My Hometown: Green River, Wyoming

Where I grew up, the high desert mountains of Wyoming, I was shaped by the landscape, the freedom of being outdoors, and imagination. As a child I would play for hours outside; making homes for my dolls within the sagebrush, bringing blue-bellied lizards home as playmates, skipping rocks along the Green River, collecting arrowheads and fossils. This world, this safety of nature, raised me. The imprints of those Palisade mountains, the solitude, the howling winds, have made me. 

Green River, Wyoming : Blue Skies & Palisade Mountains

This month, Treehouse Shakers held its 12th Wyoming tour, sponsored by Sweetwater County BOCES. Under the Tangle performed in Green River, my hometown, and the company also led arts in education workshops with students from elementary elementary schools in Sweetwater County, Green River High School, and Western Wyoming Community College. Although, I didn't join the company this year, due to other commitments, it didn't stop me from contemplating growing up in this world, and missing it dearly. 

Treehouse Shakers' Production Under the Tangle (Photo Credit, Christopher Duggan)

Palisades and the Green River (Photo Credit, Florence Alfano McEwin)

Green River is a small, idyllic railroad town. With a population of a little more than 12,000, the town is surrounded by beautiful palisade mountains. Known for its Trona mines, which creates baking soda and glass, and for being the starting point for John Wesley Powell's expeditions, the town itself is fairly quiet, and everyone knows one another. 

When Treehouse Shakers works with the students in Wyoming, our company members always remark at the openness that the children possess. Like the land itself, people are wide-open, independent and curious. Even though I've lived in New York City longer than anywhere else, I am proud to have been raised in Green River. It is truly a pleasure to return to this welcoming community and give back to the place that raised me.