museum, Inc. A decade later, Chattooga County bought the property and tasked the Paradise Garden Foundation with the job of renovating the site. Aided by grant money, the foundation set about to bring the garden’s buildings, pathways, and sculptures back to what they were during the garden’s prime. New plumbing and electricity have been added along with a new visitor’s center, exhibition space, and multimedia presentation about Finster.
Renovations are not yet complete, but Paradise Garden is already seeing more visitors, as well as an increased number of weddings, festivals, community meetings and other events. And, in a development that would likely make Finster most proud, the garden is playing host to an increasing number of artists who are studying and working there.
“Howard was very influential both nationally and internationally and still inspires artists to come and feel his presence,” says Poole. “Each artist sees a reflection of Howard's essence and their own visions to create their artistic footprint.”
Finster once said that “buildin’ that Garden was just like one long vision, with God aguidin’ me ever’ step o’ the way, ashowin’ me how to follow His blueprint.” Thankfully, the Paradise Garden Foundation has dedicated itself to preserving that mission and vision so that future generations can also be inspired by it.
by Bill Colrus
A Connecticut Yankee living in the Tennessee Valley, Bill Colrus has spent more than two decades serving as a writer and editor for numerous publications and media companies. From feature stories to opinion pieces, his work has connected with audiences and won awards. You can follow Bill on Twitter at @billcolrus. (twitter.com/billcolrus)
