Lucy Rovetto has spent her life making art that makes you stop — and that's exactly what she asks for. In this conversation, Lucy and Nat talk about growing up in Greenville, working as an assistant to a sculptor in South Africa, nearly walking away from art entirely, and then winning a lottery for an artist live/workspace. They also get into what it means to curate — not just artworks, but the spark between them.

Woolpunk® is a fiber artist, activist, and educator who has called Jersey City home since 1995. She stitches into enlarged photographs of buildings, streetscapes, and sites of tragedy — turning wool and thread into acts of remembrance, protest, and love. In this conversation, we explore what it means to be punk with a needle, how Jersey City became her muse, and the cultural losses the city still hasn’t reckoned with.

In this solo reflection, Nat looks back at Season 2's nine conversations and the thread that runs through them all: What gets preserved? What gets lost? Who decides? She connects these questions to her new painting "Unfinished – Past, Present, Future," which depicts the Jersey City Powerhouse using layers of sepia underpainting to represent the stories that are still showing through. - shownotes at natkalbach.com/podcast

Dan Pieraccini and Alishia Taiping are two of four co-founders of Forget the Whale, Jersey City's beloved band that brings joy to nearly every community event and festival in town. In this conversation, we explore how they create music together as a couple, their deep involvement with the Elks Lodge, and what it means to build community through both performance and service - from Food Not Bombs to fundraising concerts for veterans and families in need.

Miguel Cardenas takes us through a remarkable journey of transformation—from designing high-profile children's museums and nature centers at an elite architectural firm to teaching Jersey City public school students, creating powerful artwork, and co-founding the Jersey City Pride Festival with his husband Paul. This conversation explores how one person's evolution can mirror and shape a community's growth, and why showing up matters more than nostalgia.

Today I'm really thrilled to share a conversation with Jerome China, a metal sculptor who transforms his McGinley Square backyard into a sanctuary—both a creative space and what he calls "the only place on earth where I don't have to compromise." Jerome's journey from needing a fence to becoming an artist, his Buddhist practice, and his connection to Jersey City make this a conversation about freedom, persistence, and the power of sacred spaces. This is a perfect episode to close out the year, a meditation on place, purpose, and artistic practice.

Zach Green's relationship with stained glass began in Lambertville, where a mentor told him to "get out of this town," and led him through Zanzibar's Batik workshops to Jersey City's historic windows and the legendary 111 First Street artist studios. In this conversation, we explore how growing up in Trenton taught him to see beauty in broken things, why stained glass restoration is an endangered art form, and what it means to work with light as spirit. Zach shares his journey from living on a sailboat while creating art to receiving recognition from the Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy, his philosophy of teaching stained glass to everyone from fourth graders to 90-year-olds, and his melancholic but honest reflection on what we've done to this place we call home.

Timothy Herrick, writer, journalist, and longtime Jersey City resident, discusses his new book The Subconscious City: Love, Art and Artists, Jersey City, USA. We explore the relationship between artists and urban spaces, the role of documentation in capturing vanishing moments, and what it means to think visually in a rapidly changing city.

In this powerful conversation, Jersey City photographer Duquann Sweeney shares his philosophy that photography is fundamentally an act of care. From his Bergen Lafayette neighborhood, Duquann has spent years documenting the dignity, joy, and everyday beauty of his community through striking black and white portraits. We explore his recent work honored by the Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy, the Royal Men Foundation he founded, and his collaboration on the WE'RE HERE Project documenting hidden histories. Duquann challenges us to hold onto three essential elements: history, love, and imagination.

Andrea McKenna's studio journey spans from a century-old garage on a Jersey City dead-end street to her aunt's former bedroom in Fort Lee. In this conversation, we explore how personal loss transformed her artistic practice, the evolution of Jersey City's art community, and what it means to hold space for other artists while navigating your own creative path. Andrea shares the story of the Raven Gallery, her seven years as gallery director at Art House Productions, and her collaborative performance piece "Arboreal Soul" with choreographer Megan Woods; a meditation on grief through movement and visual art.

