Missoula Rabble: Everyone Has A Story
Missoula Rabble started as a bet among coworkers about taking a photo a day. It has turned into one of the more entertaining Facebook pages in Montana and an ambitious Kickstarter that is close to being funded. Creator Ashley McKee explains “The project is proof that everyone does have a story to tell. I started to profile people on the street and put their picture along with a brief blurb on my Instagram and Facebook. The overwhelming response from the public made me realize this was going to be something special.”
The Montana Mint is pumped to partner with Ashley and Missoula Rabble to give you a sample of the project. If you like what you see, help out a Montanan and give a few bucks to the Kickstarter.
SAM
Sam is a true character of strength. He recently came out. I asked him what that was like. “The first or the second time?” he laughed. “The first time that I came out was a lot harder than the second time. I’ve always known that I’m gay but I’ve never really had context for it. I think my only struggle has been with my parents.” I asked Sam why it has been a struggle with his parents. “Not seeing eye to eye. Not seeing love in the same way,” he said. “They have a stricter, more regulated view of love and that it can only be shared with two people of opposite genders.” I asked Sam what it was like holding a part of his identity in for so long. “It’s like a ball and chain on your foot or you’re trying to run and your legs are tied together,” he said. “You’re always just changing things a little bit about yourself to fit whatever situation. You’re trying to think of ways to mask your own identity.” I asked Sam how it feels to be free of that weight. “It’s very liberating,” he said. “I have a lot of support from my friends. I guess I can only hope that living by example, almost just like living in love, will change their hearts.”
BENJAMIN
Benjamin grew up with a father who was a minister in a very religious household. “They saw me as the sinner, the shitty kid in their family for a while,” he said. He had rejected his family’s faith when he was in high school. “It was shitty at first because I didn’t want to go against the grain too much. I still had a lot of love for my family,” he said. “It got pretty hard when it seemed like they were dissatisfied with everything I did even if it wasn’t bad just because I was choosing to live a different lifestyle. I reconciled with them and told them, ‘This is none of your business. I’m still your son.'” I asked Benjamin when he knew religion wasn’t for him. “I would sit in church as a kid and just think, ‘I don’t need some law and some fear of burning in hell to make me a good person.’ Everybody should just be a decent person. Whatever god there ends up being hopefully they’re going to be cool if I’m nice to people.”
AMBER AND RASHID
I caught these two walking downtown after a dinner date. It turns out Amber and Rashid were married just two hours before. And they went on their first date exactly one month ago. “The first night that we met we went on a really long walk,” Rashid said. “As we were talking I basically realized I had fallen in love with her at first sight and I had never had that happen to me.” They met at a KBGA event at The Roxy. “The first night that we met was surreal like I was in a dream,” Amber said. “It was like time was slowing down.” The two met, went on a formal date, moved in together, and decided to marry. I asked them how they knew. “I’ve been dating women for 15 years and I’ve been married before,” Rashid said. “I’ve never met anyone before that made me feel the way she did. We met and it was weird. Amazing weird.” Amber followed. “There were things that were coming out of my mouth that I never thought I’d be capable of saying but it’s like my heart spoke for me,” she said. “I never thought I’d agree to marriage.” I asked them what it feels like to be married. “Getting married today seemed normal,” Rashid said. “It seemed natural like it was something that should happen and we didn’t have to try and make it happen. It just did.”
GREG
Greg once played 56 games of chess at the same time. He’s most well known as ‘The Octopus’ in Missoula and he’s considered a chess master. He told me he discovered chess by accident at age nine and became a pro at age ten, playing adults in adult clubs. “I took to it instantly,” he said. “Chess helped me a lot as a youth. It took me a lot of places and I met a lot of people.” Greg got his nickname from the media because of his ability to play multiple games at the same time. I asked him if he liked his nickname. “It fits me really well,” he said. “It’s domineering.” I asked him if chess paid the bills. “Chess is fun, but it’s just a hobby. It doesn’t pay much,” he said. “I always say, ‘I’ve got the fame, but I’m still looking for the fortune.'”
ANGELA AND VICKI
Angela, in wheelchair, and Vicki are homeless. “We are like sisters,” Vicki said. “We try to take care of each other as much as we can.” They met a couple of years ago at the public library. Vicki told me her fiancé and she have a room to stay at for the next couple of days. I asked Vicki what trials she runs into being homeless during a winter in Montana. “A lot of people who are out here are drug addicts or alcoholics,” she said. “Those people who are trying to get help can’t because of that.” Angela told me she sleeps outside right now. I asked Angela how she manages to maintain a positive spirit especially when the weather is as cold and windy as it is right now. “I build fires when I can and stay in my sleeping bag for as long as I can when it is this cold,” she said. “God has never given me anything I can’t handle.”
LYNN
Lynn told me she is a country girl. She was born and raised on a farm in Nebraska. “We were farmers. Corn, beets, sugar cane, alfalfa sprouts,” she said. “‘Cornfed red.’ That’s what they say in Nebraska.” She moved here around a year ago from Wyoming. She told me her leather cowboy hat was stolen shortly after she got here so she bought the one she has on at a thrift store for 15 dollars. “It’s always been a part of me,” she said. “I need a hat.” Lynn has been fighting pancreatic cancer for the past year. She went through chemotherapy and says she won’t do it again. “Chemo is worse than the cancer itself,” she said. I asked her what helps her stay positive during a time like this in her life. “Nature, the beauty,” she said. “I divert my pain to nature and people. The beautiful things. We’re all human beings.”
Ashley McKee, creator of Missoula Rabble, on her project
Missoula Rabble has taken off and become a very important project to me. I have taken over a hundred photographs of random strangers in Missoula and told their story through my interviews and writing. I have received an incredibly encouraging and positive response from the community of Missoula. I want to turn Missoula Rabble into a book so these photographs of people during this time don’t get lost in space. I want the people of Missoula to be able to have this to show the future generations. I don’t know how many times I have walked into Charlie B’s and admired the beautiful photographs on the walls. I want the Missoula Rabble book to have the same effect on people.
I am publishing the book through Milltown Press, a local publishing company in Missoula. The estimated cost to design and publish a few hundred copies of this book is currently estimated at $7500. I will also be showing the Missoula Rabble series at Blaque Owl Tatoo. Kickstarter will also fund my prints and framing for this process. I also want to use Kickstarter funding to pay the people who have helped me make all of this possible.
Please help fund and support my kickstarter project so Missoula Rabble can be a book and the series of photos won’t get lost on the web. My series can’t go on forever, but the photographs can always live on with your help.
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