Rachel is an artist and folklorist with a background in art and cultural policy and arts-focused grassroots organizing in underserved communities. Reynolds received a B.A. in American studies from the University of Arkansas and M.A. degrees in public history and heritage studies from Arkansas State University. She received a fellowship from the Southern Foodways Alliance to document Arkansas barbecue and was in the first cohort of Creative Community Fellows through National Arts Strategies. Her arts- and food-focused project, the Oregon County Food Producers and Artisans Co-Op, has been featured in Mother Earth News, Rural Missouri, Acres U.S.A., and others. In 2015, she founded the #NotMyOzarks campaign to counter anti-racial sentiment in the Ozarks region. Rachel is the Head Project Steward of Meadowcreek, Inc., a land- and art-based incubator in the Arkansas Ozarks, co-founder of the People’s Library Project, and the Executive Director of the Arkansas Craft School.
Interviewed by Holly Hobbs, 09/11/2020.