Rural

Our Favorite Things

Six young women – Tyashia Mckenzie, Kamora Ridgeway, Whitley Dockery, Rakyah Jacobs, Camryn Ray, and Jordan Newkirk – tell us about objects that are important to them. Tyashia talks about a glass angel from her godmother; Whitley shows us her great-great-grandmother’s glasses. Jordan points to a picture of her aunt, who gave her an American…

Read More

How One Teenager Is Broadening Art Education On Harkers Island

For most of her childhood on Harkers Island, Abigail Garland didn’t think she could become an artist because she couldn’t draw. Then, a trip to a museum showed her how much more art could be than lines on canvas. Now, the 18 year old is working to make sure the next generation sees just how…

Read More

Rural Areas: The Kindergarten to High School Factor

Angela Lewis, of Washington NC, speaks to how people would be surprised to know that locals in Washington are not just still recovering from Hurricane Florence in 2018 – many are still recovering from Hurricane Matthew in 2016. And some families will never financially recover. She notices that her church’s predominantly African American section of…

Read More

White Control in Fund Distribution

Willie Johnson has been driving 30 minutes from his hometown in New Bern, NC to the more rural area of Trenton, NC for nine years. His congregation is there – in a church located within ‘the bowl’ of Back Street. Many of his parishioners have weathered all of North Carolina’s storms. And geographically, African American…

Read More

COVID-19 & Hurricane Recovery in African American Neighborhoods

Diana Tootle, 58, lives in Morehead City, North Carolina. Tootle speaks to the intersection between Hurricane Florence and COVID-19 in her historically African American coastal community. Broadcast from the Working Narratives studio, this series compiles community stories about COVID-19 from coastal North Carolina.

Read More

COVID-19 & Gaps in School Food Distribution

Michael Turner, 42, is a math teacher at West Carteret High School in Morehead City, North Carolina – a rural, coastal town of 9,000 people. He runs the food pantry which supplements free & reduced lunch with take-home groceries. Now his job is  to find and fulfill the gaps or ‘soft spots’ in school food…

Read More

COVID-19 & Rural NC Hospitals

Bonnie Weeks, 36, is a labor and delivery nurse working at Carteret General Hospital in Morehead City, North Carolina, which is currently on semi-lockdown due to Coronavirus. Weeks has lived in Morehead City – a rural, coastal town of 9,000 people – all of her life. Most folks that come into the hospital work on…

Read More