Looking at Libraries
Continuing the photo essay about public libraries, which showed many examples of children’s rooms and adult spaces, this collection shows some of the multitude of activities happening at public libraries. It also…
Town: Greenville
18 posts
The Modern Women of Rural America
Along the way of our reporting for American Futures and Our Towns, I ran into the stories of some remarkable women—living and dead. Eliza Tibbets, who planted the first navel oranges in California; Isabella Greenway,…
With the PBS NewsHour, in Greenville, SC
Last night the PBS NewsHour ran a 10-minute segment hosted by Judy Woodruff and shot in Greenville, South Carolina, where Deb and I have visited frequently and reported extensively over the past few…
A Public Library Tells the Civic Story of a Town
Greenville's public library puts its past and present on full display: mills, racial history, internationalism, public-private collaborations, and culture.
Tech Meets Art in Middle School
A South Carolina public school gives tech-savvy students a sense of humanity.
A Song of America’s Downtowns
A heartening surprise of our travel so far: the breadth, seriousness, and—in some places—success of the effort to revitalize small-town downtowns. Or, what 3 programmers from Uzbekistan taught us about America.
‘Where Do You Go to Church?’ The Video and Mapping Versions
More ways of taking the measure of this vast country.
The Vermont Lake Monsters, and Other Updates From the Road
Are people in smaller towns "nicer" than cosmopolitans? No. But their political structures are working better.
Greenville, Burlington, and American Futures
"I loathed it with the heat of a thousand million suns."
What My School Means to Me: Essays from 3 High Schoolers
How students at an unusual school think—and write—about their experience.
The Parks and Recreation Theory of America’s Future
What we discuss at the national level has surprisingly little to do with startup decisions. Some provocative data about where America is growing, and why.
Dreaming Big in South Carolina: A Public Boarding School for the Arts
“One half dream; one half plan.” That’s how one student described his life at the Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities in Greenville, South Carolina. Dreaming big at the…
Dadgum! Katy, Bar the Door!
Speaking Your Mind in South Carolina
Smaller-Town Startups: ‘Stopping the Brain Drain’ in SC
'People say, this is my ticket Out.' Then, they want to stay.
America’s Tiniest Engineers: Report From Greenville, South Carolina
It was the monthly “engineering week” when I visited the A.J. Whittenberg Elementary School of Engineering in Greenville, South Carolina, in January. Volunteers from one of the several local big-name companies in…
In Which I Develop New Respect for the Wedding-Industrial Comple
We know that football players are brave. But spare a thought as well for bride-magazine models.