BARISTA SPOTLIGHT: THE JBIRD CREW

This month we took a moment to check in with a few of our beloved JBird Supply barista’s. Thanks to Luke, Laura, Jennie, Derick, Liz, Julie and Reed — for keeping the café lively and real — & for serving up the best coffee in town, year around.

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What’s your name and where are you from originally?

Luke R:  I'm Luke! Born and raised in Cville.

Laura: Laura McGehee. Silver Spring, Maryland.

Jennie: Jennie, originally from North Dakota.

Derick: My name is Derick. I was born in Singapore, raised in Modesto, California.

Liz: or Lizard, or Lizzr, and sometimes Lizeree-depends who's trying to get my attention. I'm from Charlottesville in a roundabout way.

Julie: I'm Julie -- originally from Lanexa which is in New Kent County, VA. I moved to Richmond when I was 19 where I spent the next 16 years. Then I moved to Louisa County with my husband about 2 years ago. 

Reed: Reed Harmon - originally from Concord, NC

What do you love about working at JBird?

Luke R: Y'all of course!

Laura: Sweet nutty smell of freshly roasted beans, soothing buzz of the espresso grinder, talking with people who come in for the coffee but linger for the meaningful eye contact, working with the best team of smart and kind weirdos, Jon and Cheryl's shared capacity to cultivate vibes in the shop that are like the signature Whirly Bird drink (frothy & punk & ingenious & delightful & radical)

Jeannie: The fact that it’s part of a bigger community – Cheryl and Jon are so intentional about connecting the space to other people and events in Cville, which is just such a cool feeling.

Derick: Love the people, love the space. Somehow we make coffee feel both fancy and chill.

Liz: First of all, best coffee in town, hands down. Second of all, we're a big family and a relatively functional one that makes the best coffee in town. Can't think of much better than that. 

Julie: I love the people I work for- Cheryl and Jon are extremely considerate and friendly. Cheryl is one of the nicest, most forgiving and compassionate persons I have ever met. I am so grateful to know both of them. I also really enjoy working with the people who work at the shop. I'm very new to coffee but everyone has been so kind and patient with me. 

Reed:  I love the community. Jon and Cheryl are incredible and my co workers really are the best. I love the people I get to meet and the simple joy of making someone’s day just a little bit brighter with a good cup of coffee. 

What have you learned?

Luke R: So much about coffee. Like way more about coffee than I thought it was possible to know.

Laura: How to ask someone what they want and for that to mean 1) to drink and 2) in life, how to steam milk while continuing discussion of the nature of reality, how to describe coffee through tasting notes and actually mean it.

Jennie: How to make better latte art – ever since my last stint in coffee, I’ve been haunted by misshapen latte hearts I have served. Now is my shot at redemption.

Derick: How to run and how to talk to strangers.

Liz: That dry, ground coffee can smell like celery and that no matter what job you work, attitude is everything.

Julie: I'm still learning- but I'm excited about learning a new trade. It's going to take some time but I'm looking forward to being a part of the coffee world. 

Reed: That an americano is a far more popular drink than I imagined. But more seriously I’ve learned about how to talk about the individual coffees we offer, their differences and guiding people to something they’ll really enjoy.

What's your favorite coffee?

Luke R: Our Ethiopian Sidama is rocking my world right now.

Laura: Naturally processed El Salvador on pourover.

Jennie: The Columbian we have on espresso right now is straight fire.

Derick: Beans: The Betty. Drink: Hot Fancy Mocha (Mexican chocolate) w/ Keithmilk.

Liz: I'm always rotating through our different beans, but I'm growing to love a floral Ethiopian like the Guji. My favorite cup of coffee is always hot and black.

Julie:  JBird Coffee, of course! I particularly like the El Jefe dark roast blend.

Reed:  I love a good cappuccino. 

What's your favorite band?

Luke R: Car Seat Headrest.

Laura: Still to this day nobody captures the midnight angst like Sleater-Kinney.

Jennie: I love too many bands to have a favorite, but I’d say the band that gives me the most nostalgia is Poets of the Fall.

Derick: Mohsen Namjoo.

Liz:  I could never choose one. Ask me any day I'm working and the answer will change with my mood, the weather, and who I'm around.

Julie: That is an extremely difficult question for me...there are too many great bands and musical artists for me to choose.  I love pretty much most genres of music so my musical taste is a bit eclectic. It may be a cliche but my favorite album of all time is Weezer's Blue Album, but they are definitely not my favorite band.  Lately I've been listening to a lot of 60s easy listening and jazz like Bert Kaempfert, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Ray Conniff, and James Last which may seem boring to some...but I love it!

Reed:  Not exactly a band but Irish singer/songwriter Dermot Kennedy

When you’re not making coffee, what are you up to?

Luke R: I'm making art, thrifting, looking for rocks and collecting clowns.

Laura: Avoiding writing my novel through full and busy days of biking, walking, reading, looking, thinking, sitting, being, constructing sense of self just to tear it down reflexively in workplace questionnaires. Recently I discovered collaging and now I'm fulfilled for the rest of my life, so that's a relief. 

Jennie: I help my brother vend at farmer’s markets, I hang out with my niece and nephew, and I sometimes get around to editing gigs.

Derick: Reading and resting (or resting and reading)

Liz: This list is long. I am a full-time Phd student at JMU, I teach undergraduate and graduate courses in psychology and counseling at JMU and UVA, see a few therapy clients a week, teach yoga, write songs for my cats, and run, a lot.

Julie: I usually watch way too many movies and true crime documentaries...But I enjoy cooking, gardening, listening to and playing music. I'm in a band called Doll Baby, which I write songs for,  and sing and play rhythm guitar in.  After a brief 2 year hiatus, we are going to start playing shows again this Fall! I'm also hoping we will finally make a full length album, which we've been talking about for a long time now.  I also love working on home projects with my husband, spending time with friends and my sister, and hanging out with my 3 cats. 

Reed: Reading or gabbing - often trying to get people to gab with me about books and reading. 

Who would you love to have a coffee-date with, historically / currently?

Luke R: Ecco2k

Laura: Historically? Virginia Woolf. Currently? At least half of the people on the other end of the aforementioned meaningful eye contact. 

Jennie: I think I’m more inclined to pick either my grandmother or my great-grandmother, both of whom died a long time ago, than any public figure. I wish I knew more about their lives, which would make it easier to celebrate them and their legacy within my family.

Derick: Alejandro Jodorowsky / Shakira

Liz: Frank Zappa

Julie: I would have loved to have had a coffee date with Gilda Radner.

Reed: C.S. Lewis or Vitoria Schwab

What is Cheryl’s middle name?

Luke R: Coffeebird

Laura: Cheryl "Big Vibes Bigger Heart" Robison

Jennie: …a bird? Raven? Wren? Lark??

Derick: bird

Liz: Moira!

Julie: I'm not sure what Cheryl's middle name is....I know her maiden name is Mora!

Reed: Oh gosh, maybe a trick question I’m going to say she doesn’t have one…

What should Jon’s next tattoo be?

Luke R: My face (photorealistic).

Laura: An immensely detailed full-back portrait of a lil' dog on a biiiiiiiiiiig skateboard poppin' a kickflip over a graveyard with two tombstones that read "YOUR" and "MOM".

Jennie: A map of the world covering his whole back with notes on what coffees come from what areas, obviously.

Derick: Joaquin Pheonix

Liz:  An eel holding a switchblade

Julie: My first thought was Beavis and Butthead...not sure why. Then I thought that might be a very silly suggestion so I was going to change my answer. BUT THEN I saw a Beavis and Butthead sticker in the JBird Studio space so I'm going to stick with Beavis and Butthead haha

Reed: Obviously a blue jay

What’re you excited about this season? New roasts? New drinks? New Schwag? New you?

Luke R: Jon's dad's mugs are pretty darn sweet!

Laura: As sultry soggy summer haze leaves us lazy and drained of proper salt content, I'm entering my final year in the MFA program at UVA and looking forward to radically upending interiority in the pursuit of truth and/or my novel, whichever comes first. Also pants! What's more exciting than wearing pants again!

Jennie: I’m always pumped to try new seasonal drinks – new Fancy mochas and new cold brews, especially. Cool t-shirts are also always exciting.

Derick: New Hampshire! (in a tragic/happy twist, I am moving up north this August for a year-long writing retreat. Farewell and much love, until I see ya'll again xx)

Liz: I am so excited about the Lil' Zip which is the perfect, sweet, refreshing drink to get you through your afternoon. I'm excited to keep living this crazy, full, messy, beautiful life with the best people around.

Julie: I'm excited about New everything! New roasts, new drinks, new schwag, new me! The past few years have been a little rough so I'm excited about being at this lovely place and learning all I can!

Reed: I’m loving the new beans we’ve rotated on espresso, the Columbia los naranjos. Also I’m obsessed with all the mugs Jon’s dad makes. I gifted one to a friend and bought one for myself! 

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Thanks, y’all

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: TORI CHERRY

Could you tell us who you are? And what it is that you do?

My name is Tori Cherry and I’m an artist working here in Charlottesville. I work with New City Arts Initiative at their Welcome Gallery space downtown. I’m originally from Virginia Beach, but I moved to Charlottesville about 6 years ago to attend UVA.

What drives and inspires your work?

My work is inspired by my everyday life and my loved ones. I’m interested in using my art practice as a way to reflect on the events in my life and my connection to others. I’m also really fascinated by composition, form, and color so I am always on the lookout for any combination of these three things that strike me.

How do you approach the work? What's your process?

Once I am inspired by an initial image or scene, I try to visualize what composition feels right, how I can push the colors and shapes that I see, and how to convey my feeling towards the subject. I don’t usually sketch anything beforehand which admittedly leads to a lot of failed paintings, but I really enjoy just going straight in. I think there’s a freshness that’s difficult to achieve when you’ve done too much planning beforehand. A lot of my paintings are the result of intuitive decisions and I really value the genuine reactions that occur during the process.

Who or what has had the greatest influence upon you as an artist?

