Tag Archives: featured

Every Point on the Map, Oklahoma culture

Traveler Shares His Name

Sam Chesnut’s tender demeanor around his horse Traveler never hints at his former life as a police force sniper. Though bald and supported by a cane from various rounds of cancer treatments, Sam’s gentle voice shares story after story about his favorite horse…each one ending with a kiss on Traveler’s large, dark cheek.

It’s as if Sam is energized when in the pasture telling horse tales.

I had asked to visit with Sam and Traveler because I had been touched by their story: a formerly abused horse adopted by a Deputy Sheriff in the Oklahoma County mounted patrol, and their life as they learned to work together.

Traveler giving me permission to use his name. He lifted his foot once for “yes!”

The relationship of a horse and his owner is time-tested and true, and these two were no different.  Their love is deep; and perhaps deeper still these past months and years as Sam’s cancer has posed increasingly complex challenges over what course of treatment or options to try next.

See, here’s the thing.  Every Point on the Map is a deeply personal and important project for me, and after “sitting on the bench” for almost a year as I transitioned to our new home in Ada, I needed my own “horse.”  I waited and waited for inspiration, but never could settle on the vehicle I needed to carry me the next 8 years to the remaining 80% of Oklahoma’s 594 towns not yet visited.

The Fowler VW team is a fun crew. Not only were they willing to jump in the picture and celebrate my Atlas purchase, but they all taught me how to use the cool features… SO MANY FEATURES!

The waiting ended, however, when I learned that VW was putting out their new three-row SUV and naming it…get this…the Atlas.  Get it?  Atlas?  Every Point on the MAP?  As soon as I heard “Atlas,” and learned that it was a quality, roomy, safe vehicle…I knew I had to buy one.  But not only did I need to buy the right Atlas, I needed to give it the right name.

That is where Sam’s horse, Traveler, comes into the picture.  I come from a long line of family members who named inanimate objects.  My grandmother’s family named their tractor Elmer and their car Rupert. My uncle Gail named his truck Henry.

I named my former VW Jetta Luitgaard, German for “guarder of the light.”  So, you get it that names are a big deal, yes?

But my new Atlas name had to be perfect. I knew that if I’m going to finish the last 80% of Every Point on the Map, I would be bonding deeply with my vehicle, and we would be “traveling together” for miles upon miles.

So, I went to a noble place, and spoke with a noble man, who’s noble horse gave me the blessing and permission to share his name with my own “horse.”

Knowing my own Traveler is carrying the story of Sam and his horse makes me feel more comfortable. They’ve touched my heart.

And, I hope the stories I find in all our Oklahoma towns touch yours.

See you soon…

Lord, if we should stumble, my horse and I,

Please pick him up first,

For he has carried me through

Both heaven and hell.

~prayer author unknown

Oklahoma culture

The Red Dirt Chronicles is Seven Years Old. Hot Ziggety!

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Strolling down Queen’s Lane seven years ago, I couldn’t have imagined that the blog I created to share my 40-day Oxford experience would evolve into its current form.

When I returned to the U.S. after that trip, “Red Dirt Kelly” officially became “The Red Dirt Chronicles (RDC), a group project of thoughtful Oklahomans who wished to document and share Red Dirt culture, both literally and metaphorically.”

From spiritual reflections to sports to women’s issues to financial information and more, our team cranked out posts for two years. Then suddenly, our entire group all got tired at the same time.  Sometimes doing things for free makes it easier to get tired, but that wasn’t the case. We genuinely all reached certain professional pinnacles and pivotal moments in sync.

So we stepped back, took a breather, and rather than let the RDC be put to rest, Oklahoma Horizon TV — or rather, Alisa Hines — utilized this platform to post their video news about Oklahoma, Career Tech stories, and other state-related topics.

Then, I got rested. And Alisa turned the RDC stewardship back to me and a new project I had been thinking about christened Every Point on the Map.  Our team of Rachel, April and I completed almost 15% of our goal — what an incredibly incredible journey!

Then, April moved to Texas.

Then, Rachel moved to Boston.

And, sometime in-between, I had moved to Texas for two years but came back to Oklahoma and now live in Ada.

“Wild Ride” doesn’t quite capture the feeling of whiplash I’ve been through this past year.

But I’m still here. And so is the Red Dirt Chronicles. And so is Every Point on the Map. And I’m almost ready to kick off Chapter Two of that project.  I’m just waiting on the right vehicle which should be here in a couple of weeks.

Until then, I want to thank all the dear friends we have made along this seven year journey.  I feel like the RDC is a big magnet, and everyone who gets close gets collected…and sticks.  I don’t feel dragged down by the sticking–it’s as if every time we pick someone up (a reader, a contributor, a story, a supporter), the journey is just that much sweeter.

Within the next week I’ll be sharing some content we haven’t yet published in order to ramp up for our next Every Point Run.  The first out of the gate will be our conversation that took place in Cushing at the Tuesday Night Music Club.

Until we start that process, I thought I would give you a little sneak peak of an abbreviated working draft.  At the time we visited this group of adorable, deeply devoted musicians, they were in their seventh year as well.

Here’s to the next seven ~ Love, Red Dirt Kelly

Every Point on the Map

Our Friends Have Skills: Dru Martin Redux


Last summer I wrote a series of articles for NonDoc covering topics of racial themes, narratives, and Oklahoma Black oral histories.  The act of “saving each other” was highlighted throughout one article, with narratives covering our stops in Lexington, Grove, IXL, and Cromwell.

