Sherry Kempf

Dec 18, 2024 | barnraisingmedia.com | Jane Kleeb |Bennet Goldstein |Stephanie Woodard |Sherry Kempf

Out of all the speeches given over the four days of the convention, those were the only ones where a rural voice was on stage and a focus of our party. That is a problem. At the national level, the Democratic Party has become consultant-driven and D.C.-centric, concentrating power into a handful of people and leaving behind all the leaders and ideas at the state and local level.

Dec 11, 2024 | minnpost.com | Sherry Kempf |Barn Raiser

From Other Nonprofit Media showcases select work from other nonprofit news sites around the nation. The following is the first installment of “Reimagining Rural Cartographies,” a new Barn Raiser series exploring innovative and nontraditional forms of mapping. It is guest-edited by Lydia Moran and funded by Arts Midwest’s Creative Media Cohort program.

Dec 8, 2024 | barnraisingmedia.com | Brooks Lamb |Dan Chapman |Sherry Kempf |Bryce Oates

Dustin Watson looks over the pastures and woodlands he grew up on. Behind him is the farmhouse his great-grandfather built, not far from the chicken coops and tractor sheds his grandfather raised decades ago. Cattle graze near one of his favorite places on the farm, the tree he was recently married under. It’s a rare moment of rest for a man who doesn’t often sit still.

Dec 4, 2024 | barnraisingmedia.com | Sherry Kempf

The following is the first installment of “Reimagining Rural Cartographies,” a new Barn Raiser series exploring innovative and nontraditional forms of mapping. It is guest-edited by Lydia Moran and funded by Arts Midwest’s Creative Media Cohort program.

Oct 27, 2024 | barnraisingmedia.com | Stephen Franklin |Sherry Kempf |Kristi Eaton |Mark Muncy

Unlike Benton Harbor, these places are white. Benton Harbor is 87% Black, the median household income is $26,592 and 43% of its citizens live below the poverty line. Compared to its neighbor city St. Joseph, Benton Harbor is a place of unrelenting hard luck. A place where good paying factory jobs disappeared not too long ago. Where the rate of violent crime is the second highest in Michigan. Where whites fled and the population declined by half over a few decades. Where downtown businesses vanished.