By Priya Subberwal - This recording is live from our Cultivating Community Resilience Through Storytelling Event

“…The seeds of a Lodgepole Pine are fire activated, meaning that their cones are closed tightly with a resin that melts when exposed to the flame. Meaning, they must burn in order to become. Meaning, that coded in their bodies is the anticipation of destruction - the understanding that something must end for new life to grow…”

By Hannah Telling | Live at the 2023 Montana Folk Festival

“Looking back on my life, I realize I grew up surrounded by living ghosts. In the lush forests of my childhood, I chased stories of my great-grandparents—immigrants, miners, union members. In the heat of summer, I leapt over deep, linear trenches marking collapsed mine tunnels, explored desolated, alien planet landscapes caused by toxic mine waste, and unearthed strange, rusted machinery from Montana’s industrial past.”