I personally experience difficulty when sharing what I consider to be “data” — unfiltered narratives of the dear ones who give us their time. Each decision I make on what to share is informed by my own background and culture. When reporting on themes like corporal punishment, or leaving phrases like “colored people” in an audio files, I wrestle with my own positionality…and the intersectionality of me (the listener), and they (the historians).

During one of these decision-making struggles last year, I became especially glad to have support from someone at Next Thought studios. Carl Evens, a personal friend and employee of Next Thought stepped in and relieved me of some of those editorial decisions when he was experimenting with this question: “What if Every Point on the Map had animation and/or video graphic support to help tell their stories?”

Carl’s work here with the Drucilla Martin discussion helps “just a bit more” of our work be available to you with the reframing of geographical reference points.

Thank you, Carl. You were good guide to help drag me out of the deep-tangle woods that is my own brain.  I only wish we could jump from town to town as quickly as your graphics do in this video!

~ Red Dirt Kelly

Note to readers: Our family’s transition from Edmond to Ada was all-consuming.  However, we’re beginning to feel settled.  And paradoxically, as I personally feel settled, I get restless — my EPOTM traveling spirit is ready to go.  We’ll be deploying about 8-10 more stops of content we have not shared, then in August we’ll hit the road again. We have fun, new information about our August relaunching period and I’ll tell you these trade secrets at my earliest possible time!  Happy travels…RDK

RDC News & Updates, Reading Room

A Reason for Seven

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Editor’s Note: This article is being reprinted with permission from the author. The original post was deployed on her personal Facebook page around midnight this morning.

***

By Faith Phillips

“Then she told us how times were tough and about how she was thinking about

Bumming a ride back to from where she started

But ya know, she changed the subject every time money came up

She said, ‘Welcome to the land of the living dead’

You could tell she was so broken hearted

She said, ‘Even the swap meets around here are getting pretty corrupt.’ ”

~Brownsville Girl, Bob Dylan

Water Protectors.

A family of four, soon to be five, runs in and out of a flimsy tent on a grassy North Dakota plain. The eldest daughter, Josephine, age 4, wears a pink tutu and wraps herself in a sleeping bag decorated with characters from Frozen, the popular Disney movie franchise. The youngest girl, Charlie, is two. She is a determined force. The entire family remains vigilant to safely contain Charlie’s energy. Their quiet mother manages the camp with an air of humble authority. She wears her waist-length hair tied back at her neck. The father enjoys discussion with relatives when they happen by. He is interrupted here and there to change a diaper and to occasionally yell, “CHARLIE!” when his youngest seizes an opportunity to bolt. The family gathers around a small fire in the evening when Charlie’s energy diminishes at last. Josephine sits on her father’s lap, satisfied to have earned his sole attention. She tosses her head back and laughs, delighted with each joke he tells.

This family’s camping experience differs somewhat from the typical American one. They are surrounded on all sides by a thousand others, gathered together in a field bordering the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. They speak an ancient language with each other, but politely switch to English in the presence of a non-speaker. Perhaps the most telling detail of this story is that the family can’t say exactly how long they’ve been camped here. Neither do they know how long they will stay, for they have no expectation to leave. This Lakota family of the Sioux tribe, along with thousands more Native Americans, constitute an unprecedented gathering determined to protect the main source of water for their tribe and for millions of other Americans downstream.

Continue reading A Reason for Seven →

Art, Oklahoma culture, Photography

Capturing Oklahoma’s Big Sky: How Audrey Dodgen Sees HOME

"It's like 'Vivian Leigh plays Laurie in Oklahoma!'" ~ Photo by Audrey Dodgen
“It’s like ‘Vivian Leigh plays Laurie in Oklahoma!'” I told Dodgen during a Twitter conversation ~ Photo by Audrey Dodgen (low-density rendering; see website within article for full resolution prints for sale)

“Clean lines, compelling color palettes, refined sense of balance, and the greatest subject matter on earth.”  Thoughts like these run through my mind as I work my way through Audrey Dodgen’s portfolio.

An editorial and commercial photographer who calls Oklahoma her home, Dodgen describes a gravitational pull that seems to draw her back to our state, regardless of where she goes walkabout for a period of time.

“I was born and raised here, and while I’ve lived other places, I keep coming back here. It’s not perfect, but it’s my home, and I love it like no other place,” she wrote during a social media discussion.

A sense of place, the air of familiarity, the peace that recaptures your soul when return home…emotions paralleling these phrases are interlaced within Dodgen’s images. Perhaps most especially a collection entitled “HOME” she has been recently compiling.

If you’ve ever longed to stop your vehicle, breach a barbed wire boundary, and walk among sweet, freshly cut hay bales, her shots have captured that experience for you.

If you’ve ever driven I-40 across downtown Oklahoma City and wished you had time, or the right equipment, to photograph the Scissortail of Skydance Bridge, no need. She’s done that for you with a degree of perfection I could certainly not reach.

And, if you, like Dodgen, ever leave Oklahoma and need a piece of “home” to take with you, her website can most likely fix you right up.

Nice work, Audrey Dodgen. Thanks for standing under our big sky and taking it all in.