Rose’s Meat Market & Sweet Shop opened June 21, 2013, in downtown Durham, North Carolina. Justin and Katie Meddis moved to Durham from California after working in the food industry there. At Rose’s, Katie (who attended highschool in Durham) applies her skills as a pastry chef to produce delicious sweets made fresh daily using local, sustainable ingredients; while Justin sources local, pasture-raised meats that are butchered in-house.
Fresh cuts of pork, beef, and lamb are displayed for sale alongside fresh and smoked sausage and the classic favorite: bacon. Bacon flies off the shelf so quickly that there is always some part of the production process occurring at Rose’s, as pork belly is spiced, cured, aged and smoked into savory perfection.
We all carry objects with us through life, moving them from house, to apartment, to house. Sven (name changed to protect his identity) keeps a box in the attic full of old drug paraphernalia. “I’m not in a place where I want to do it anymore, but I haven’t wanted to let it go. Sometimes I think I’ve pushed it away too far. It’s hard to let go, they’re like little horcruxes."
Senior Tiesha Gibbs is one of the teenagers on the Southern Vance High School volleyball team. Most of the girls juggle school with part time jobs and sports year round, working on their homework together in the stands before games.
Will Funk is breeding open-pollinated, landrace, tropical corn in Durham, NC. The field is in a backyard around the corner from his house and he hopes over several years to breed a variety specially adapted to the area.
Dan Wales came out in support of the 2015 Pride Parade in Durham, North Carolina, and stood in front of the religious protestors in a protest of his own, dressed as Jesus, carrying a rainbow flag and holding a sign that read “I am not with these guys (but I love them too)”. “The people with the hate signs always kind of perplexed me and usually you feel so uncomfortable when you're standing in front of that kind of hatred but doing it this way it just, I was smiling the whole time and it feels so good and you see everybody's faces light up when they see what you're trying to do. Yeah, it's selfish, it makes me feel good."
Kelly Sims has her grandmother’s suit that she wore on the boat to America from Finland. Made in the 1950s by her grandmother’s friends who, like her, were seamstresses in Finland, it fits Kelly like a glove. When asked why having the suit was important to her Kelly said “That moment doesn't exist any more but those items that you have in your hand, they do, so that's the only thing that you have left. Those memories are in your head, they can't be seen, only the artifacts are left.”
Religious groups showed up both in support and protest of the 2015 Pride Parade in Durham, North Carolina. Most parade participants and spectators responded to protestors by shouting things like “We love you too!". Some spectators danced around a man holding a sign saying “Perverts on Parade” for a few minutes while he tried to avoid them, but a police officer eventually asked them to leave him alone.
Rose’s Meat Market & Sweet Shop, in downtown Durham, NC, produces delicious sweets made fresh daily using local, sustainable ingredients and sources local, pasture-raised meats that are butchered in-house to make everything from bacon to sausage. “I wouldn’t do this if it was just garbage meat,” owner Justin Meddis said when asked how he felt about the quality of locally sourced meat available in North Carolina.
The rain may have dampened some of the enthusiasm of the crowd at the Durham Pride Parade but turn-out of parade participants and supportive spectators far outnumbered religiously affiliated protestors. When asked about the protestors Tawni Houston, member of Metropolitan Community Church, said "I just have one thing to say, God loves everybody. So he doesn't discriminate on who we are, what we are, what we're doing.”
Brian Ferrell is one of the salary employees at Funny Girl Farm in Durham, NC. As Field Supervisor he manages the day to day tasks related to keeping the fields productive. When asked how he got into farm work he said: “Farming and gardening continued to present itself in my life. Whenever I’m doing this type of work there’s a deep resonance. This feels right. I’ve never felt so deeply satisfied with a job."
