I’ve been working on a photo series in response to a Kinship Photography prompt connected to the Bartram trail. William Bartram (b. 1739) was the son of a wealthy botanist in New England who, after failing in several business ventures decided that all he really wanted to do was walk through the woods and draw/write about what he saw. I can relate. Alas that sort of freedom is still only afforded to the whitest, wealthiest, and most testosterone saturated among us.

The Bartram trail is long and traverses through eclectic terrain including though at least one small town; Franklin, North Carolina. I started my Franklin journey at Nikwasi Mound, built over 1,000 years ago by Cherokee people and still considered a holy site by the nearby Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. It is now surrounded on all sides by small town sprawl; parking lots, gas stations, a CBD dispensary, a U-Haul rental facility, and a farm to table cafe. I spent over an hour circling this small mound. When it came time to continue my Bartram trail journey I had the choice to either venture towards a greenway along the Little Tennessee River that no doubt provided visitors with ample natural beauty; trees dripping in picturesque kudzu, sunlight twinkling through the full leaves of summer trees but instead I found myself most drawn to the kitschy splendor of downtown Franklin. There I discovered among other things; a gem store/museum full of treasures that white men found on stolen land then claimed as their own (arrowheads, stone pipes…), an antique shop spilling over with generations of things people had to have and then had to get rid of, a Scottish tartan museum, and a history museum with confederate soldier figurines, nineteenth century medical equipment, and a large display case containing a Nazi Flag and a Japanese flag – both captured during WWII by American soldiers.

I grew up in a small town and I have complicated feelings about them (and of course not all small towns are the same). But what I am usually struck by now is how many reminders there are about how to be a good, straight, white person. Whiteness was a cruel invention and requires ongoing maintenance to survive.