Thursday, September 24, 2009

Documenting Mills

I've always had a special place in my heart for textile mills. Long before I had a love affair with fabric, I was drawn to the buildings themselves, their massive brick facades often full of comparatively-small windows. In North Carolina during my lifetime, mills have always been laying off, shutting down, becoming vacant ghosts of themselves surrounded by neighborhoods no longer anchored to a workplace identity.

Mills also have just generally been part of Southern culture and its expression since they first came on the scene after the Civil War. Some of my favorite mentions:

-- Lee Smith's Fair and Tender Ladies, where it's a coal mine but still a spot-on description of a mill village
-- The Hallmark Hall of Fame The Dollmaker with Jane Fonda in one of the most heart-wrenching movies, even for chick flick fans
-- Any of countless mill houses in any N.C. small town, whose hardwood floors, sturdy construction and streets that go somewhere are better than any house in a cul-de-sac dead end
-- Textile Mills songs, especially Pete Seeger's Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues. Check out this list for more inspiration: Textile Mill Songs

Mary Dalton, documentary filmmaker at Wake Forest University, adds to the conversation with her new documentary Oakdale Cotton Mills: Close-Knit Neighbors. My article on it today in Go Triad delves into the process that helped save the stories of this now-shuttered mill.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Chef Keith Snow article makes WNC cover

A rainy drive to Tryon, N.C. was worth it this spring. My profile of Harvest Eating's Chef Keith Snow is the cover story for the September issue of WNC Magazine! I was thrilled to bring the idea of the Chef's profile to editor Eric Seeger and even more thrilled when I saw the story. The photos are outstanding and really capture Snow's life -- one part farm, one part TV host, and one part celebrity chef.

I'm looking forward to his show, Harvest Eating, this fall on PBS. Until then, I'll enjoy my late summer tomato harvest and look forward to collard greens, my version of Harvest Eating.