This year something has changed. Julia Putnam feels like she's really become "a grown-up". Here, she reflects upon her first year as the principal of a new charter elementary school on the east side of Detroit, Michigan. The school is named after her mentor, Grace Lee Boggs, who she met when she was sixteen years old. Julia is now 38 and Grace is 99. We meet Julia, Grace, the students at The James and Grace Lee Boggs School and learn about their path "in love and struggle". For more on the Boggs school please visit: boggsschool.org

Chris and Ariel are students at The James and Grace Lee Boggs School. They're best friends.

Whitney Walker is the Secretary at the James and Grace Lee Boggs School in Detroit, MI. Her daughter Zoe attends the school. Whitney is also a poet. Here she reads a poem she wrote about her transformative experience working at the school.

Bentley is a student in the kindergarten class at the James and Grace Lee Boggs School; a new charter school on Detroit's east side.

The students and staff at The James and Grace Lee Boggs School take a walking field trip to The Heidelberg Project, and meet the artist, Tyree Guyton.

The Oral History Club at the James and Grace Lee Boggs School is a small, dedicated group of grade school students who stay after school to interview members of their community- most of whom have a relationship to the building they now call their school. The neighborhood that the Boggs school calls home is one that has faced a lot of challenges in recent years and its history, and inhabitants are rapidly disappearing. These conversations serve as a learning experience for the students, a preservation of history via anecdotal stories of the people who have lived in the neighborhood for decades, and, ultimately as a community building experience: brining the kids and elder members of their community closer together. Featured in the video are interviewees: Art "Red" Tabb, Tyree Guyton, Hali Giessler. Students include: Na'Kyah Ngozi Marie Adjuman, Lucia Putnam, Maya Nicole Wheeler, Jacob Michael Wheeler, Rene' McLemore. Special Thanks to: H. T. Ewald Foundation, Greg Katcher, Pewabic Pottery, Yoga’s 1000 Petal Lotus, The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Avalon Bakery, The Red Hook, Bill Wanderwill, Bree Dominick, Atticus Keesling, Sindbad’s, Sister Pie, Detroit Vegan Soul, Seva, Marianne Feldman, Mama Hanifa Adjuman, Rebecca Wheeler, Joe Reilly.

Made for an event celebrating the Oral History Club's first semester at the James and Grace Lee Boggs School in Detroit, Michigan.

A profile of sound artist James Eck Rippie. "Most striking to me, during our interviews, was the driving force behind James' work as an artist. He wants to live a life in which everyone is more highly aware of their surroundings, and he wants to make work that demands that level of awareness from others. His work is a call to come "Back to Your Senses" in a very literal way; asking the receiver be fully present in the moment, and experience the nuances of their own perception."

Camera, Director, Editor: Andrea Claire Morningstar

Sound: James Eck Rippie

Recently Emily left New York City, where she had a successful career working for magazines including The New Yorker, GQ, and Gourmet, to return to her home state of Michigan, and live a life more in line with her ideals. Here, the tiny village of Elberta, on the shores of Lake Michigan, Emily is working to revive a long retired community newspaper, and to turn her small plot of land within the village limits, into a homestead that can sustain her.

Producer, Director, Editor: Andrea Claire Morningstar
Camera: Jeff Morgan
Music: Mildew and Star

This is Zoe Moseler. Her parents, Mark and Mandy Moseler, former public school teachers, are taking a big leap. They're putting all their resources towards starting an artisan distillery in Northwestern Lower Michigan. They've sold their house, and are squatting Zoe's grandma's house, and hoping for the best. Zoe has a plan of her own; she's making jewelry out of a special stone that can only be found in the region where her folks are hoping to start their business.
Producer, Director, Editor: Andrea Claire Morningstar
Camera: Jeff Morgan
Score: Mildew and Star

Mark and Mandy Moseler, former public school teachers in Michigan who left teaching to start their own artisan micro-distillery. This piece chronicles their leap into being small business owners at a time of economic and environmental uncertainty. It also features their daughter Zoe, who was featured in micro-episode #1.

Additional music by: 
The Library Anns and
Perigree Moon

Northern Michigan musicians Billy Strings and Don Julin take the leap into gigging full time. Don, a seasoned musician who has learned how to juggle multiple musical talents in order to make a living, and young, virtuosic Billy, whose musical career is just beginning, find one another at just the right time.

Special thanks to NM3 Magazine and Wings of Wonder Bird Sanctuary