This week felt like Chattanooga threw every kind of weather at us except actual snow, so we decided to make our own forecast: cloudy with a big ol’ chance of stories. Between gatherin’ your Snowmagedddon photos and sittin’ down with our friends at ELLA Library, it’s been a week full of neighbors remindin’ each other what community looks like when it’s bundled up warm and close.

Without further ado, let’s get on into it! This email looking a little off? Click the ‘Read Online’ option at the top of this email to read it on our website instead.

As always, we’ve added a fresh track to this week’s issue purely for vibes as you read. Click the radio below before ya start reading if you wanna listen!

This week’s Front Porch Partner is Acadia Learning. They it ain’t exactly local-local, but it does help keep this little digital porch light burnin’. It’s also a platform full of cozy, curiosity-sparking courses for folks who like learnin’ at their own pace.

And here’s the fun part: just clickin’ their ad puts $2.60 straight into the Chattynooga piggy bank. No sign-up needed, no hoops to jump through. Just a tap-tap and you’re helpin’ us keep tellin’ Chattanooga’s stories.

Alrighty, Acadia Learning — step on up to the porch!

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Alright, alright. I know some of us folks were keepin’ our eyes peeled on the weather updates all weekend, cause we weren’t sure if we were about to share a space with the Abominable Snowman for a weekend or not.

Sadly, us in the valley didn’t get a lick. Just muddy grass and disappointment to follow. So, if you’re one of the lucky folks who got to see snow in your neck of the woods:

We’ll include your photo (with your permission of course) in a social post we’re craftin’ together later this week.

I sat down with Jazmine LeBlanc and Shae Cardona at Stone Cup Coffee’s comfy lounge upstairs, where we spent most of the time talkin' about a place near and dear to them that they’ve been building alongside the Chattanooga community. Somewhere between the steam of our mugs and the soft hum of folks chattin’ downstairs, they handed me a new word I’d never heard before: athenaeum.

Turns out, it describes a library that’s shaped by the folks who use it, and books and community share the same heartbeat. And once they said it, everything about ELLA clicked into focus.

ELLA Library in East Lake is a community library that empowers neighbors through books and storytelling. It's a place where kids pull their favorites off the shelf for the third time in a week, and parents spot a story they haven't seen since they were young and get to read it out loud to their own kid for the first time. That's what neighbors find when they walk into this unique resource that feels right at home.

Jazmine co-founded ELLA and directs the whole operation. Shae manages And Then Books, the community bookshop and art studio tucked right inside. Together with the rest of the staff, they’ve built an athenaeum in every sense of the word, that’s grown gently from the people who gather there.

What makes ELLA special, though, is their intention and care that the team puts behind it.

Jazmine talked about how carefully they build the collection. There's kids' favorites, but also a strong regional section that allow children and adults to see Chattanooga reflected back at them. Books in multiple languages, including Guatemalan dialects that are incredibly hard to find. Sometimes a parent will spot a book they haven't seen since childhood and get to share it with their kid, which they both agreed those moments alone are worth all the effort.

Language is a big part of ELLA's mission. Lots of kids are growin' up movin' between languages — speakin' one at home, another at school — without ever gettin' enough support in either. ELLA works to break that cycle by honoring home languages and building English literacy in a way that feels affirming instead of corrective. Reading together might start in Spanish and slide gently into English conversations. Over time, kids build confidence in both, and nobody's makin' them feel small for how they got there in the first place.

ELLA isn't a quiet academic sanctuary, as they believe literacy shows up everywhere. From bilingual comic projects to big community events like their annual Fiesta. Shae's art studio inside And Then Books takes it even further with workshops like Altered Artist Books, where people take old books and transform them with paint, collage, and imagination. It's less about perfection and more about permission.

That creative approach spills into how they collaborate, too. Jazmine mentioned how many organizations around Chattanooga are doin' similar work, and how ELLA tries to support artists while makin' sure families can actually access what's being offered. It's not just "Is this cool?" but also other important questions like "Can people get here? Can kids participate? Does this feel welcoming to everyone and not just our community?" Even their community fridge fits that philosophy, because it's hard to focus on reading (or anything else for that matter) if you're hungry. Care starts with the basics sometimes.

When I asked what they're reading lately, the answers felt right on brand. Jazmine just finished The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, a story about a small town and the ways different communities intersect around one shared place. Shae's gearin' up to read Things Fall Apart, knowin' full well it's gonna hit deep.

Builders of community, readin' about community.

Are you curious on how you can help out such a cool local resource? It’s as easy as donatin’ any of your gently used books! Those puppies stock And Then Books’s shelves and ELLA’s programs, which you can also support by showing up to (they’re pretty darn fun, like this Paint Your Own Ramen Bowl event that got rescheduled to this weekend!)

ELLA feels like the kind of place a kid can grow up visiting if they’re looking to plug into their community through a great story.

And that to me friends is a pretttttty rare book to have on our shelves if ya ask me.

I might just be a kid reporter, but I’m also a well informed citizen. Unfortunately, that means I’ve been having a hard week. I don’t have a lot to say this week. I’m really sad, and I’m mad. There are a lot of bad things happening right now in our world and it’s not okay. I’ve seen some really hard things this week, and I’ve also seen brave people refusing to be quiet. I’ve been feeling a lot of heavy feelings. Maybe you have, too. I’ve been thinking about how joy in the face of adversity is an act of quiet rebellion. You’re allowed to find the happy things and feel them, share them. We’re in this together. I’m deeply delighted that I live here in this community, this family, of Chattanooga.

In light of that, here’s a short list of little things that made me happy this week. Lemme know what you’d add to your happy list. We could all use a little bit more joy today. 🫶

Thanks for warmin’ up with a cup of coffee together before ya head out! Whether you send in a snow pic, share a book, or just took a quiet moment to breathe between paragraphs, you're helpin’ stitch together this cozy little corner of Chattanooga one week at a time.

— Bubby & Clementine