Jefferson Currie
Jefferson Currie is an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina and a native North Carolinian. After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke with a BA in American Indian Studies, he worked for more than ten years at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh as a curator, historian, and researcher for exhibits and educational programs. Jefferson has completed the coursework for a Master of Arts in Folklore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is working on his thesis. Along the way he has worked on projects about textile mills, civil rights, music, fishing traditions, plants and gardening, and labor communities, in addition to projects with many of North Carolina’s eight state-recognized tribes. Currently, Jefferson is the repair and conservation manager for the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Project in Wilson, North Carolina. He lives in Nash County, but his heart will always reside in southeastern North Carolina.
Ten Things I Can’t Do Without
- People (family, friends, acquaintances, strangers)
- Water (preferably, hot showers, swamps, calm rivers, and oceans)
- Land (Coastal Plain and Sandhills of North Carolina and South Carolina)
- Music (lately . . . NDN Hip Hop, Elis Regina, Hamana, Waylon Jennings, Hiss Golden Messenger, and SNAKE)
- Something/anything/everything I can read or look at
- Something to ingest (lately, too many eastern NC cheese biscuits and, always, anything my mama makes)
- New scheme, plan, idea, or project that I can work on or add to the list of things I probably won’t get around to doing before I die
- Thyroid that functions (medication required)
- Wool socks with comfortable shoes (whatever the season my feet need to be warm and don’t need to hurt)
- Digging in dirt and growing things (for welfare and food)