In the spring of 2019, Kentucky passed legislation offering Certified Professional Midwives a chance to practice home births legally. Kentucky law, last updated in the 1970s, states that all operating midwives must obtain a “permit” from the state in order to legally practice home-birth midwifery, but there haven’t been any licenses given in decades. Operating in this legal gray area has made home-birth midwifery difficult for many, and even now with new legislation set to be implemented over the coming years, the costs associated with obtaining a license is an obstacle for many. Tracey Moore is a certified professional midwife who has been performing home births for nearly two decades. Moore is one of few who practices home births in the Commonwealth, forcing her to travel all around the western and south central regions of Kentucky. She is based in Summer Shade, Kentucky, in rural Metcalfe country. Tracey Moore checks "baby noodle's" heartbeat in Rosie Hunt's belly in their living room in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Rosie and Alex Hunt didn't name their baby until after her birth, so they referred to their unborn child as "baby noodle."
(Included in "Family Values")
Emma Dunn, 16, Marshall County High School, attended the March For Our Lives on March 24 in Calvert City, Ky. On January 23, 2018, Marshall County High School was the location of a deadly school shooting taking the lives of two students. The March was organized by local students affected by the shooting in January in congruence with the national March For Our Lives in Washington, DC.
Sierra Cooper (not her real name, story subjects remained anonymous) is a mom and she's sold used panties and performed web camming. While being a mother is the most important aspect of her life, Cooper thinks it's important to remember her autonomy as a human being. Following the birth of her son, Cooper suffered from postpartum depression and anxiety. To combat this, Cooper joined a secret Facebook group for moms to discuss their sexuality. Through the group, Cooper found panty selling and took the opportunity to not only have a "dirty little secret" but to bring in a bit of extra income. The extra income was needed for the couple as Cooper wanted to continue as a stay-at-home mom and it worked as an outlet for Sierra to explore her sexuality in ways she hadn't had a chance to before. The internet has made sex work more easily accessible for many women in all walks of life, including motherhood.
(Included in "Not Safe for Work")
Kasa Joseph, 3, leans on his father during Mass at the Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Bowling Green, Ky. Kasa was born in a Tanzanian refugee camp where his father, Joseph Msendele, and family lived for nearly 20 years fleeing war in their home country. Msendele was a child himself when he and his family escaped to Tanzania from Congo. From the moment the family got to the camp, they were working through an international immigration organization to get into the United States. Msendele was approved first to come to the U.S., and was here for nearly eight months before his wife, parents, and several other relatives were able to follow. For the family, their Catholic faith has helped them transition into their new lives in America and they are very active in the Holy Spirit Catholic Church's international community. “America is more difficult because it is so different,” Msendele said.
Reva "Granny" Phipps Haddix turned 100 on Monday, Oct. 29, 2018. Haddix has lived in Montgomery county, Kentucky for her entire life and has lived in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky since 1936. She proudly lived in the same house she built with her husband in 1936 until 2015. She and her great, great, grand nephew are just shy of a year less than a century apart in age. The two are best friends and had a joint birthday party celebrating their first and one hundredth birthdays.
Two campers giggle while trying on clown clothes and makeup during Nick Wilkins' clowning class. The Center for Gifted Studies hosts Camp EXPLORE for children in the first through third grades, as well as several other summer camps for a variety of ages. The clowning class is a tradition for all of CFGS's summer camps, Wilkins has been teaching it for nearly two decades. He has now started teaching his second generation of students, the campers he has now are the children of campers he taught in the class.
Terry "Tutor" Shipley runs Shipley's full service gas station, the last of its kind in Bowling Green. He's not a man of change, and has worked here since he was 10 years old when his father ran it before him. "We're pretty much the same as we've always been," Shipley said. The station is where Tutor grew up and it's where he's going to stay. With all the construction and bigger businesses moving in around him, he said that he doesn't ever want to move. If he was offered a buy-out, he wouldn't leave. "It's like my home," Shipley said. "If I couldn't get up and come down here every morning, I don't know what I'd do."
Brandon, my boyfriend, and I apologize to each other after a fight. He and I have been together since Oct. 2018 and have scarcely spent a night apart. Moving in together at the beginning of this year seemed like a natural next step. We'd been living together for barely a month when shelter-in-place was initiated. He went to work, I stayed home and he was close to my only human interaction for weeks. His life hardly changed when the virus hit but everything changed for me. We fight more frequently now than we have ever, COVID-19 and living together has revealed issues in ourselves and our relationship that neither of us realized were there. Living with a significant other for the first time during this time has been difficult in ways I could have never imagined. We have reached new levels of intimacy and new levels of annoyance. We each have issues to work through and we are learning how to do that together while also learning to live in a new world.
Collin Greer, 4, from Quitman, Ark., walks his family’s horse, Blue, outside their traveling trailer behind the Western Kentucky University Expo center at the annual Lone Star Rodeo in Bowling Green, Ky. The Greer family travels across the country with their animals throughout the year while their father competes in rodeos across the country. Collin and his older sister, Quinn, help out as much as they can with taking care of the horses. "Traveling a lot can be stressful sometimes," Tootie Greer, Collin’s mother, said. "It can be hard on the kids sometimes, but we get to see things most don't get to."
A cowboy plays on his phone while watching calves and steers during the first night of Lone Star Rodeo’s 70th anniversary weekend at the Western Kentucky University L.D. Brown Ag Expo Center. The rodeo was held Feb. 7-9, 2020. The Lone Star Rodeo Company is a family-owned company that was first started by Preston and John Fowlkes, a pair of brothers from west Texas. They started hosting rodeos in 1949 in Franklin, Tennessee, and over the years made their way to Crofton, Kentucky. “We’re carrying on the family tradition,” Preston Fowlkes III, one of the owners of the rodeo, said. “It’s our way of life.”
Grammy winning band Cage The Elephant performed on Western Kentucky University's campus on Saturday, September 8 before the first home football game of the 2018 season. The band originally began in Bowling Green, Kentucky where the college is located and often frequent bars in the area, both performing and just visiting. The show attracted thousands of students, alumni and members from the community.
Avi and Karen Bear came from opposite sides of the world; Avi from a kibbutz in Israel and Karen from an wealthy family in Cincinnati. Over their nearly 40 years together, the couple has built a life together. They celebrate Shabbat every Friday, after dinner they sit together and sing songs in Hebrew in their farm house on a hill in rural Harrison county Kentucky. When the two first met, Avi learned English with Karen's help, and she learned Hebrew from Avi. "It's the best part of the week for us," Karen says. "The music and the dinner, they go hand in hand."
(Included in "Together")