In their second article in a series of essays for the “City Folk” section in City Paper, American Studies Assistant Professor Nicole King and Folklorist in Residence Michelle Stefano profile Courtney Speed, a cosmetologist and community leader. The essay, titled, “Days of their lives,” was published March 26.

The article focuses on Speed and her devotion to Turner Station, a neighborhood at the tip of Dundalk in Baltimore County where she has lived since the 1960s. King and Stefano describe Speed’s time working at a barbershop that her husband owned, and later opening the Thomas and Martha Allmond Economic Development Center which trains young people and adults with special needs to run a business. It also serves as an incubator for the Henrietta Lacks Museum.

King and Stefano write that Speed worries about the Turner Station community changing due to developers taking over the neighborhood: “Speed would love to see Turner Station remain the utopian community she recalls from its heyday,” the authors write.

You can read the full essay in City Paper here.