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.
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.
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.
OraLee Madison, 12, from Crawford, Ky., dressed in a Native American costume and headdress, bows her head in prayer during the beginning performance of the first night of the Lone Star Rodeo’s 70th anniversary weekend at the WKU L.D. Brown Ag Expo Center. The rodeo began with a celebration of American figures including the Native American, Cowboy, Calvary and others. The show also starts with the playing of the national anthem and a prayer.
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."
Cowboys get their gear ready before the rodeo starts. They start early making their strings sticky and breaking in gloves and ropes to make staying on the bull or bronc easier. “We’re carrying on the family tradition,” said Preston Fowlkes, one of the owners of the Lone Star Rodeo. “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.
Samantha Williams daughter, Rowan, examines the alter on her dinner table while her mother prepares dinner. Williams and her children prepared an offering to the gods before prepping their own dinner. They offered fruit and a cupcake in front of the alter to their house gods, Ganesha, Krishna, Hestia, Dionysos, Hermes, Persephone, and Hekate. The alter is in place for the festival of the new month, Noumneia. Williams does not force her children to participate, but they always have the option to if they would like to.
Malcolm Warren from Burkesville, Ky., is a guitarist in the band Kiss Kiss Bang, a southern rock band based in Bowling Green, Ky.
Steffen Bolz is an Army veteran and a gunsmith hobbyist in Bowling Green. After being medically discharged from the Army, he picked up the trade because of its similarity to jeweling, something he had done previously, and his passion for firearms.
James Taylor from Summer Shade, Ky. was a game warden for 20 years in Warren County, Ky. After retiring, he and his wife, BJ, started a taxidermy business called Critter Creations. The business was based in Bowling Green for several years before the couple moved to Summer Shade to escape the city.
Jesse Hayes, 32, from Bowling Green, Kentucky, participates in Belegarth, a medieval combat society with realms all across the nation and world. More specifically, Hayes is a part of the Bowling Green realm called Viridian Hills. Hayes also works as a Registered Nurse at The Medical Center and goes to graduate school full time. When Hayes’s sister dragged him to a practice when he was in high school, Hayes fell in love with the sport. “It’s a nice mix of athletics, but then nerdy,” Hayes said. “It hits that fantasy nerve that’s sometimes missing from real life, but it kinds of bring that to real life.” Balancing his real life and fantasy life is difficult for Hayes, since his school and career keep him busy. However, Hayes tries to make it to as many Sunday afternoon practices as he can.
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")
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. (Included in "Shelter-in-Place")