Personally, my friendships with other artists have had a big influence on me. My conversations with them are always enlightening and affirming and they often have the language for things that I struggle to express outside of painting which I’m very grateful for. They encourage me to think deeply about my practice and help push me to keep going.

What are your interests outside of the studio?

I love to travel, listen to music, try new recipes, and support other artists when I’m not working in the studio.

Has there been a light switch moment, a turning point that stands out to you?

I’d say that my Lupus diagnosis was a turning point for me. It came following months of feeling so much exhaustion and despair; not knowing what was going on or if I would get better. I felt really angry at my body for not acting like a 20-something year old body should and keeping me from doing the things I wanted to do. It’s such an awful feeling to have all this creative energy building up and not have the energy or the physical capacity to act on it. After that diagnosis, being able to name what was going on and having a somewhat clear path of how to move forward I could finally envision a future where I could do things because I wouldn’t be in pain forever. I’m just so, so grateful that I’m doing better now and am able to continue doing what I love. I know that that’s not the case for everyone, and that good health can change so quickly so I do my best to make the most out of right now. I will be honest though, I still have that constant anxiety looming that things will get bad again, but I’m trying my best to embrace it and turn it into a productive urgency. If inspiration strikes, I try not to talk myself out of it or think about all the ways I’m not ready to take it on…I act on it as soon as I can.

What are you currently working on?

To be honest, I’m currently taking a break! I’m trying to be more intentional about allowing myself to rest because I think rest is just as important as creating. I’m wary of burn out and so I try to work in ways that are equally fulfilling, but that look different than painting or drawing. I’m reading books I’ve been wanting to read, spending time with people I love, and quite literally resting. My experience with Lupus has also resulted in changes in my energy capacity and so I’m not able to do as much as I used to or keep pushing myself as hard as I was previously able to. This mindset is also about longevity for me; I’m prioritizing rest so that I can continue to make art for as long as possible.

What's your favorite color?

I really love anything in the orange family.

Closing thoughts? Anything we missed?

I’d just like to say thank you to all of my friends and family for continuing to encourage and support me.

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: TENZIN NAMDOL

Could you tell us who you are and what it is that you do?

I feel incredibly privileged and very selfish when I say that I am just on a journey of curiosity and learning and what better role to do that in but as a researcher. I get to be a life long student and get paid in the process.  I love the chance to dive in and learn more about certain topics so I’ve done research in a lot of different fields from finance to government to tech. I currently study human behavior particularly focused on how people use and interact with technology at Walmart. 

What do you love most about the work?

I love interviewing people and learning about their lived experience. For a while I was focusing on the health and wellness space so I had a lot of opportunities to spend time with people managing various chronic conditions and learn about how they manage them. It’s great to be able to share their stories with my stakeholders to improve existing products or work towards creating new ones. 

 How did you arrive at this point in your career? What’s your backstory?

I have been on this life long journey of going where I can learn more. And sometimes that has meant recognizing when I should take a new opportunity that scares me or should leave a certain career path to go in another direction that has more learning opportunities. And that also means saying yes to failing more often, being more uncomfortable and learning on the job. 

I have also been incredibility privileged to have people around me who have been willing to tell me their stories about their winding journeys and give me the courage to try new things. For example, when I was in my research role in finance, my professor from college met me for some lunch and at the end of lunch told me I needed to leave my job because I have stopped learning. And I knew he was right. I just wasn’t ready to admit it to myself.  

Has there been a light switch moment, a turning point, professionally &/or personally that stands out to you?

Honestly, coming to the US as a young child was a major turning point. I am incredibly grateful to my parents for coming to a country that they knew little to nothing about and putting me through school.   

What are you currently working on, excited about, looking forward to?

Honestly, I’ve been looking forward to my tomatoes growing this season. They’ve been really struggling this summer so I hope they make it through.

Work wise, I am managing a new research area, so I am excited to learn more about my end users in this new space. The fun part of doing research is that not knowing is okay, because learning is part of my job description. 

What drives your work each day? What most inspires you?

I think it’s really important that we create products, systems and policies that address the needs of the people that said product, system or policy is affecting. So what drives me to work is being able to hear the stories of the people who use the product - whatever the feedback may be - and take that feedback back to our partners to make changes that improve their experience.

People’s lived experience and resilience inspires me. 

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: JOSH BATMAN

Could you tell us who you are and what it is that you do?

I’m Josh Batman. I develop land, design residential and commercial buildings and build homes, renovations and commercial buildings.

What do you love most about the work?

I love solving problems that involve multi-disciplinary problems and human elements. I get to do that everyday and the problems can range from someone’s light switch location to the use of large pieces of land or designing large buildings.

How did you arrive at this point in your career? What’s your backstory?

I grew up building homes with my Dad and helping with small scale residential development. After I got my degree in Architecture at UVA I did design build with my Dad and then got my Master’s in Architecture from Virginia Tech. I then started Hauscraft with my professor Joseph Wheeler and my sister Natalie. Our first project was Studio IX which we designed and built with James. We designed many of the homes in Riverside Village and built our first prefab house out of a warehouse on Avon called Lake Haus. I then went on to work with Chris Henry to build Stony Point Development Group and built many homes, communities, condos and most notably Dairy Market and 10th & Dairy Apartments. I have now come full circle and am back at Studio IX and working on residential projects and development.

Has there been a light switch moment, a turning point, professionally and/or personally along the way?

I feel like there are multiple light switch moments in life. Each change in my career has been because of such moments, where I realize I am not growing anymore and then make a change.

What are you currently working on, excited about, looking forward to?

I am currently working on a few residential projects, research projects and some larger developments. I love working with clients to realize their dreams and dreaming about places people can realize their dreams.

What values drive your work each day? Can you say a bit about them?

Integrity, Value for the Customer, Fortitude, Creativity and Beauty. I believe in being honest and transparent, creating value for my clients, having the fortitude to push through and complete projects with creativity that leads to beauty and brings everyone who experiences the place closer to the divine.

Anything we missed that you might care to share (closing thoughts)?

I am very happy being back at Studio IX and again being completely in charge of my destiny. I look forward to meeting the amazing people in this community and hopefully adding to the vibrancy already in this place.

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: JEFF DION

Could you tell us who you are and what it is that you do?

My name is Jeff Dion and I've lived here in Charlottesville for 8 years now. I have a home down in Esmont, near Scottsville, with 2 acres and quiet neighbors - life is good. I'm a father of two little girls, husband to a driven and exceedingly beautiful wife, student of the natural world, and avid outdoor enthusiast. In my professional life I help entrepreneurs access a more equitable form of business capital; raising money for their growth from their customers, fans, and community. The company is called Wefunder.

What do you love most about the work?

Personally: It takes me awhile to disconnect from my work each day, so the freedom to build my work schedule around my family schedule and my own goals, makes this a more sustainable career. Professionally: Wealth across this country over the past 40 years has been wildly disproportionately skewed to the top 10%. I love that this tool of community rounds can actually usher in generational community wealth, for everyone!

How did you arrive at this point in your career / work? What’s your backstory?

Originally from New England, my wife and I moved to Charlottesville after staying here for three days on a road trip. Right before we relocated, we spent six months in South America, traveling and learning to make wine in Argentina. Back on US soil, here in VA, I started selling wine. Selling wine got me into restaurants, and for a few years I thought I might work in restaurants forever. But restaurants led me to food, and food to local food. I started going down this massive rabbit hole of local economies, and long story short, that led me to a role at Wefunder helping founders raise capital from their community -- supporting local entrepreneurship and growing our community’s overall wealth, one individual at a time. 

Has there been a light switch moment, a turning point, professionally &/or personally along the way?

I really enjoy hospitality and the act of taking care of people. I'm not sure that I knew that about myself a decade ago. Now I realize that it is pretty core to who I am. That drives me today, to make sure that whatever work I am doing, I do it with the customer/human at the center of the equation.

What drives your work each day (internally, spiritually, practically....)?  

If I'm being honest, raising a healthy family costs an insane amount of money these days. After working in restaurants for years, and making no money, I'm currently pretty driven by putting some financial cushion in place for my family and myself. While I really value the output of the current work I am doing, I don't plan to be sitting in a chair, looking into a computer a screen, melting my body away, for too much longer. So I guess my main driver at the moment is putting myself in a place where I can consciously walk away from tech-based careers, and back into the outdoors, with the confidence that I can still be providing my family with what they need and desire. While I'm on this path though, I can only get out of bed in the morning if the work that I am doing is genuinely helping other humans.

What are you currently working on, excited about, looking forward to?

Professionally: I just put on a Community Capital event here in Charlottesville that pulled the greater community together to participate in investing in their local businesses. That was pretty meaningful for me, as I'd like Wefunder to continue to let me roll these communtiy-centered positions out across the country lol!

Personally: recently I've really enjoyed helping my wife move from her long time career towards a role that allows her to spend more time as a Mom. And for me, I've now started taking active steps towards building out a career in which my daily compass is:  nature and craftsmanship.

Anything we missed that you might care to share / closing thoughts?

Thanks for having me at IX, Greg!  I've always enjoyed the laid back and positive attitude here. 

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: MOLLY HICKMAN

Could you tell us who you are and what it is that you do?

I'm Molly Hickman, a software engineer/data scientist. I work for a startup called nLine, Inc. that measures electricity reliability in Sub-Saharan Africa. We plug these little sensors into outlets in homes, businesses, and sometimes health clinics, in Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Nigeria, and soon the DRC and Uganda. The sensors tell us the voltage and frequency and how often folks lose power, for how long. We're a small team, nine people, so we all wear several hats, but I mostly do statistics and back-end stuff.

What do you love most about the work?