We kick off Season 2 with Rimli Roy, founder and artistic director of Surati Studio, whose journey from IT programmer to cultural institution builder embodies the best of Jersey City's immigrant experience. From her first Halloween in America to creating festivals that unite thousands, Rimli shares how cultural work happens organically—through one person's willingness to share what they love, combined with a community ready to support that sharing.

In this special season finale, Nat sits down with her dear friend Chelsea Castro, Vice President of the Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy, for what starts as playful banter between two "separated at birth" preservation enthusiasts who find profound meaning in skeleton keys tucked in leather satchels and vintage clothing hidden in walls. But as their delightfully wandering conversation unfolds, something deeper emerges: a surprising web of connections threading through Season One that reveals how every guest - from jazz host Ted Chubb to ceramic artist Jin Jung to storytelling consultant Thaler Pekar - shares unexpected geographic, thematic, and philosophical overlaps. It's a conversation about the silly and the profound, ultimately discovering how curiosity, community care, and the simple act of showing up creates the fabric of neighborhood life.

In this episode of Nat's Sidewalk Stories, I explore the intersection of poetry and native plants with Ann Wallace, Jersey City's former poet laureate, and Kim Correro, a passionate advocate for native plants. Together, they host The Wild Story podcast, connecting ecological awareness with artistic expression. We discuss finding nature in urban landscapes, how slowing down leads to remarkable discoveries, and why both poetry and native gardening offer paths to hope in challenging times.

Step inside the Statuary in Jersey City Heights, where world-class trumpeter Ted Chubb and his wife Rachel have reimagined a century-old religious statue workshop as an intimate jazz venue. Nat Kalbach talks with Ted , who shares how this unique space creates rare connections between renowned musicians and community members, bringing NEA Jazz Masters into their living room while inviting curious passersby to experience live jazz. Discover how this grassroots venue embodies Jersey City's unique cultural identity - connected to New York's jazz scene yet maintaining a small-town community feel.

In this epsisode, Nat and Jersey City native Irene Christodoulakis discuss navigating between grassroots art initiatives and major HBO productions. Irene’s award-winning screenplay imagines 1930s underground women's boxing in familiar Jersey City settings. She reveals how deep community roots inspire authentic storytelling and why resourcefulness defines her approach to creativity.

In this episode, Nat Kalbach speaks with Colin Egan who shares the remarkable 30-year journey of saving Jersey City's historic Loew's Jersey Theatre from demolition. Colin reveals how persistence and thousands of volunteer hours transformed an abandoned building into a beloved cultural center that is now undergoing major restoration.

In this conversation with master storyteller Thaler Pekar, we explore how stories connect us to places, how buildings hold collective memories, and why asking "tell me about a time" might be the most powerful way to understand our communities.

In this episode, musician and cultural historian Tris McCall shares three decades of insights on Jersey City's evolving arts landscape. From the legendary 111 First Street arts center to the current gallery scene, Tris explores how place shapes creativity and how creative communities in turn define our city. Discover his unique perspective on "living horizontally" versus "vertically," the ghosts of lost creative spaces, and his passionate call to recognize overlooked musical pioneers like PM Dawn as essential to Jersey City's cultural heritage.

In this episode, we explore how art can preserve forgotten histories and create a sense of belonging through conversation with visual artist Jin Jung, whose WERE HERE project places handmade blue ceramic markers throughout Jersey City to commemorate overlooked historical figures and events.

Preservation expert Kelly Carroll joins Nat to discuss how community-driven historic preservation strengthens neighborhoods even when buildings can't be saved. Kelly shares success stories from Brooklyn's diverse communities and draws intriguing parallels between Jersey City and Brooklyn through their industrial heritage, legacy businesses, and built environment.