Executive director, Sankofa Community Development Corporation, Lower Ninth Ward After Rashida Ferdinand earned her master’s degree in ceramics, she considered moving to New York for its energy and professional opportunities. “But I wanted to also be in a warm environment, physically and culturally,” she says. “Being around blue, purple, yellow houses. Being around my family. My grandmother was getting older. So it was a no-brainer.” … Continue reading Rashida Ferdinand
Rosina Philippe, an elder from the Atakapa-Ishak/Chawasha Tribe, resides in Grand Bayou Indian Village, an Indigenous community facing environmental challenges. As traditional food sources diminish and storms increase, she emphasizes the importance of policy inclusion for community input and inspires others to advocate for their heritage and future. Continue reading Rosina Philippe
Coastal scientist, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium During the Covid-19 lockdown, while others baked sourdough bread, Alex Kolker was studying satellite images of the Mississippi River Delta. As an oceanographer, geologist, and climate scientist, he is interested in how the Louisiana coastline loses land, and also how it builds that land back. As he examined the images, Alex noticed a channel connecting the Mississippi River to … Continue reading Alex Kolker
Ebony Woodruff, an agricultural attorney from Chalmette, Louisiana, uses her legal expertise to combat Black land loss, a legacy of discrimination and heirs’ property issues. Inspired by her professors, she combines her passion for food and civil rights, helping families retain land and raise awareness about systemic injustices in agriculture. Continue reading Ebony Woodruff
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
Here’s how the book was looking in the wee, dark hours of the morning today. All the pages have run through the press and are stacked on pallets, waiting to be assembled. I’ve spent much of my career producing images for magazines and newspapers, so there’s something familiar…comforting even…about walking out onto the pressroom floor, smelling the ink and hearing the hum of the rollers … Continue reading Press check
We are about a month away from the delivery of our new book, Lessons on the Road to Peace. I’m pretty sure I understood that an 11-month turnaround to write, edit, design, and produce a 304-page book was a ridiculous pace, but I decided to do it anyway. In part, to help process the enormity of this 2-½ year journey Karen and I took across … Continue reading The home stretch
At key times through the years, A Peace of My Mind has asked for a little help from our friends as we continue to stretch and grow. This is one of those times. Back in 2020, donors helped launch A Peace of My Mind’s journey to gather new stories of radical love and justice in a broken world. Little did we know, that journey would … Continue reading Book campaign
Duncan Gray is a retired Episcopal Priest and was the 9th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi. I met him at St. Peter’s Episcopal church in Oxford, Mississippi, where he was rector, like his father before him. His father served from 1957 to 1965 during the turbulent era when James Meredith was the first Black man who was allowed admission into the University of … Continue reading Duncan Gray
As we settle in from life on the road, the editing process has begun. It’s a big job. I interviewed more than 125 people over the past two years. Found them, got to them and sat with them. It was a whirlwind of thoughtful conversations, eye-opening revelations and deep human connections. And as the body of work grew, I knew there would be a day … Continue reading Editing