I hit the jackpot with this job. I'm doing meaningful work, with awesome people; I get to leverage things I'm really good at; and I have a lot of opportunities to grow new skills. Maybe my favorite part is: I love being able to take strong positions on things that matter to me, and having my thoughts matter to the team. We all bring different skills to the table and everyone's opinions hold weight. I don't have to beat around the bush or bite my tongue; I can just say what I'm thinking. And best of all, if it turns out I'm wrong, I can admit it and we move on, it's fine. Everyone is so compassionate. In my past jobs it's always been a game of, like, what am I allowed to say in front of this group of people? What am I risking by speaking my mind? Is it worth it? It's so nice not to have to worry about that, and we get so much more work done!!

How did you arrive at this point in your work? What’s your backstory?

My background is in national security, specifically anticipatory intelligence, even more specifically crowd-sourced intelligence/forecasting. I did math and linguistics in undergrad, did a little coding toward the end of college, and was very lucky to get an internship and then a job at MITRE in McLean. I enjoyed that work and still try to keep up with the literature, and contribute to forecasting projects when I'm able. I'm currently "pro" forecasting on a platform called INFER, run by U-Maryland's ARLIS (Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security). Anyway, MITRE is chock full of PhD's and there's only so much you can do there with only an undergraduate degree, so I went to Virginia Tech for a masters in Computer Science. My co-advisor Shaddi Hasan connected me with the founders of the startup I work for now. I worked for them as a "guest researcher" while I finished my masters, and I loved the work so much that I made the tough choice to leave MITRE and join nLine.

What values drive your work each day?

I value data integrity. That's taken on an oddly specific meaning in industry, but I just mean I care about creating data that are honest, and also taking care about what we claim based on data. One of the most important things I've learned over the course of my time at MITRE and then Virginia Tech is how easy it is to make the wrong inferences from data. Crazy easy. Whenever you hear someone say "the data show this," be suspicious! First, just the process of creating data always involves choices about what details to record, maybe how often to record them, how to sample, how many samples are enough, etc. But even if we lived in a magical world where we could just collect every detail imaginable with perfect faithfulness, we'd still have the tough job of interpreting the data, trying to glean whether A "causes" B, like, whether an intervention made a difference. Causal inference is a whole amazing problem unto itself that economists and philosophers and scientists of all stripes have thought about for ages. What drives me is I want to get at the truth. The measurements my company makes, the data we create, these data reflect people's realities, their experience of electricity. That excites me, that drives me. I want to tell their story faithfully.

What is the most challenging aspect of the work?

Being remote. Working at IX has been a game-changer, but it's still really hard to work apart from my coworkers. We're split across several time zones, from Berkeley to Nairobi. And I guess also, related to the remoteness, it's been challenging to figure out how to manage each other. We're a pretty young company; I was the fourth or fifth full-time hire, I think. We're all young. For many of us it's the first job, or at least the first job in tech. We're still very much figuring out what kind of company we want to be, how to work together, how to structure project management, all that. It's exciting! I think we're making really good choices. But it's hard, and a little nerve-wracking.

Has there been a light switch moment, a turning point, professionally and/or personally along the way?

Hm! I'm having a hard time crafting a serious answer to this so I'll give the kinda silly one. My older brother changed the course of my life when I had just finished my freshman year of college. I was studying music at the time. I wanted to be a conductor, or a singer, or write music for puppet shows or something. I still have an ambition to accompany puppet shows. But anyway, my brother had also been a musician, and he basically said: "Don't major in music. All my musician friends are miserable. You should study Business, get an MBA." I couldn't stomach Business, but my eighteen year old brain somehow figured that math was the next best thing. I had effectively flunked precalculus in high school; I don't know what possessed me to give it another shot. But anyway, I wound up loving math! I was never a great student but I had some extraordinary professors who encouraged me. So here we are.

What are you currently working on, excited about, looking forward to?

I've been designing an interview study for a long time that we might finally get to execute in the next couple months! We want to interview district engineers at the electrical utility in Accra, Ghana, the folks who fix things when the power goes out, so that we can hopefully build a tool that lets them leverage our sensor data to restore power faster. I'm probably going to Accra at the end of this month. I've been studying their distribution grid for almost two years now, but this will be my first visit to Ghana. I'm stoked.

Anything we missed that you might care to share (closing thoughts)?

I'm always frowning at my computer when I'm at IX, but I'm actually fairly friendly! I look forward to meeting other Studio IX members. So glad Sara Surface introduced me to this place.

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: KAY FERGUSON & JOSH VANA

Kay Ferguson | Co-Director & Founder, ARTivism

Could you tell us who you are and what it is that you do?

I’m Kay Leigh Ferguson. In 2017, I bolted out of semi retirement to found ARTivism Virginia and create a supported connection between artists and activists. Educated as a writer, often employed as an actor and as an activist, I have taught writing, theater and organizing in more and weirder settings than can be named here.  Activist teeth cut in early 80’s with Women’s Action for Nuclear Disarmament.  20 years work with Live Arts Theater as janitor, board officer, fundraiser, actor, director, teacher and founder of their education program.  Only now can I see that the uniting thread is and was always artivism.  Approaching my 7th decade, I’m glad to finally know what she grew up to be. 

What do you love most about the work? 

Giving artists meaningful ways to share their time and talent with causes and communities that need both. Kicking the foul butt of the fossil fuel industry in my home state.  The fierce, wise, diverse characters I have met and learned from along this way.

Has there been a light switch moment, a turning point, professionally &/or personally along the way? 

Trump's election lit the fuse that blasted me out of my first effort at retirement.  What to do?  What could I do?  I guess the light bulb moment was to understand that my wealth was the artistic community I was part of, that generally I can talk a dog off a meat truck and that I know how to build powerful volunteer teams.  I wanted to get out of my blue bubble and into rural communities to understand what was happening.  That's when I found out about the proposed Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley fracked gas pipelines trying to destroy this state.  This very close line in the climate change sand picked me up by the back of the neck and hasn't let go since.  

What are you currently working on, excited about, looking forward to? 

Transitioning to my second retirement attempt right now involves taking stock of five years of work and preparing to hand it over to young new leadership.  I can't wait to see what it becomes next.  Also for the Mountain Valley Pipeline to bite the bitter dust.  We're close.  

What values drive your work each day? 

Love.  Justice.  Service.  But it's all love really. 

Anything we missed that you might care to share (closing thoughts)? 

Got three days?

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Josh Vana | Co-Director, ARTivism

Could you tell us who you are and what it is that you do?

I'm a musician who happens to be a justice issues person. I write songs, carry songs, and try to make noise good enough to rattle the system's rafters a little bit – a constant work in progress. I've worked with my Co-Director Kay Ferguson for about three and a half years now in various capacities, all in the valuable service of translating complex information into messaging that moves the heart, the head, and then the feet. ARTivism Virginia has been primarily focused on working with a coalition of largely frontline and environmental groups to halt the fossil fuel buildout in so-called Virginia and the region. That's meant event planning, messaging strategy, music and film production, and a whole host of other stuff. Mostly, as Kay will tell you, it's supporting connections between artists and activists, helping tell the story to the newcomer, and providing invitations for folks to show up ("with full orchestration and five-part harmony and stuff like that", as Arlo Guthrie might say. "And friends, they may think it's a movement. And it is.").

What do you love most about the work?

I love when people discover their power and start to feel like they are somebody to be messed with – not somebody who's gonna be run over. When they find a voice they didn't know they had. It can be both individual and collective. I love watching the floor disintegrate beneath the liars and oppressors who drag communities through hell, only to find that their subjects wanted victory more than a corporation does. I love witnessing the relief and overwhelm when someone in a frontline community finally experiences that victory – having had everything to lose. There is joy in resistance. There has to be. Because when they've got you in despair, they've won.

How did you arrive at this point in your work? What’s your backstory?

I've landed here in my role as Co-Director of ARTivism Virginia (emerging Director, you might say) through years of connecting with other activists and artists in the fight to stop the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley Pipelines. I began to get educated and active around these issues in 2015 while living in so-called Rockingham County, coinciding with a broader political awakening in support of the first Bernie Sanders campaign for president. I helped form a solidarity group called RAPTORS there in the Shenandoah Valley, and started showing up everywhere I could within the confines of also being a touring musician and working at the Little Grill Collective in Harrisonburg. I've been working with Kay and a growing network of artivists since the summer of 2018, and that took little time to develop into a more full-time partnership to stop ACP, MVP, and similarly stupid ventures dreamt up by the geniuses in the fossil fuel and finance industries.

Has there been a light switch moment, a turning point, professionally &/or personally along the way?

After being active in the pipeline fights in our region for a couple years, I found that I could no longer keep the balance with my activism while being a thousand miles away at any given time. The urgency of our moment really started to tear at me. Early on, that moment was framed to me this way: We are in the hallway between extraction and export (speaking specifically to our geography). That essentially means that there is no safe place from the continued shale oil and gas buildout unless you are incredibly wealthy and can keep it out of your backyard. Even then, this latest stage in colonialism will find a way to extract what land and resources do not already belong to those in power. Obviously, when the Trump goons came in, everything hit the fan and they took every opportunity that previous administrations had teed up for them to obliterate what was left of the appearance of environmental protection via the federal government. Then all the permits were issued. They never stop with the permits. My understanding of how local, state, and federal agencies, the consulting class and legislatures cooperate to railroad everyday people has been a steep, continuing education – and it's taught me that the only way to change these circumstances is for us to organize and become ungovernable. In other words, the system is not broken; it's fixed and working exactly as it was designed. And it needs to be broken.

What are you currently working on, excited about, looking forward to?

We're working on Kay's transition to retirement, and my own transition to steer the ship a bit more in serving the coalition that we're so thankful to be a part of. Conditions shift rapidly in this line of work, and we're fortifying the structures that'll help us stay steady while leaving enough room for agility and creativity as the campaign to stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline enters its ninth year. MVP is in serious distress, as are both the proposed Chickahominy Power Station and associated pipeline project from Louisa to Charles City County, so we're looking forward to the dominoes continuing to fall, and doing whatever we can to see these things go up in smoke. Figuratively, of course.

What values drive your work each day?

I think Kay said it best – love, justice and service.

Anything we missed that you might care to share (closing thoughts)?

