Porch Priestess
Drumming. Joyous voices. The rhythm of dancing feet.
Early last year, Hudson native Nkoula (pronounced Koola) Badila was walking near the ferry terminal in the vibrant port town of Zanzibar, Tanzania, when the sounds of performance troupe Zan Ubuntu reached her ears. Coming from a family of performers herself, she couldn’t help but be drawn toward the music.
This Is What Food Justice Looks Like
A warm, earthy smell drifted in from the snow-covered fields as I pulled up to Freedom Farm – how welcome in the doldrums of winter. The herd of dairy cows at nearby Freedom Hill Farm, which graze these pastures in the summer, had recently returned the gift in the form of fresh manure, newly laid on the beds in preparation for the forthcoming planting season.
The Honey Hustle
Scene: 1980s, an elementary school in Tarrytown, NY. In anticipation of parent-teacher day, a young James Pratt tells his teacher, “My dad is a beekeeper.” The proclamation, which couldn’t have been further from the truth, became a running joke among Pratt’s crew of friends anytime a jar of honey was around – until 2016, when Pratt decided to indulge his childhood imaginings and, yes, become a beekeeper himself. Mix in Pratt’s childhood friend, self-declared hustler Carlo Esannason, and a good dose of brotherly love, and you have Fly Honey Farms.