arts Archives - Blue Ridge Bartram Trail Conservancy

“Rural Runners” – Documentary Screening and Discussion with Chloe Maxim & Canyon Woodward

Please join us for our next Bartram Writers Series event including a screening of the documentary Rural Runners at the Cowee School on Saturday, May 20. After the screening, Brent Martin will host a Q&A discussion with its authors, Chloe Maxim and Canyon Woodward.

Rural Runners is a short documentary, 28 minutes, and a labor of love created by Canyon’s brother, Forest. The film follows Chloe and Canyon’s journey as two community organizers. It documents their time on the campaign trail as well as Canyon’s burgeoning rise as a champion ultra-distance runner. The film is about re-humanizing our deeply divided political system, offering hope and path toward a healthier democracy.

Rural Runners is now public! You can see the full film here. It premiered at Mountainfilm in Telluride and is a Vimeo Staff Pick.

About the Authors

Chloe Maxmin
Hailing from rural Maine, Chloe is the youngest woman ever to serve in the Maine State Senate, at 28 years old. She was elected in 2020 after unseating a two-term Republican incumbent and (former) Senate Minority Leader. In 2018, she served in the Maine House of Representatives after becoming the first Democrat to win a rural conservative district. She also received an honors degree from Harvard College, where she co-founded Divest Harvard. Chloe is the recipient of the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes and the Brower Youth Award. She was also named a “Green Hero” by Rolling Stone. She was named the 2020 Legislator of the Year by the Maine Council on Aging. She is also the Co-Founder/Advisor at JustME for JustUS, a Maine-based organization focus on rural youth civic engagement and climate organizing. She is the Co-Founder, alongside Canyon, of Dirtroad Organizing, a new non-profit dedicated to rural organizing.

Canyon Woodward
Canyon was born, raised, and homeschooled in the Appalachian Mountains of rural North Carolina and the North Cascades of Washington. He was the campaign manager for Chloe Maxmin’s successful 2018 and 2020 campaigns. He was previously regional field director for Bernie Sanders 2016, field director for Jane Hipps for NC Senate, and vice chair of the NC District 11 Democrats. He earned an honors degree in social studies from Harvard College, where the bulk of his education took place outside of the classroom co- coordinating (with Chloe) Divest Harvard, a 70,000+person movement that succeeded in pressuring Harvard to divest its $53 billion endowment from fossil fuels. He is also an avid trail runner. He is the Co-Founder of Dirtroad Organizing, a new non profit dedicated to rural organizing.

Visit their website to learn more about the authors and their book, Dirt Road Revival.

June 2, 2023: The River Runs On – Documentary Screening

Please join us in exploring the Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests through the new feature documentary, The River Runs On. The hourlong screening will begin at 7pm with a Q&A following with the filmmaker, Garrett Martin. This is a free event with a suggested donation of $10 going towards the distribution expenses of the film. The event is sponsored by Blue Ridge Bartram Trail Conservancy who will be tabling at the event.

Website: www.theriverrunson.com
Official Trailer: https://vimeo.com/764170588

Synopsis: THE RIVER RUNS ON follows conservationists as they struggle to manage two of the most important national forests in America – the Pisgah and Nantahala. The film revolves around the release of the Pisgah-Nantahala Forest Plan as the US Forest Service decides how these two national forests are managed for the next twenty years. The result is a meditation on our relationship to nature, our role in managing lands and what it may mean for the future.

More information about this event can be found on the Macon County Public Library website: https://fontanalib.org/events/river-runs-documentary-screening

Bartram Writers Series: Coming into Animal Presence – Q&A with John Lane

We’re excited to offer another installment of the Bartram Writers Series! Please join us for this book release discussion and Q&A with John Lane, hosted by Brent Martin. This event will be held at the historic Rickman Store in Cowee Valley on March 15th, from 6-8pm. Light refreshments will be provided. Copies of this book will be on sale at the event and John will be available to sign them.

Please RSVP below to help with planning and refreshments.

In his latest book, Coming into Animal Presence, John Lane continues his exploration of the intersection of the human imagination with the world of other animals in a companion volume to COYOTE SETTLES THE SOUTH (2016) and NEIGHBORHOOD HAWKS (2019). Each of these fifteen pieces–some more formal essays, some journalism, and some stories of Lane’s encounters with wild animals in wild places–explores the diversity and the mystery of what’s often been called “the more than human world.” In each piece there is always animal presence, sometimes central and sometimes peripheral. In one piece the Columbian mammoth comes back to trouble the contemporary political landscape of South Carolina. In another, he ponders the fate of a wing-shot goose finding a last refuge in the Lane family’s tiny frog pond. In another, Lane ventures into an abandoned Zimbabwean gold mine alone to check on the status of a common genet, a shy carnivore.

John Lane is the author of a dozen books of poetry and prose, including The Dead Father Poems. His latest, Anthropocene Blues, was released by Mercer University Press. His Abandoned Quarry: New and Selected Poems won the SIBA (Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance) Poetry Book of the Year prize in 2012. He was inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors in 2014. He co-founded the Hub City Writers Project in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and teaches environmental studies at Wofford College there.

RSVP FORM

Reimagining the Bartram Trail Through Photography

Photography can help us see familiar and beloved places in a fresh new way. In the spirit of Bartram, we will explore how photography can be a powerful tool to awaken humility, wonder, and delight. Together we will deepen our connection with the natural world and our photographs so that our photographs can come alive with meaning and beauty.

This dynamic one-day workshop is co-facilitated by Susan Patrice and our own Executive Director, Brent Martin. Open to photographers of all levels (camera phones are welcome), even seasoned practitioners should find value in this unique approach to the medium. Participants will be offered the opportunity to have their photographs juried into the Listening to the Land: Reimagining the Bartram Trail community exhibition in Fall 2023.

Susan Patrice is a documentary photographer and contemplative artist. Her photography and public installations focus primarily on the Appalachian landscape and its people and feature intimate images that touch deeply into questions of place, belonging, and ecological personhood. She lives in Marshall, NC, where she is the director of Makers Circle and a co-founder of the Kinship Photography Collective.

March 25th, 10 am – 4 pm, Cowee School Arts and Heritage Center, Franklin NC

Please RSVP Below as this workshop is limited to 12 participants. Attendance to this workshop is based on a Sliding Scale Donation to support Kinship Photography Collective. Donations can be made the day of the event or by visiting Kinship’s website.

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