Every single day, I say to myself, "We need more people." Apathy is always a challenge to beat back, but I think solidarity isn't as hard to find out here as it used to be (in the so-called USA). If you've got a fire in you that just can't stand injustice, that's potential energy waiting to be used, and boy is it needed. Everybody has something to bring. Everybody.

MEMBERS SPOTLIGHT: SHAINA ALLEN & MIKE ESPOSITO

Could you tell our readers who you are and what it is that you do?

We are Shaina Allen and Mike Esposito, we are filmmakers and the co-founders of Evergrain Studios.

Evergrain is a video production company, creative studio, and container for our creative work, where we tell stories guided by authenticity and a commitment to positive impact.

We develop and produce documentaries, and work with brands and businesses to create more authentic, engaging content. As creatives we also collaborate with other artists and organizations as freelancers - often in a director, producer, cinematographer, or consultant role. Evergrain’s past work has won multiple awards, streamed on Netflix and in-flight on Delta Airlines, broadcast on NBC, and has been featured in hundreds of schools and theaters around the world.

You may have seen us around town with our cameras or walking around the art park with our blue-eyed husky Keiko. Our “wolfpack” loves being outdoors when we’re not creating and collaborating at Studio IX.

What do you love most about the work?

Mike: I’m energized by helping to bring a creative vision to life, and then experiencing the impact that work has on individuals and communities. Our work allows opportunities for collaboration and connection with fascinating people, vibrant communities, and meaningful relationships.

Shai: The creative process. I flow when building story structure and envisioning the scenes and montage builds, storyboarding animations, music, scriptwriting, etc. Production - especially when capturing natural moments, I love being present with life as it’s unfolding. We are capturing stories that aren’t traditionally highlighted in mainstream media, but fully deserve to have a platform. We have seen first-hand how documentaries and character-driven content can build bridges for perspectives and create real impact.

How did you both arrive at this place professionally? What’s your backstory?

Mike: Some highlights of our story:

• We both attended James Madison University in nearby Harrisonburg, VA. We met on a JMU study abroad trip to the Philippines.

• We moved to Miami, worked full time jobs, at one point both at CBS Sports.

• Took a leap of faith, left our jobs to start our own video production business, Shaina Koren Cinematography.

• Started filming a promo video for a local non-profit wheelchair basketball team (which we would end up filming for two more years).

• Built an award-winning wedding cinematography and video production company.

• Edited our first independent feature The Rebound, the non-profit promo had evolved now 3 years later!

• The documentary premiered at 20+ film festivals, streamed on Netflix and on Delta Airlines. It was a big step for us.

• Leap of faith. Dove into the creative process on new projects. Worked on expanding our team, growing the studio and producing a slate of original films. Bootstrapping it all, we trekked out to California and around the country filming for three new projects: Forged in the Fire, Moving Minds, and Para.

• Returned to Charlottesville to calibrate, right before the pandemic took us all by surprise.

We are currently capturing the story of Prolyfyck Run Creww and are still in various stages of the development and post-production on the other stories.

The past few seasons, like for many, have been challenging. We have pivoted, adapted and persisted. We also learned to slow down, to get more clarity and to heal.

We’re open to work. #ItsAllAboutHowYouRebound

Has there been a light switch moment along the way? Something that set you on the course that you’re on today?

Shai: There are a few moments of transformation that have stayed with me. There was a student at a middle school who after watching The Rebound in class told his math teacher that he too is a wheelchair basketball player. He walks but has spina bifida. The organizer asked him if he’d like to participate in the school assembly for the film, unsure he asked, “Can I think about it?”

Flash forward a week as he shined in front of his classmates at the assembly, first for his 7th grade peers and then again when he excitedly asked if he could stay for the 8th grade assembly. I had asked him if he wanted to speak for the first time, “no.” Second time, after going through the first assembly with a Paralympian and local ballers, he nodded at me and grabbed the microphone.

Days earlier his classmates may not have known he was an athlete, a wheelchair basketball player - but after watching The Rebound in class, sharing with his teacher, deciding overnight that YES he’d participate in the assembly - here he was sharing his story with the entire gym full of 8th grade students. Maybe for the first time in front of his classmates, he was able to be exactly who he is and show everyone his abilities.

His mom came up to me a few months later at a tournament and shared how that experience transformed him, he was more confident than ever. Film is a powerful artistic medium. It has the power to transform, bridge connection, and cliche as it is - change the world.

What are you currently working on, excited about, looking forward to?

Mike: We have several exciting documentary projects in various stages, from development

and fundraising to post production.

Currently, a few of our projects are at the intersection of sports and social impact. A collab with local organization Prolyfyck Run Creww; a set of incredible stories featuring female Parlympians; and a unique look into mindset and mental skills training in the sports world.

I’m also personally excited about bringing our experience with creative storytelling and media to the growing cannabis and hemp industry here in our region. Shai is leaning into creative collaborations with local entrepreneurs and artists who want to expand into video content. We have some exciting new offers for 2022, including heirloom films that preserve the history and stories of elders while they are still here with us.

What’s the single most important value that drives your work each day?

Shai: My personal values are Presence, Growth, Bold, Sustainable, Impact, and Community. Defining our five core values was a practice our mentor Anthony Lee (Heroic Voice Academy) taught us years ago. I have added 1 since then.

Mike: I’m driven by the understanding that our creative work is a form of service, to our partners, the communities we belong to. Filmmaking is our way of using our skills to help make an impact, and lift others up. Through this service, we are constantly learning, growing, and collaborating. And that’s pure energy that keeps us going.

How’s it been working here at Studio IX?

Mike: Studio IX has offered not only a space to create, but also a sense of community. Especially during the past couple of years when we’ve all been met with unexpected challenges. It’s a place where we’re able to establish a foundation for our business here in Charlottesville and gather with our collaborators.

Shai: Amazing! J-bird is the best and IX is a welcoming space with great people; community is never far. I feel at home here.

Closing thoughts? Anything we missed that you’d like to share?

We invite you to check out our work, and reach out to us if you have any questions or ideas you’d like help bringing to life through film and video. Please say hi - we’d love to meet you. Here is our field notes signup to follow along with our journey.

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: JORDAN RIDDICK

Could you tell us who you are and what it is that you do?

I’m Jordan. I’ve had lots of odd jobs along the way but am mostly a web developer and chef. 

What do you love most about the work?

To be frank, I enjoy the pay and flexibility of web development. There are some gems in the actual job, like vector graphic animation, but I’m mostly just happy to work less and be outside more. 

How did you arrive at this place?  What’s your backstory?

I want to say my first exposure to IX was when the fine folks of Shark Mountain ran the coffee shop up front.  This time around I’d just returned from working freelance and cooking at an amazing restaurant, Blackbird, in Bozeman, Montana.

Has there been a light switch moment, a turning point, professionally &/or personally along the way?

 Yeah, probably too many. 

What are you currently working on, excited about, looking forward to?

 I’m working with some old colleagues out of Carbondale, Co at the moment. I’m excited to move into a senior role and help junior developers grow. 

What is the single most important thing to you in your work each day?

Patience, humility, and humor with myself and others. Oh, and coffee; shout out to JBird for keeping this coffee snob happy. 

Anything we missed that you might care to share (closing thoughts)?

Thanks for letting me hang here! I’m heading back to the rockies after Christmas and am not really sure if it’ll be a month or six before I come back. It’s nice to know there’s a friendly place to set up shop here in my hometown.

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: SARA SURFACE

Could you tell us who you are and what it is that you do?

Hey! I’m Sara. I’m the Director of Civil Rights Testing for a DC based non-profit called the Equal Rights Center. I send in ‘secret shoppers’ (testers) to see if discrimination is happening in different markets – like in housing, employment, or at government agencies or businesses. Sometimes we can use testing results in court cases, or publish studies about what we found, or use the information to apply public pressure around a certain issue.

What do you love most about the work?

Testing is almost never boring – from trying to figure out how to investigate a particular business to thinking through how testing data might be able to change the conversation around a certain issue  - it’s all exciting. I like being in a position where I am constantly problem solving.

How did you arrive at this place?  What’s your backstory?

A tale as old as time – I worked as an unpaid intern at a non-profit in Richmond until they could find the money to pay me. I stayed there for several years and learned all the ropes of fair housing investigations. Eventually, though, I wanted to have more leadership opportunities and applied to work at the next closest sibling org, which happened to be in DC (they’re few and far between!).

Has there been a light switch moment, a turning point, professionally &/or personally along the way?

I used to do sexual violence prevention & response work. At a certain point, it began to click for me that I couldn't think about addressing gender violence without looking at other forms of oppression, especially racism. Now I consider holding businesses accountable for many kinds of discrimination as part of the fabric of violence prevention work.

What are you currently working on, excited about, looking forward to?

While there’s a lot of fair housing testing organizations nationwide, we’re the only non-profit in the country that does employment testing. I’m currently pitching projects to funders and getting really excited thinking about the impact we could have.

What is the single most important thing to you in your work each day?

Honestly, coffee.  But seriously, I can’t do this work without taking care of myself, so coffee, food, and walking breaks are crucial.

Anything we missed, closing thoughts?

I’m new to the area - I hope you’ll say hey if you see me around. Also, I just joined Rocky Top and would love some climbing buddies!

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: SARAH MONIZ

Could you tell us who you are and what it is that you do?

I'm Sarah Moniz (pronounced like "ceremonies"), and I moved to Charlottesville from my native Northern Virginia in August of this year. I'm an AmeriCorps VISTA with the Thomas Jefferson Area Coalition for the Homeless, or if you’re short on time, TJACH.  TJACH is a collaboration of individuals and organizations working to end homelessness in our community through strategic planning, advocacy, and coordination of resources.  As a VISTA ("Volunteer in Service to America"), I serve a one-year term with a non-profit, helping to build capacity for the organization. It's more of a "behind-the-scenes" role, as opposed to direct service. The main objective is to create sustainable programs and systems that will continue to benefit the organization long after my year of service is over. 

What do you love most about the work?

