Kristian Bailey

Kristian Bailey is a farmer, and he also considers himself a land steward and teacher. At Orais Hand Farm, located across the road from the Mississippi River, he is trying to move away from the idea of human dominion over nature. Instead, he is working in cooperation with it. 

Kristian talks about farming with “tenderness”: recognizing that Southern land carries wounds (his own farm is on a former plantation site) and that part of his job is to help heal those wounds. Continue reading Kristian Bailey

Chief Devon Parfait

Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Chief Devon Parfait spent his early years in Dulac, a bayou community at the edge of Louisiana. He caught fish from the dock, bounced on his neighbor’s trampoline, and went out on his grandfather’s shrimp boat. But Hurricane Rita destroyed his family’s home in 2005, when he was 8, setting off years of displacement. The extended family migrated inland and … Continue reading Chief Devon Parfait

Still Here: Stories from a fragile coastline

For this series, we are partnering with longtime friend and journalist Barry Yeoman. Based in Durham, North Carolina, Barry has lived and worked in Louisiana and has written extensively about the complexities of culture, environment, and economy along the state’s coastline. You can learn more about Barry’s work here.  Together, we crafted the arc of the series and identified the specific people to interview. Barry … Continue reading Still Here: Stories from a fragile coastline