T he Creators of N.C. By Wiley Cash

Cultivating Community

Caroline St eph enson st eps out from behin d th e camera

By Wil e y Ca sh • P ho to gr a Phs By M a l l ory Ca sh According to filmmaker Caroline Stephenson, “It’s all about stor ytelling.” She should know. She was born and raised in rural Murfreesboro, North Carolina, where she grew up surrounded by stories and stor ytellers. Despite the rich culture around her, as a young person, Stephenson believed that real art could only be found outside Hertford County. Her father, a retired professor and writer, and her late mother, an architectural historian, regularly traveled with the family to places like Norfolk, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and metropolitan New York, where they would visit museums and view films in art house theatres.

“T hat made a big impression,” says Stephenson, especia lly the films. “I wanted to do that.”

T he restlessness that Stephenson felt as a coming- of-age ar tist in r ura l easter n Nor th Carolina manifested itself not only in her desire to create, but a lso in an a ll-too -familiar angst- dr iven urge to leave home. Like so many young people who think oppor t unit y and advent ure are waiting somewhere else, Stephenson says that she “couldn’t wait to get out of there.”

First, she spent t wo years at St. Mar y’s School in R a leigh, and then t wo years at Boston Universit y before transfer r ing to Columbia College Chicago, where she received her Bachelor of A r ts in film. Soon, she was liv ing in L os A ngeles, beg inning a career that would car r y her to places like Prag ue, Vienna, Athens and Budapest, working as an assistant director on sets for films and telev ision shows like

Empire, House and, cur rently, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan.

A f ter mar r y ing fellow filmmaker Jochen Kunstler and hav ing t wo children, Stephenson felt a ca ll to home. She and her young family moved back to Mur f reesboro in 2010, where Stephenson came to ter ms w ith Her t ford Count y’s r ich cult ura l her itage as well as its incredible cha llenges. T he count y is 60 percent Black, and histor ica l inequities in ever y thing f rom education to home ow nership ser ve to compound a pover t y rate of 22 percent, much higher than the state average. T he count y’s str uggles have a lso resulted in a dogged spir it of deter mination that immediately inspired Stephenson and her family to dedicate themselves to suppor ting the communit y.

“I’m dr iven by t he incre d ible p e ople where I’m f rom,” Stephenson says. “T hey cre ate d b e aut y, a nd ab ove a l l t hey p erse vere d a nd were proud.”

To tell the stor ies of the people of her reg ion, Stephenson stepped behind the camera and relied on the ta lents that had taken her around the world. She made documentar y films about Rosenwa ld Schools, which educated r ura l Black children dur ing seg regation, as well as a documentar y about women who work in chicken processing plants in easter n Nor th Carolina. Other documentar ies and screenplays are in the work s, a ll of them highlighting cha llenges that have either been overcome or are still being faced.

Like any successf ul director look ing for the best angles and working to make a production as seamless as possible, Stephenson is most comfor table being of f camera, outside the glare of the lights.

“I l i ke to b e b eh ind t he sc enes,” she says. “I wa nt ot her p e ople to sh ine.”

She a lso wants to make connections bet ween the people and the organizations of Her t ford Count y so they can suppor t one another. In 2016, Stephenson opened Cultivator, an independent book store that quick ly became a communit y hub. “We a lso sold loca l ar t and pot ter y, screened mov ies, held meetings and educationa l workshops,” she says. T he store was the only book store w ithin an hour’s dr ive in any direction but, as is the case w ith so many independent book stores, it was tough to make ends meet. T he pandemic made

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the vent ure even more dif ficult, and Cultivator closed its doors in Apr il 2020, but the book s — most of which were either donated or lef t behind af ter Stephenson’s mother, a voracious reader and book collector, passed away in 2014 — remained.

Stephenson quick ly rea lized that not hav ing a storef ront did not have to stop the work of Cultivator, and so she conver ted her minivan into a book mobile. “It’s just a folding table, persona l protective equipment, and boxes and boxes of f ree book s,” she says. “But we now ser ve more people than we ser ved w ith the book store.”

T he Cultivator book mobile reg ularly sets up in f ront of librar ies, g rocer y stores, big box stores and churches. Sit ting behind a table in the park ing lot of Mur f reesboro United Methodist Church one chilly night in late October, a volunteer named Chr istina is handing out book s at the church-sponsored monthly biling ua l dinner. Young children, many of them Spanish speakers, tote ar mf uls of children’s book s, some w r it ten in Spanish. W hen Stephenson’s name comes up, Chr istina, who has been a volunteer for 10 years, pauses.

“Caroline is who inspired me to get involved in the communit y,” she says. “She does for others.”

A ndrew Brow n ow ns a family far m w ith his daughter, Sharonda, and has par tnered w ith Cultivator to address food insecur it y in the communit y. Sharonda is the evening’s feat ured speaker. T he family has a lso been the subject of one of Stephenson’s documentar ies.

“Caroline got things going when she came back home,” Brow n says. “You need someone like her to br ing people together.”

Inside the church ’s fellowship ha ll, tostadas and accompany ing fi xings are being placed on long ser v ing tables as a line of hung r y diners for ms. A woman named A lejandra announces that dinner is ready. Pastor Jason Villegas g reets ever yone, mov ing quick ly be t ween English and Spanish.

“I met A lejandra at an E SL (English as Second L ang uage) class at Cultivator,” Pastor Villegas says. W hen A lejandra joined Villegas’ cong regation, she encouraged him to preach in Spanish to reach more people in the communit y. T he communit y dinners began not long af ter.

W hen Pastor Villegas says the blessing, he prays first in English, then translates it to Spanish.

“T hank you that we have connection and unit y here,” he says. He keeps his eyes closed, but he lif ts his hands as if gest ur ing toward the people around him. “A nd thank you to Caroline Stephenson for br ing ing so many of us together.”

Of course, Stephenson is not there to hear this prayer or w itness her communit y’s g ratit ude. She is overseas on a film set, operating where she is most comfor table, behind the scenes. PS

Wil e y Ca sh is th e Alumni Auth or-in -Re si d en ce at th e Universit y of Nor th Carolin a -A sh ev ill e. His n ew n o vel, W hen Ghost s C ome Home, is avail abl e wh erever bo ok s are sol d.

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