So far, it's the people I work with. They're genuine and compassionate. I think it comes with the territory, as there doesn't seem to be a lot of room for egos in this line of work.  It's a breath of fresh air for me, coming from a heavily corporate background.

How did you arrive at this place?  What is your backstory?

As I'm sure is the case for so many people, the pandemic was a reckoning for me. I started rethinking everything. I was living in Northern Virginia, fighting upwards of two hours of traffic every day, just to get to and from a job I didn't particularly enjoy. I needed a change of pace and something more fulfilling. It was a slow process; I sold my house, ended a long relationship, and started looking for alternatives. New jobs, going back to school, joining a convent—pretty much anything to get me out of the area and out of my comfort zone. Eventually I stumbled upon Americorps, and I was lucky enough to find a position in Charlottesville, a place I've always wanted to live. Shoutout to Anthony and TJACH for taking a chance on a me.

What and/or who inspires you? 

Right now, everything! Everything feels big and new to me here. It's very humbling. Having the chance to start over can be pretty overwhelming and intimidating, but I try to view that as a positive. You need the dark to find the light.

What are you passionate about?

Learning. I love reading, listening, researching—just absorbing as much information as possible. And always asking why.  I think it’s crucial in this day and age to be as informed and open-minded as you can be. Plus, there’s no excuse not to be, with so much information at our fingertips. I studied sociology at VCU, and, being the ever-evolving field it is, there’s always something new to discover. It’s especially important to learn about people (my other passion) and take the time to listen, instead of just reacting or responding. Learning how to be a better person, the best version of yourself—that’s most important.  

Was there a light switch moment? -- a turning point for you (professionally &/or personally)?

I think it was the day I learned about the VISTA program. One of my friends posted about it on LinkedIn. I clicked the link, read a few sentences, and I was sold. Within a week, I had completed my (rather lengthy) AmeriCorps application. A few weeks later, I submitted my official application to TJACH, and a couple weeks after that, I got offered the job. I even found an apartment here with relative ease, which I hear is a rarity in Cville. Everything just fell into place so perfectly, it felt like it was meant to be. 

Could you share a memorable story from your professional path thus far?

As much as I rag on my old corporate job, it had plenty of high points. I worked for a multi-national telecom company, so I got the chance to see the world through a totally different lens. I used to manage offices, and I did everything from buying supplies to negotiating leases to completing full-scale buildouts. I got to do a ton of traveling, too—Sao Paulo, Toronto, Panama, Vancouver. I also had some top-notch coworkers, who doubled as both geographic and cultural tour guides. I feel incredibly lucky to have had those opportunities. 

What's on the horizon? What are you currently working on, excited about, looking forward to?

We have a lot of exciting stuff in the works at TJACH. We’re in the process of rebranding and updating our website to better reflect what we do and make us more accessible. We have a new name that we’ll be rolling out soon, too. We’re also working on forming what we’re calling the “People’s Caucus.” Basically, it will be a group of individuals with lived experience of homelessness who meet to discuss and provide feedback on our homeless system of care, with an emphasis on racial equity. We’re still in the very early stages, and it’s definitely challenging, but I think it’s the project I’m most excited about. As for after my Americorps term, I’m not totally sure yet. That’s kind of the point of this year for me—to learn about myself and what I want to do. Though I will say, I wouldn’t be opposed to staying in Cville a bit longer and doing something similar to what I’m doing with TJACH. I love it so far.

 How has your experience at Studio IX been thus far?

Awesome! First off, it’s nice just to be back in an office again, around other humans. But my favorite part about Studio IX is the people here and the diversity in backgrounds and experience. I love the laid-back, open environment. I can usually be found at my desk with my headphones in, but feel free to stop by to say hi and break me out of my shell!

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: NICK RUBIN

Could you tell us who you are and what it is that you do?

My name is Nick Rubin and I run Rubin Academics, a solo-venture tutoring company. I mostly help high school students with standardized tests, but I also help with coursework, along with essay and paper development and editing.

What do you love most about the work?

I love working with motivated students one-on-one, helping them solve problems and reach their goals. I also love that as a tutor I’m not the students’ adjudicator/grader, but their coach/teammate. Finally, I love working for myself.

How did you arrive at this profession?  What’s your backstory?

I came to Charlottesville to study in UVA’s Music Department, and graduated in 2010 with a Ph.D. (It’s not a performance degree, but, fun fact: I play in a band called New Boss, and our bandleader Thomas Dean designed and printed the rock show posters hanging throughout Studio IX!) After a decade of adjuncting and chasing the elusive tenure-track job, I wanted to try making something happen on my own. Having enjoyed tutoring in the past, it was an appealing plan B, and I started Rubin Academics a few months before Covid hit.

Have there been any light switch moments (personal and/or professional) that have influenced your path and career thus far?

I’m cautious to a fault (yes, a Libra), so “light switches” act more like slow-rising dimmers, which is why it took me so long to get this business started. But lots of my friends here in town are rad, smart, talented people taking the initiative to do cool things their own way, so that has definitely been an ever-present influence and inspiration.

Could you share a memorable story from your professional path thus far?

It’s been a pretty straightforward and workaday gig so far, and nothing really stands out. But in the thinking/planning stages, I got a ton of useful advice and ideas from friends – they seemed as excited about the potential as I was.

What's on the horizon? What are you currently working on, excited about, looking forward to?

I’m hoping to add services that I can provide during school hours, when students are…in school. Also looking to expand the writing instruction aspect, and eventually, offer GRE prep. But the nature of the business is that I’m always just trying to replenish the lineup as students move on.

How has your experience at Studio IX been?

It’s my first shared-workspace experience, and it’s been wonderful: lots of friendly and cheerful faces; great location; hassle-free parking. The JBird Supply folks bring a great vibe to the café. And Greg patiently endures all my interruptions to talk music. So glad I found IX!

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: APRIL MÛNIZ

Could you tell us who you are and what it is that you do?

My name is April Muñiz (pronounced moo-n-yees’) and I’ve been in the Charlottesville area since I graduated from JMU in 1990. I have a master’s degree from George Washington University in Health Sciences – Clinical Research Administration and currently work as a project manager for a company called Veradigm, which is headquartered in Chicago, although I’ve yet to meet any coworkers who live or work in Chicago? We work closely with pharmaceutical companies to leverage Electronic Health Records systems to gain access to real world information that will advance their research efforts by making research more accessible to clinical practices and their patients. Not to worry, it’s all done on the up-and-up with great care and scrutiny to protect patient health information.

What do you love most about the work? 

I’ve been involved in clinical research for over 30 years and what I love most about my work is that it is constantly changing. Advances in the worlds of information technology and data science have dramatically changed the way drugs are brought to market and what we know about them (and the people who take them) once they are approved.

What inspires you?

I like being part of a system that it is providing solutions to the healthcare industry.  During my career, I’ve helped manage studies for ground-breaking treatments that have helped patients with serious illnesses and rare diseases and that have drastically improved the quality of life for others.

How did you arrive at this place?  What’s your backstory?

I fell into clinical research right out of college after having been exposed to it as a research participant at the National Institutes of Health. I worked for PRA Health Sciences for 17 years, before venturing on to do some other things like managing Horse & Buggy Produce, a local foods cooperative, from the old Ix factory building where the Ix Art Park now resides, joining the Peace Corps and volunteering for two years in Senegal, and managing catering events for Harvest Moon before finally making my way back to clinical research six years ago.

Was there a light switch moment? A turning point for you (professionally &/or personally)?

I have to say that the best thing I ever did for my career was take a break from it.  It allowed me to pursue some other interests, build new skills, and follow other paths.  During my eight-year hiatus I strengthened my confidence in tackling new things, met some amazing people,and really broadened my world.

Could you share a memorable story from your professional path thus far?

As a Peace Corps Volunteer in Senegal, I was assigned to be a Community Economic Development agent, working with artisan business owners to improve their market reach, teaching entrepreneurial skills to high school students, and finding income-generating projects for women’s groups. Those were my primary tasks, however, the real need in my community was assisting my local counterpart in developing an environmental education program for a group of 50 advanced elementary school students to help them understand the effects that climate change and poor land stewardship have had on their community.  This ended up being the project that I spent the most time working on, developing curriculum, meeting with local school administrators, and holding Saturday classes with the students.  After I returned to the States, the kids that I had been working with finished their 3-year program with the local volunteers working on the project. The following year, the program began again with a fresh new group of students and my counterpart informed me that they had named the program after me “Eco-Ecole Fatou Ndiaye” (my local given name). I get pictures on a regular basis of the work they are doing to plant trees, manage and reduce waste, and create alternative fuel sources. It’s pretty great to see this new generation of kids carrying the work forward.

What's on the horizon? What are you currently working on, excited about, looking forward to?

Currently, I’m working with a client to better understand the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccinations and to use that information to educate physicians in areas where there has been high levels of vaccine resistance.

How do you see your work evolving? 

 As regulations continue to develop to keep up with the advances in life sciences solutions, I think we will see a lot more reliance on real-world data and real-world evidence as new drugs are developed, which can help speed that process and get drugs to market faster and safely.

What is the single most important thing to you in your work each day?

The most important thing I do each day is not really related to work. It’s my 30-minute early morning DuoLingo Spanish lesson. I mean, really, a Mexican American that doesn’t speak Spanish. I’m currently on a 344 day streak!  Hay alguien que quiera practicar conmigo?

How has your experience at Studio IX been?

I switched jobs during the COVID lockdown and so I went from working-from-home-due-to-the-pandemic to working-from-home-because-my-job-is-now-remote. That was a mental game-changer for me.  I’d already spent 14 months alone at home and knew that I really had to get out of the house. I love the flexibility of Studio IX and the opportunity to run into people I know as well as meet new folks.  I live about 20 minutes outside of Charlottesville, so being in town a couple of days a week makes is easier to run errands, go to the gym, and catch up with friends downtown. I also love that there’s always a great soundtrack playing in the background, the smell of fresh coffee that wafts in the air, and the soft murmur the hive.

