January 9, 2024: Safe and Sound

We’re checking in to take stock and just make sure we’re doing okay. Because not doing okay requires a change. In some cases that change is huge. Take Walker Farm at Whorttleberry Hill for instance, where proprietor Joan Walker left her previous career in the medical field to raise Devon Cattle humanely right at the point where Hampden County meets Worcester County. We speak with her about the importance of humane animal husbandry, learning the profession from the ground up, and through giant mouthfuls of delicious samples she gifts to the studio. It’s in the adjustment of people to new environments. The authorial team of Gwen Agna and Shelley Rotner have released another book about wellbeing titled “Finding Home: Words from Kids Seeking Sanctuary” with their focus this time being on refugee children. Once again, the book features local families and their stories and we chat with the two about the importance of seeing variety in the world around you, the impact that their book has had on the people they’ve read it to, and some of the controversies that have risen to meet their previous book, “True You”. And its in the ways we use art to heal. Multi-disciplinary artist Lonnie Holley is headed to The Drake in Amherst this week while on tour with Cleveland based Mourning [A] BLKstar. We speak with him about the state of the world, how art has helped him and can help others, and generally ground ourselves within his massive cosmos.