Lynchburg Neighborhood Billy Hansen

The story of how two boys born 50 years apart became dear friends. This story was told live at the HopeX storytelling event hosted by Lynchburg Beacon of Hope at the Academy Center of the Arts in downtown Lynchburg in March 2024.

In this conversation with Laura Hamilton, we learn what it was like growing up as a city manager's kid, how she got from Nebraska to Virginia, her public policy work in the Clinton administration right out of college, her work as executive director of Lynchburg Beacon Of Hope, the backstory on their HopeX storytelling event, and a deep dive into Beacon's history and their ambitious mission to provide support, opportunity, and hope to students of all ages in our community.

"Library history is community history." In this conversation with Deb Smith, we learn about her work as executive director of the Jones Memorial Library in Lynchburg, Virginia, take a deep dive into the library's founding, early history, and the characters that shaped what it became, and explore the important discoveries still being made in the Jones archives to this day.

In this conversation with Beau Wright, we talk about his experience on Lynchburg City Council, how he thinks through the challenges facing Lynchburg, where he sees opportunities, why he is running again for an at-large seat, and reflections on his time in the White House.

In this episode, I sit down with Shelley Blades, the farm manager and executive director of Lynchburg Grows, to hear the story of their farm and the work that they do. Lynchburg Grows has taken an abandoned, seven-acre rose farm right in the middle of our city and transformed it into a thriving urban farm with a mission to provide access to fresh, local produce and purposeful jobs to individuals with disabilities. In our conversation, we talk about how Shelley ended up in farming and in Lynchburg, the people who have helped her along the way, her fondness for radishes, what she's noticed from tending the same soil for several seasons, and what she loves about the work.

"The best stories are the truth. The best stories are accounts of what really happened. There's no better setup or crescendo than what really happened." - Walter Virgil Jr. on the power of honesty and authenticity in storytelling.

In this conversation with Walter Virgil Jr., we talk about his childhood growing up in New Jersey, how he made it to Lynchburg, Virginia, the work that he is doing in our community, how his story has shaped his outlook and his mission, and what he is seeing in our city that makes him hopeful.