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: LESLIE PONT

Could you tell us who you are and what it is you do?

I’m Leslie Pont. I work for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at UVA as the Executive Director. We are a non-profit 501C3 that serves the active adult community with lifelong learning courses through Charlottesville, Staunton and Waynesboro. OLLI has been in Cville for 20 years! 

What do you love most about the work? 

Making people happy! Our members have various backgrounds, interests and levels of engagement in our courses, tours and events. It is a blessing to see their faces light up about their favorite instructor, staff member, course or a community gathering. We are here to serve their needs both socially and intellectually. 

What inspires you?

My family – we have a four-year old daughter and seeing the world through her eyes is such a gift. I deeply enjoy watching her grow with wonder and excitement. Watching the Olympics right now is also inspiring! Our bodies are much more capable than our minds give us credit for.

How did you arrive at this place?  What’s your backstory?

Funny thing is, I was trying to convince my husband to become an individual member of Studio IX a few years ago. I wanted to get him out of the house after teleworking for his company in Arlington, VA for four years. He was at home 24/7 long before the pandemic came along. and it can take a toll on people who feel isolated from their typical office setting. When I came to work at OLLI during the pandemic, I knew right away that our organization needed a new office solution. I talked to the staff, our president and eventually our board of directors about making the move – so far, it’s working out quite well for our needs.

Was there a light switch moment? A turning point for you (professionally &/or personally)?

For me, it is likely from going back to school in my 40’s/grad school. It was a heavy lift at first and while it’s not easy, it has made me work harder than ever before because it is an everyday, every evening, every weekend commitment outside of work and family. I have two grad classes and a semester-long final project to go. I am really enjoying my classes in Organizational Leadership and Strategic Communications.  

Could you share a memorable story from your professional path thus far?

 There are many so that is a tough one to answer! I love working for nonprofits and I have great memories from each that I’ve worked for. Event planning and the lead up to an event is always memorial for me. My favorite part is watching the event unfold and witnessing people interacting, happy and engaged in conversation. That’s when you know that all of the work that lead into planning an event, has paid off.

 What's on the horizon? What are you currently working on, excited about, looking forward to?

Our team is excited for the Fall semester of classes that is about to launch for registration. It’s been a wild ride to teach OLLI members online for two plus semesters! Most people are ready to go back to in person classes again throughout the local area. For those who are not, or who like the convenience of online learning, we are going to host a dozen courses online this fall. We will be working hard to launch 72 courses successfully, plus our local events and tours.

How do you see your work evolving? 

There is so much more work to do as we come out of the pandemic, so to speak. Strategic planning is a big piece of our work to come because much of that was put on hold during the last 18 months, for better or for worse. Working on diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) is going to be our most important work – is will be ongoing as an organization. There are not enough words to describe how vital DEIB is to both OLLI and our local community.

What is the single most important thing to you in your work each day?

Show up and be present! Coming to work with a can-do attitude is essential to my most effective days on the job. Exercise helps tremendously too.

How has your experience at Studio IX been?

It’s been very well received by all of our staff and so far, the members and instructors who have stopped by to see our new space. The best is yet to come.

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: DUSTY MADISON

Could you tell us who you are and what it is that you do?

I’m Dusty Madison and I do astrophysics research. More specifically, I study gravitational waves. Gravitational waves from the merger of two black holes were first detected by the LIGO collaboration in 2015, one hundred years after they were predicted by Einstein. You can think of LIGO as doing high-frequency gravitational wave astronomy. Most of my research has been on much lower frequency gravitational waves. My collaboration, NANOGrav, hopes to detect these low-frequency gravitational waves by observing how they affect the behavior of these exotic stars called millisecond pulsars. Studying these pulsars makes our work a big endeavor in radio astronomy. We use the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia extensively, and until recently, used the Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico. We think we’re getting close and may actually detect this new type of gravitational wave in the next year or two.

What do you love most about the work?

I’ve been fascinated with space since I was a little kid. When I was in undergrad, I took a class on Einstein’s theory of gravity and learned about gravitational waves for the first time. I thought they were super cool, and it sounded like something that was going to be exciting over the next decade and more. I was right about that. It’s been an exciting field to be involved with. In practice, I appreciate the creativity that’s involved with innovative new research. My work has given me the opportunity to travel to some great places all over the world. I regularly get to meet and work with some very impressive people.

How did you arrive at this place? What’s your backstory?

I’m from California originally but moved to Ithaca, NY for graduate school in 2008. I moved to Charlottesville in 2015 right after I finished my PhD to work for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. In 2018, after my NRAO contract expired, I moved to Morgantown, WV to continue doing research at West Virginia University. My wife has a good job here in Charlottesville, so she stayed here and we did long distance for about two years. But when COVID kicked in, there was no reason for me to physically be in Morgantown anymore, so I moved back here.

Was there a light switch moment? A turning point for you?

Weirdly enough, I’m going to say “no.” I’d have to go way back and talk about some stuff from my childhood or something when I really fell in love with space and science. Outside of that, I’ve been on a pretty steady trajectory since I took my first physics class my junior year of high school and fell in love with it. I’ve managed to keep this scientist thing going which is a privilege and a joy.

Could you share a memorable story?

I attended a conference in Sydney, Australia a few years ago. I had a great dinner with my PhD advisor, Jim, and one of his former students, Joe, who’s now a big shot at NASA. It was out on a patio right on the harbor, right underneath the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The Sydney waterfront is spectacular.

What are you currently working on?

My current project is actually some of the most niche, technical, inside-baseball stuff I’ve ever worked on and I really don’t have a great elevator pitch for it at the moment. I’m developing a more general version of this very specific computation that my collaboration regularly does when we're looking for something called “the stochastic background of gravitational waves."

How do you see your work evolving?

I’ve recently been hired as an associate professor in the Department of Physics at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. I’m going to be teaching undergraduate students and working to involve them in my research on gravitational waves and pulsars. It’s a tenure track position, so the hope is that this job will become permanent within a few years. We’ll likely be living in the greater Sacramento area.

How has your experience at Studio IX been?

It’s been great. Sometimes I just need a change of scenery to get my workflow going again because I get sick of working from my couch at home. The space is very comfortable and pleasant to be in. I think COVID precautions have been handled really well. It’s nice interacting with the friendly staff a few times a week.

GREENROOM SPOTLIGHT: JOCELYN ROBINSON

Could you tell us who you are and what it is you do?

I’m Jocelyn Robinson, and I’m a producer, educator, and radio preservationist based in Yellow Springs, Ohio. When I’m not producing independent projects, I work part-time out of the Eichelberger Center for Community Voices at 91.3 FM WYSO. It’s the primary public radio station in the Dayton area. My title is Producer for Emerging Initiatives, Education, and Archives, so that kinda says it all.

Through training and relationship-building, we support the production of myriad audio stories that often center and amplify voices of communities not typically heard on public radio. I’m also interested in preserving and using archival audio to contextualize history, that we might interrogate and learn from it and maybe not repeat it. And I’m an adjunct instructor who teaches multidisciplinary college literature courses through a Black feminist/womanist lens.

What drives your work? What drives you to make it?

I’m very conscious of whose voice gets heard and why. The public radio sphere has been mostly white, male, and upper middle class for far too long. I’m driven to disrupt that narrative by amplifying other voices. And then moving past that to construct community-based platforms for telling and preserving those stories. Also, I just love the craft of making audio. There’s nothing like being in the flow and making that magic happen.

What are you currently working on that we should be aware of?

As an independent producer, this year I’ve had two half-hour episodes drop for a German-produced podcast called The Big Ponder; one being “The Flag” and the other about home and identity that just posted. Different storytelling conventions, different paces, different vibes, but both personally meaningful. I have an amazing creative team and we’ve honed our technical and creative chops through this recent work.

Then I’ve got two other projects I’m excited about. At the Center for Community Voices, I’m directing a community-based storytelling project on Dayton’s west side, primarily African American neighborhoods. I’ve been mentoring a small group of community producers who’ve weathered the pandemic and are about to get back out there and tell audio stories. They’ve been doing series of commentaries in the interim that are just amazing. They are so ready!

Also through the Center and my work with the WYSO Archives, I’m heading a preservation project for Historically Black College/University radio stations, in collaboration with the Northeast Document Conservation Center out of Andover, MA. We’ll know about major funding for the project in early summer. We’re hoping that will propel us into a pilot phase, working with four of the twenty-nine HBCU stations and the institutional archives on their campuses. If all goes well with the pilot, we’ll go back to the supporting foundation for full implementation funding. It’s a pretty big deal.

Who else is doing great work that we should know about?

All my colleagues at WYSO do great work! You’ll hear fantastic stories from Dayton Youth Radio producer Basim Blunt’s work with teens, from Mary Evans’s ReEntry Stories series with formerly incarcerated citizens, and from all the other Community Voices producers, AKA Com Voxers. There are dozens of us who have been trained at WYSO over the past decade; it’s an amazing program. My creative team members Juliet Fromholt (also on staff at WYSO) and indy Tom Amrhein do stellar work, too.

Then there’s my friend and colleague Will Davis in Chattanooga, TN. Listen for his name! He’s in conversation with a major audio streaming service right now on a true crime project that may soon take the podcasting world by storm.

And Andi Murphy in Albuquerque, NM and her Toasted Sister podcast—she’s not just a producer for Native America Calling, but a brilliant indigenous foodie and artist who has the best self-designed graphics of any audio maker I’ve ever seen.

What do you think a great piece of audio accomplishes?

There’s something magical about being invited into a virtual fire ring by the human voice and perhaps some well curated ambience. Close your eyes and open your ears. You’re there where the story is unfolding, right in the midst of it. Transported. You not only hear it, but see it, taste it, smell it, feel it--yep, magic. They call ‘em “driveway moments,” but you don’t need to be sitting in a car to experience them.

If this were your last hour on earth, what piece of music would you like to hear?

I’d fill that hour with an eclectic playlist that includes Rhiannon Giddens, Kate Bush, Brittany Howard, Dolly Parton, and Nina Simone. Probably end with Sandy Denny, “Who Knows Where the Time Goes.”

