DIRECTOR’S NOTE

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When we first started working in the Coastal Virginia area, we quickly realized that we could not talk about one city without the context of the others. We had to approach the region all together, like one family made up of individuals. The more community members told us about the challenges that the seven cities have faced in coming together, we were reminded of biblical scholar Leon Kass’ explanation of Exodus as a story of “fractured peoples becoming a nation.” Kass says that this nation building requires three parts: a shared narrative, shared agreements, and a shared commitment to something greater than themselves. 

We were inspired by questions of how the cities of Hampton Roads can build a collective identity while also maintaining their own personalities, quirks and cultures. By examining a group of people who are connected as family and struggling to work together to face shared challenges, and exploring the reverberations of their decisions over time, we hope to reflect the multidimensionality of the issues facing this area, and how “the promised land” may still be within reach with a bit of expanded perspective.
-Chantal