Country Roads "Embrace Your Place" Issue - May 2021

On the Cover: Embrace Your Place

Cover by Hannah Gumbo

By Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

Hannah Gumbo

“I think ultimately, what we really learned most this past year is that our dollar is our most powerful thing,” Leah Vautrot, owner of Coffee Science in Mid-City New Orleans told writer Jason Vowell during an interview for his feature story “A Move to Markets” (page 34). “Look for those people struggling, and lift them up. Look outside your normal way of doing things. Connect with the growers and makers of your community. Together we will rise. This is the future.”

This sentiment runs strong throughout the stories of our annual “Embrace Your Place” issue, celebrating the creative small businesses and makers that bring life to our regions and the spirit of community that allows them to flourish. So, it felt as appropriate a time as ever to commission an original cover from one of our favorite local artists, Hannah Gumbo—who specializes in whimsical expressions of places and their people. As you peruse our pages, be sure to flip back to the cover every once in a while, where Hannah has woven vignettes from our stories into a portrait of pure, unabashed local joy.

Find more of her work at hannahgumbo.com.