Community, Resilience, and the Power of LEAF Global Arts: a conversation with Kelly Hanson

Welcome to Twice 5 Miles Radio. I'm your host, James Navé, and today, I'm joined by my good friend Kelly Hanson for a conversation that weaves together history, resilience, and the enduring spirit of the LEAF Global Arts community. Kelly and I were both there at the beginning when LEAF Global Arts was founded in 1995. Over the years, we've watched it evolve into a cultural beacon for creativity, inclusion, and connection. Today, as I collaborate with LEAF's founder, Jennifer Pickering, on a book capturing the heart of LEAF's 30-year journey, I'm interviewing key voices—Kelly among them—to help tell the story. Our conversation takes us deep into the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which devastated the Swannanoa area, where the LEAF Global Arts Retreat will return in May 2025. Kelly reflects on witnessing entire forests altered overnight, neighborhoods displaced, and the eerie silence that followed—just sirens and helicopters in the dark. And yet, amid this destruction, life continued. Deer tracks in the mud, beavers rebuilding, and the community rallying together to heal. She shares how her daughter chose to volunteer in the hardest-hit areas, helping neighbors sift through the wreckage of their homes. We also revisit a powerful candlelight vigil in Asheville, where 2,000 people gathered—firefighters, faith leaders, and families—holding hands and singing Stand By Me in the face of so much loss. Through it all, Kelly's optimism shines. "Spring will come," she says. And she finds hope in the arts, music, and LEAF itself—a festival that has always been more than a festival. "You leave with something much bigger than you." Join us as we explore a community's resilience, the transformative power of art, and the ways LEAF Global Arts continues to be a guiding light through dark times.