I stopped Lee Smith last Monday evening at dinner, just as she was carrying her empty plate to the kitchen. I thanked her for coming to Floyd to speak back some months ago.
She remembered Floyd with fond memories, and said she had a cabin in a town even smaller than Floyd–Todd, North Carolina–where the kind and rate of growth were also issues. I said I thought in our county there were enough people with their finger in the dike so it wouldn’t go the way of Pigeon Forge right away.
She knew just what I was talking about, and mentioned she would have a piece coming out in the New York Times (yesterday’s edition) that addressed culture, progress and authenticity. Below, a short excerpt:
Who are all these people? What happened to turn this town around?
The citizens stepped up and took charge, that’s what. In this, they were guided by the charismatic Becky Anderson, who started HandMade in America, a fiercely regional nonprofit organization dedicated to revitalizing and establishing a sustainable economy around the culture of western North Carolina – an innovative “creative economy” emphasizing heritage and cultural tourism.
Since the mid-1990s, HandMade has been helping communities learn how to sell themselves without selling out.”
There you go: how do we sell without selling out?
Funny, I thought about Floyd as I reading Smith’s piece over coffee yesterday morning. There did seem to be parallels.
I read throught the Times yesterday, but I somehow missed that article. I’m going to look for it.