Who's your favorite storyteller?

There are so many! And coming to us in all sorts of forms. I think Richard Thompson can tell more story in a 3-minute song than most can in a feature length film. He’s a master!

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: CANNON THOMAS

Could you tell us who you are and what it is that you do?

Sure. I am an executive and career coach who works with people and organizations that are trying to put a clear purpose at the center of their work. I trained as a clinical psychologist at U.Va. and at Stanford, and I started an evidence-based psychotherapy practice in San Francisco with some colleagues about 20 years ago. Over the last 8 or so years, I shifted to the work I do now. I loved psychotherapy, but what I always cared most about is what people can discover and build with their lives. I wanted to be a part of helping the people who care about discovering the best that they have to offer do their best work.

 What do you love most about the work?

The people -- their heart-felt visions and their brilliant ideas for making them happen.  Getting to be so close to people’s work, I often get to see that moment when ideas come together from the inside. Or I witness that moment when a team discovers what they are capable of doing together, leaving the members feeling they are part of something that is bigger than themselves. There is nothing better than that.

 What are you currently working on?

 One thing I’m working on right now is getting together a group of Charlottesville leaders from a wide range of fields who share in common a desire to have a positive impact with their work. Our community is in flux, and we need leaders to be intentional about bringing the best to what our generation is building here. My hope is that seeing other’s great work will bring the best out in ourselves. And I hope that some of the skills and tools I teach people will help everyone get traction and momentum.

How did you arrive at this place?  Was there a light switch moment, a turning point for you?

One of the things psychology forces you to think about is how easily people get stuck in a familiar way of doing things when a lot more is possible. As a psychotherapist, I was aware that most people fall into a groove in their professions, becoming more confident over time but not becoming more effective. In the first year or so of their work, they discover a familiar way of doing things. That way of doing things feels more “right” over time, because it becomes so easy and natural. The problem is that, when you look at what people actually care about achieving, they are usually staying the same. They are getting entrenched in their groove.

Psychotherapy is a great example. Psychotherapists tend to get better for about a year at helping relieve suffering, and then they usually plateau. Talking about your life makes most people feel better in the short run, so they really like therapy and feel grateful to their therapists for new perspectives and so forth. But that does not always add up to them making the changes that would lead to them suffering less and thriving more in the long run. I was well-respected as a therapist in my community and received a lot of thanks from my clients, but one client gave me a gut-punch about ten years ago that made clear that, despite my best efforts, I had fallen into this sort of a groove. She was someone who loved coming to therapy, and I loved the work I believed we were doing together. But after five years, she brought in her journal that she had written right before we started working together. She read passages from it, and she could have written them the day before that final meeting. She realized that after hundreds of hours of time and tens of thousands of dollars spent, she had not actually changed in any of the ways she had come to me to change. She fired me on the spot. Good for her. I cared a lot about her, and I still believe the change she wanted was possible for her. I think I had just fallen into a groove with her that had become familiar and comfortable for both of us. And I realized I did not want to live my one professional life in grooves like that. I wanted the difference I could make to be real, not just perceived.

 Of course one of the grooves I had fallen into was doing psychotherapy at all. It was not the kind of change I cared most about. That is when I started setting ambitious objectives and holding myself accountable for achieving the ones that were most inspiring to me. And that is when I changed the whole focus of my career.

 Could you share a memorable story?

 I feel like my job is nothing but stories, but here was one that touched me just last week. A client of mine had spent a year leading the engineering department at a large startup with a mission to help shift society towards a sustainable relationship with the environment. It may not sound like the most inspiring job in the world to some people, but for him it was being part of designing a system that works for everyone. For him, systems that thrive by taking everything and everyone affected into account are a move towards beauty in the world.

But most days that was an ideal he thought about around the edges. What got him up in the morning was the need to get tasks done, to take care of the urgent needs… to survive. This got worse as his company’s leadership started to lose focus on its mission as it struggled to survive during COVID. He found himself disillusioned a lot of days and just cranking through tasks on a lot of others.

But he didn’t settle into despondence. He did not allow his crumbling “why” to slip away. He looked for what was still possible and kept his team turning towards the question of what they could do that would still make a real difference. He gently but firmly kept the big picture in focus for senior leadership at the same time he fully embraced their challenge of building a sustainable and profitable business that could support it.

He also started to realize that working with others to build something good was maybe the most important thing for him. He described the experience when his team turned seeds of ideas that he had had into something that he never could have imagined. He felt the electricity of people working together seamlessly to build something they all cared about, and he loved how they took care of each other.

But a point came when there was a need for a dramatic cut in his team, and he stressed for weeks that it might shatter what they had built together -- afraid that the narrative would become, “There is a lot of lip service about taking care of people; but, at the end of the day, it’s all about the company.” He thought that this family he had helped build would feel chewed up by profit motives that always win out in the end.

They didn’t. In the meeting after the layoffs were announced, people who had been laid off were standing up in tears -- but not for themselves. They were worried about what would happen to the rest of the team, and what would happen to the work they were doing together. My client said he teared up too and didn’t try to hide it. They were together, and nothing could touch what they’d built together. He told me that he realized many of these people would move on with this experience in their heads and hearts -- looking to create it wherever they went. And he was more clear than ever that this was the heart of the experience he wanted to create with work. He reminded me that, when it comes down to it, the reason we care about creating at all is our connection to the people who care with us.

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: YOLONDA COLES JONES

Could you tell us who you are and what it is that you do?

I am a deeply feeling being who moves through the world with an orientation towards heart-centeredness.

In my immediate personal life, I am a wife and a mother. My husband and I are raising 4 children. We've been homeschoolers since Day 1 with Child #1. 

In my professional life, I am a consultant and the founder of Empowered People™ Deliberate Love School where I am also the lead coach facilitator. I help home, school and business leaders deepen into conscious or "awake" connection with themselves and others so that they can relate better and make progress. 

What do you love most about the work?

I get to be myself, fully and without apology. I get to help people make life & legacy-change shifts. I get to impact the world on subtle levels that yield massive results. 

How did you arrive at this place?  What’s your backstory?

I have always been an old soul--curious, deeply spiritual, observant. I have always known that I want to help people bring things down, out and forward. When I was a child I wanted to be an obstetrician. When adults in my school environment talked me out of that I followed the path my parents urged and ended up studying Business at two schools and working for Bank of America Corporation in customer service and then in a coaching and facilitating capacity before leaving that path, giving myself time to recalibrate and entering into another school to study Humanities and Social Sciences. In this I was beginning to feel more closely aligned with myself. There is much more to share but you mentioned we'd be checking in after my transmission of this email so I'll wait for you to pose whatever questions are at the surface for you regarding this much. 

Was there a light switch moment? A turning point for you?

There have been many. One was at Hampton University, before I separated from it. Another was when I asked for guidance to what I am here to do and how I can do it while being fully present to raise my children. 

Could you share a memorable story?

I asked my children and my husband years ago upon re-focusing my energies on positioning myself in a professional capacity to be able to remain present in ways that feel important to me: "What could I teach people?" -- And they all answered in one way or another, "how to be how you are with us."  

What are you currently working on?

Building that exact vision. 

How do you see the work evolving? 

I envision impacting 28 nuclear families this year, 3 school systems and 2 businesses and scaling by 2022 to the position of being able to certify others who want to be deeply connected and conscious leaders in their homes, schools and businesses. Rinse, repeat and keep expanding until more and more people are paying more attention to themselves and to others in mutually empowering ways.

How has your experience at Studio IX been?

Glorious. I love the energy of the space--the friendly and accommodating staff, the intentionality, the complimentary boutique beverages each day, the natural light pouring in, the art, the cleanliness, the respect and support that seems to be the underpinning of actions like this spotlight interview. 

Thanks, Yolonda.

Thank you.

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: JENNY PHILLIPS

Studio IX:

First things first, tell us who you are and what it is you do.

Jenny:

That's the hardest question for me to answer, which I think is probably true of most people who recognize their creative being first. We’re always trying to pull eight different threads into a cohesive elevator pitch.

So, my name is Jenny Phillips. By day, I'm an executive coach and a writer, and by night I'm a poet and a reader. I finished my second year of hospital chaplain training in May of last year, and I'm busy weaving that into my coaching approach. I'm not doing spiritual work with clients per se, but a holistic approach towards work and life is grounding for my practice. I also am a parent—a mom of three, which has been important this year--and a wife.

Studio IX:

What do you love most about what you do?

Jenny:

I love creative expression, so anything I'm doing where I'm writing or coming up with ideas is super exciting to me. I also really love digging into what it means to be human. I think that's why I've been so interested in how people work, why they work, what makes work meaningful, and how they can be supported. That brought me into coaching eventually—and chaplaincy. It doesn't really get more raw and human than what you see in a hospital from day to day. So that experience really drove things home for me. That is something that is motivating and exciting because it's just very real.

Studio IX:

And how did you arrive where you are now? What’s the backstory?

Jenny:

I have an educational background in religious studies and ethics, and a professional background in business, but more recently, coming out of August 12th and processing that experience led me to apply for hospital chaplaincy because I learned that I am someone who is able to be calm and show up in really difficult situations. I wanted to explore a path and gain some skills for doing that in a meaningful and responsible way. Chaplain training was a whole process of learning and spiritual formation—and more change. It’s like trying to move towards a center that was always there, but that got covered up by a bunch of muck and grit and grime of culture and experience and difficulty and what not.

Jenny:

The combination of the Trump presidency and the events around August 12th made me more aware of problems that had been right in front of my nose for a long time. it was a call into awareness and participation. There is a partisan element, but I don't feel called to run for office or campaign for people. I don't really want to have partisan arguments. I want to be able to influence people towards humanity and human rights and love and kindness and justice.

Studio IX:

So those were very pivotal moments, light switch kind of moments for you.

Jenny:

Yes, and my experiences in the hospital. All of those were moments where I came into awareness of the depth of suffering that's everywhere. That sounds so bleak, but it is, I think, an awakening.

