PART ONE: TERRILL HAIGLER

What does it mean to be a part of a community? How can small acts lead to bigger change?

We start the pilot season of Our Shared Field on a subject near and not-so-dear to the city of Philadelphia: the trash on our “dirtiest city in America” streets. Terrill Haigler, sanitation worker and activist, and Amze Emmons, printmaker and teacher, join me to talk about the ways in which this city’s trash has inspired them to create and build community, and how tackling a city’s overwhelming issues can begin with cleaning up the block.

In part one of the conversation, I begin by talking to Terrill about his activism on behalf of the sanitation department during the Covid-19 pandemic, alongside the things he finds in people’s trash cans and his plan to clean up Philadelphia. 

Music for this episode is by Jim Strong, a Philadelphia-local whose pieces featured here have been created using invented and found instruments from trash and other objects. 

Check out our website to read more about the guests, and follow their collaborations together.

Thank you to Eric Carbonara at NadaSoundStudio for audio editing, and to the Center for Humanities at Temple University for supporting this podcast.