Let’s Be Shore – Eastern Shore of Maryland 2012, 2013

Let’s Be Shore is a community engagement project developed and created for Maryland Humanities Council’s Practicing Democracy program. Let’s Be Shore brought together hundreds of residents on the Eastern Shore of Maryland to express their views on issues surrounding land use, agriculture, the economy, and water quality. This program used photography, videos, and traveling sharing and listening stations to spur residents to explore their personal connection to their environment, and to think critically and learn more about the complexity of the water quality issues on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

At the core of this program were the stories, perspectives and opinions of Eastern Shore residents. I collected nearly 30 audio interviews with scientists, farmers, environmentalists, developers, water keepers, and homeowners. These interviews were transcribed and used for the basis of a series of videos that were made in a partnership with award-winning filmmaker Doug Sadler. The interviews were also used as the basis for a short play that was written and performed in a public community dialogue as a tool to reflect back the multiple perspectives.

Below are a few examples of the stories collected in video portraits created with Doug Sadler for the Let’s Be Shore program.  Explore the Shore Voices page of the Let’s Be Shore website to review all quotes and images from this series of audio interviews and video portraits.