Our Family-Centered Cesarean

The births of our first two sons took place in the Northeast at two very well-respected and innovative research hospitals. Yet the family-centered birthing experience we had been longing for took place right here in Jackson, Tennessee. At times I can become cynical with the issues facing our city. We have complex challenges, and there are not always clear solutions.

The Shape of Things to Come

Sitting in an intro philosophy class my sophomore year at Union University, I was asked a question: Would it be ethical to sacrifice a person (or a few people) in order to find the cure for cancer? Well, yes, of course it would, I said. We’re talking about cancer, right? I was nineteen and, apparently, omniscient—or so I thought at the time. The certainty of an arrogant college student is a certainty like no other.

Never Unraveled

As a lover of clothing with a longing to become a fashion designer, nothing could have deterred me from introducing myself to a group of women whose sewing flourishes with creativity and design. Most of you may know these women as none other than the Wilbourn sisters. These talented women have been a household name for the past thirty years, not only in the surrounding counties of West Tennessee but all over the globe.

StoriesGuest ContributorFebruary 1, 2017Jackson TN, Tennessee, local, local business, family business, family, sisters, mother, Asanta M. Brooks, Wilbourn's Sewing & Alterations, clothing, sewing, alterations, West Tennessee, Johnetta Black, Mary Adams, customer service, African American, women, entrepreneur, business, seamstress, Jason Hollowell, quality, Queen Mother Elizabeth, daughters, Bible, Christianity, Christian, work ethic, fashion, fashion design, Jackson-Madison County General Hospital, Martha Hampton, Ruth Osborn, Midtown Jackson, Susie Ferguson, interior design, Carolyn Wilbourn, Janice Wilbourn-Woods, Wilbourn Sister Designs, Lithia Springs GA, Georgia, California, local shop, New Orleans LA, Iyanla Vanzant, Nene Leakes, Regina Love, Black History Month, Women's History Month, female entrepreneur, woman of color

Stay 731: Simplicity

When I tell people that my family moved from Seattle—and that we didn’t move to Jackson because of family or a job—I often get the response, “Why would you move here?” Really it all started with woods. As Henry David Thoreau wrote in Walden, about his own time living in the woods, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”