Studio IX:

How has the pandemic impacted that?

Jenny:

The most direct impact was that I was finishing up my second year of chaplain training when COVID began to limit what I could do. Because I was a student chaplain, I was sent home. I didn't get to finish in the normal way and had to process through the ending of that in the absence of a space where I could serve and in the absence of my cohort. I was invited to apply for a residency, but I couldn't really consider it because my kids were going to school in our house. I wasn't willing to leave my husband alone with that responsibility.

Studio IX:

Good call.

Jenny:

Yeah, it was the right call. Also, because I'm agnostic, there's always this tension about whether “the ministry” is the right place for someone without a traditional faith community. COVID gave me the space to explore what else that might look like and push some boundaries. That's been good, and I've enjoyed it. It hasn't all been bad for me, which I know is a lucky thing to say.

Studio IX:

Do you have a sense of where you're headed, generally speaking? Do you have a sense of how the work evolves or is that something that's more intuitive and responsive for you?

Jenny:

I am a super intuitive person. That's kind of my superpower and my Achilles' heel. That being said, I've gotten better at paying attention to what I like doing, and I really love creating. To a degree that has been wonderful and surprising. I love to be by myself with ideas and kind of work them through—synthesize them and then bring them out to the world.

Jenny:

So I think where I'm headed—I hope where I'm headed—is to a place where I have space and time to do more of that with intention. I have a small group of interested folks who appreciate what I do, and I’d like to grow that audience. My main vehicle for that right now is a newsletter.

Studio IX:

Is there any particular moment, memory or story that stands out to you?

Jenny:

Again, August 12th and summer 2017 were pivotal.

Studio IX:

What was it about those events?

Jenny:

What I experienced on August 12th was a little bit different than the dominant narrative around it. I organized with Congregate Charlottesville and was responsible for helping to create a sanctuary space at First United Methodist Church. So, what I experienced that day was sanctuary in the middle of the violence and chaos and conflict and hatred that were swirling all around. Right in the middle of that hell, there was a space where people were taking care of each other. People across all kinds of difference were taking care of one another in the ways that they needed and that was responsive. It was spacious and inclusive and real.

That was a moment that changed me forever because I realized that such spaces are possible, and I  want to be a person who's creating that kind of space. I say that with deep gratitude and appreciation for the folks who showed up to counter protest white supremacy in the streets, people who were resisting in the swirl. The sanctuary part of the story doesn’t get a lot of air time, and I understand why. There is a danger in only seeing the squishy, nice parts of things. We have to be real about all of it. But that was a pivotal moment for me.

It was also a rare moment of clarity in my life where I thought, “I don't know how I ended up here, but this is where I'm supposed to be. I know what to do. I know how to be. I don't feel conflicted. I am just here.” And it was hard. It was very difficult, but also it was really beautiful in an important way.

THE GREENROOM SPOTLIGHT: JENNY CASAS & SEBASTIÁN HIDALGO

Studio IX:

Jenny and Sebastian, thank you both for being here and for taking the time. Let’s start with the basics. Who are you? And what do yo do?

Jenny:

My name is Jenny Casas. I am a reporter for a show called The United States of Anxiety out of WNYC. I am an audio producer who cares a great deal about Chicago. I’m currently based in New York, though deeply in love with the city of Chicago. I do a lot of stories about municipal inter-workings, black and brown history, and reflections on concepts that I personally find interesting. So those are my big thing. I am a bad liar. I love people and my favorite thing to do is to jump into Lake Michigan in the summer.

Sebastian:

My name is Sebastian Hidalgo. I am an independent visual journalist from Chicago. A lot of my stories focus around housing insecurities, mental health, high property taxes, everything related to inheriting whatever land trauma Chicago has imparted upon people who weren’t born there, especially those who are newly arrived.

My work is inseparable to the way that I live because in most cases I have a huge stake in everything that I cover—in the topics that I cover. I believe that that makes me a good fit. Instead of being too involved, I'm always trying to look for growth in every story. And for the people who are reading it as well.

Studio IX:

How did you get into it? Tell us a bit of the backstory of how you arrived at what you're doing?

Sebastian:

Every time I'm asked that question, it's super complicated. But in the very short form of things, I got into it by witnessing the passing of my grandfather, which was in the northern part of Mexico—in Obregón. I am the youngest of three children, so my mother would take me around and was always carrying me in her arms. I was the baby, so I was just always around. When I witnessed my grandfather's passing it wasn't super sad or traumatizing in any way, but I learned so much from him, from the man who had just passed, more than I did in his life. I grew curious from that, hungry to explain, to understand where our life—our generational trajectory—took us. Why we were in Chicago and not Obregón, Mexico. Throughout the years, it just kind of evolved and I started denormalizing a lot of the things that I had normalized growing up in Chicago. I returned back home. I started questioning why I was the only one dealing with a severe case of asthma in my neighborhood. Why do we have to sleep on the living room floor on the weekends? I started questioning it. I realized that there was something much deeper to all of it. That's where I started.

Studio IX:

What about you, Jenny?

Jenny:

I wanted to be a long-form magazine writer. That was my big dream when I was growing up. And after college I had an internship at a magazine and lived in my car in Los Angeles. I wasn’t making any money and I thought, "This is it. I'm living the dream. I'm working for a magazine." Then somebody told me that I needed to diversify my skillset. So I applied for an internship at a public radio station in San Francisco. I had never listened to public radio. I had never listened to radio at all. Working at the station, I thought: "This is so useful"…as a medium for sharing people's stories. I found myself completely moved by different stories which, in print, would never have impacted me the same way. I thought, "This is the thing I need to do." And that desire took me out of California and to the Midwest. It was that realization—that there was a lot of power in audio…in hearing people's voices. We are such empathetic creatures, and I think being able to hear it from somebody makes such a difference.

Studio IX:

What do you value most about the work? I would say ‘what do you enjoy most,’ but it might not necessarily always be enjoyable.

Sebastian:

I think there's a balance there because in journalism I don't really like what I'm seeing most of the time. And at the same time I have this unwavering love for people—a desire for them to really enjoy the work that I'm doing. But that balance is probably one of the most difficult things to do. And there's a bit of both in a lot of the work that journalists do. And I think that's a healthy way of looking at it. "This stuff is kind of messed up and I don't like to see it and I want to do something about it."

Jenny:

I'm just deeply curious about lots of things. Part of the thing that I enjoy the most or value the most is being able to be professionally nosy. Asking questions can sometimes be rude, but as a journalist, it's just…"You're getting to the bottom of it." And I agree completely with Sebas, I have a really hard time with a lot of the things I see in the industry right now. And so the thing that I value about working in this way is trying to create information that is useful for other people…that there is a service component to it…to all of my work.

I think our news media in general is so obsessed with scarcity. Everything is about how bad things are. And so, another thing I value is the opportunity to reframe around abundance and reframe around where things are working—what people are able to do despite whatever is happening.

Sebastian:

What Jenny’s talking about. That's tough work. Just to be in that mindset, I feel like it takes so much out of you.

Studio IX:

Have you guys worked together before?

Jenny:

Yes. When I first moved to Chicago I used to be a team leader for a fellowship at City Bureau, which is a hyper-local civic journalism lab. I met Sebas on the street. One of my friends introduced us and we ended up getting to work together. He was the photography fellow. I was the team leader and we worked on this piece about a new restorative justice court that was opening on that side of Chicago. I'd only worked with photographers in a very limited way before that, but working with Sebas was different.

I had never interacted with somebody whose professionalism was so deep and so thoughtful. He was so committed to doing everything that needed to be done, to be able to tell the story accurately, tell the story with care, tell the stories safely. To not put people in danger, reveal their identities if they didn't want to be identified. And since then we've collaborated on some things here and there.

Sebastian:

Yeah. That was 2017. And when I met Jenny I was really considering leaving Chicago. I was in a space where I was creatively—or just professionally—unhappy. When I was selected to be City Bureau's photographer I spent the most time with Jenny's piece because she was really open to my being around, asking my own questions, working in a way that was refreshingly collaborative. I learned so much just in working with Jenny and Sarah. When you have that form, that spirit to collaborate, you want to collaborate with one another and your sources want to collaborate with you. And for me that's what makes really good work. And that's true with photography as well. It's hardly ever just a person with a camera. There's always a shared agreement between people. And that's something that I took away from watching Jenny report on a story and the way that she asked questions. She knew how to get through that point to that point, which made my job a little easier.

Studio IX:

So let’s talk a bit about the piece you two are presenting for The Greenroom. How did it come about? What drew you to want to make it, Jenny?

Jenny:

Yeah. So I was in New York. I had only been there for about six months. Sebas and I had left Chicago at the same time, driving in opposite directions on the same freeway. He was going to California for a fellowship with CastLight; and I was going to New York for this job. As soon as it became clear that the pandemic was not going to be safe or good for anybody in New York, I knew I needed to go back to be with my community. So I returned to Chicago.

That summer, while enjoying time with friends by the lake, one of them pulled out this poem of 45 questions…“45 Questions to Ask While Waiting”. And we just went around, picking up and asking each other these questions. They're so linked, just…each of the questions are intense. I love intensity, so I was like “this is great.” You can get right to how people feel and who they are. You also learn a lot about people's instincts. That's exactly what journalists or journalists like me are looking for. Questions that really force people to say, "This is my line in the sand."…“This is what I care about.”…“This is what matters to me”.

So I was thinking about all this waiting that we were going to be doing; how all of our relationships were changing. The people we might be stuck with or the people who we're interacting with. People we're trusting to keep us safe. Everyone is reevaluating how they’re interacting with others. And so I thought, "This is what I'm going to do with my time in Chicago.” I'm going to talk about these 45 Questions and how we’re all doing in this pandemic. And, of course, Sebas was one of the people I called.

“Please answer the phone. I'm going to interview you and ask you some questions."

Studio IX:

Beautiful. Thank you both.

Jenny & Sebas:

Thank you.