03766 - Lebanon, N.H.
Published December 27, 2009
Stephen Tracy, left, of Claremont, and Tri-County CAP workers Joie Finley Morris, of South Strafford, and Angel Jackson, of Lebanon, light candles during a brief vigil for the homeless outside First Congregational Church in Lebanon last Monday. Scores of other vigils took place around the world that night to raise awareness about homelessness.
Joie Finley Morris is the director of programs for the homeless for Tri-County CAP, a social service agency that helps low-income residents of Grafton, Coos and Carroll counties in New Hampshire. The following is an edited interview.
You want a picture of how serious homelessness is in Lebanon? Spend the day with me tomorrow. I’m not kidding.
My phone did not stop ringing today. It was one of those things where you go to hang the phone up and it rings while it’s still in your hand. I mean, at least 50 calls a day. The stuff we’re seeing is just out of control.
A lot of people don’t realize rural homelessness is a problem. They think it’s only a problem in the big cities. But we’re seeing people coming in with no income, or people with mental illnesses or other social issues. Sometimes people just walk in the door saying, “I have no job, no money and nowhere else to go.”» Read more
05075 - Thetford Center, Vt.
Published December 20, 2009
Sophie Wood prepares for her show, The Year of Wanting: A very small shadow show about the depths of Hell, performed with Matt Lorenz and Sarah Blackwell at Left Bank Books in Hanover. Between February and November, Wood works on farms in Amherst, Mass. In December and January, she tours the Northeast with the Royal Frog Ballet Performance Collective, which she co-directs.
Sophie Wood grew up in Thetford and graduated from Thetford Academy in 2001. She graduated in 2006 from Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., with a degree in theater for social change, with an emphasis on agricultural politics. The following is an edited interview.
The show is only 30 minutes, which is sometimes our advertising line. “If you hate it, it’s almost over.” People can be a little wary when you say you’re doing shadow puppets.
Sometimes people come up after the show and say, “I loved it, it was beautiful, I totally didn’t get it.” That’s OK. I know this is a totally abstract, bizarro show. But it’s dream logic. The images will keep popping into your head for days and hopefully keep you thinking.
There’s nothing particularly political about it. If anything, its social statement is, “Man, winter is hard, isn’t it? But we get through it.” And maybe winter is a metaphor for something else, or maybe it’s not. » Read more
05065 - Sharon, Vt.
Published December 13, 2009
Furniture maker Reuben Sotak, shown here in his South Royalton workshop, planes a piece of walnut.
Reuben Sotak grew up in Sharon, where he now lives with his wife, Melissa Zoerheide. He runs RMS Woodworking out of his workshop in South Royalton. The following is an edited interview.
There’s a constant movie in my head of the things I want to make. I might see a rock outcropping or a certain building that inspires me and want to make a piece of furniture with a similar feel to it.
I wish the movie in my head was specific. It would be a lot easier if it were just one thing - if I only thought in chairs, say, I could be a chair maker and be done with it. But it’s not. There are so many things I want to make. » Read more
03753 - Grantham, N.H.
Published December 6, 2009
Sgt. Matthew Merrill, 24, plays with his 8-month old son, Everett, during a send-off at Grantham Town Hall. Merrill and Courtland Smith, 21, members of the Army National Guard from Grantham, will be deployed to Afghanistan in February.
Matthew Merrill is a patrolman on the Grantham police force and a sergeant in the 172nd Cavalry Regiment of the Army National Guard based in Bennington, Vt. On Thursday, his unit leaves for the Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center in Indiana to prepare for a February deployment to Afghanistan. The following is an edited interview with his mother, Jackie Merrill, during a send-off Nov. 29 at Grantham Town Hall.
My husband is retired military, so I always knew Matt would join up, because he grew up with it. I think he was quietly observing his father coming home in uniform all those years and wanted to follow in those footsteps.
I didn’t expect him to do both police and military, so maybe there’s something appealing about bullets there. He’s doing what he loves to do. » Read more
03733 - Croydon, N.H.
Published November 22, 2009
First-grader Morgan Roberts, 6, during recess at the Croydon Village School. Twice a week, the school’s 14 second- and third-grade students are joined in class by seven first-grade students, who on other days of the week are with the kindergarten class at town hall.
Jeanne Akpan teaches at the Croydon Village School, one of a few one-room schoolhouses still open in New Hampshire. She teaches second and third grade, while her colleague, Mandy Simon, teaches kindergarten and first grade over at at the town hall. The following is an edited interview.
Before I came here, I didn’t even know one-room schools still existed. Even when I interviewed for the position, I didn’t quite get it. They talked about the multi-age-group classroom, but many schools do that. I thought I knew what I was getting into, but I didn’t. » Read more
