Holding a Family Lineage and Heritage: What does it take?

In past generations…way back in the day…families made it their business to hand down their lineage and heritage–whether planting tomatoes in manure-rich dirt, singing together in the car or around the piano, or recounting a treasure trove of family stories. My mother, as matriarch, was part of this tradition. Even now, five years after her…

“We’re living like plutocrats,” by Erwin A. Thompson

Noun 1. plutocrat – someone who exercises power by virtue of wealth have, rich person, wealthy person – a person who possesses great material wealth. (from Free online dictionary) Our family is made up of just folks. There’s a joke in our family that whenever we feel we’ve stumbled into some unexpected wonderful situation that…

Revolving Loan Fund as Model…and Dedication for the Riehl Family who saved my father’s life and raised him up…from Erwin A. Thompson

My father, with typical generosity, is setting up a revolving loan fund at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey, Illinois. When I was growing up this was a girl’s school called “Monticello” and underneath its current layer there will always be this other layer for me…what I term the archeology of memory and emotion….

(African Culture of Story Series) Damaria Senne: Stories from The Place of the Mist, Part 2

For me, the difficult part of storytelling as a career was telling the stories I wanted to tell, in my own way. Locally, there is a growing movement towards the telling of indigenous stories. You’d think I would fit within that movement, wouldn’t you? Yet, I feel like a square peg in a round hole….