I admit, I tend to be Philly centric in my social life. I don’t often roam too far from the boundaries of the city, but around this time of year, there are two areas I always try to venture to to get in the holiday spirit, the New Hope/Peddler’s Village area to the north and the Longwood Garden/Winterthur area to the (slightly south) West.
In the past, I have generally zipped into Winterthur to check out the beautifully decorated estate. This year, I’m looking forward to seeing the Christmas trees inspired by Ann Lowe gowns. For you fashionistas, there’s a whole exhibit on the designer who designed couture gowns for debutantes, heiresses, actresses and society brides, including Jacqueline Kennedy, Olivia de Havilland and Marjorie Merriweather Post.
Then I usually pop over to Longwood to check out its 1,077 acres of exquisitely manicured gardens. For the holidays, Longwood goes all out with more than half a million lights that sparkle in the trees outside, and in the displays throughout the many indoor areas. My nephew is always entranced by the dancing fountains and live carolers strolling the grounds. Longwood has received numerous awards including being voted the Best Botanical Garden Holiday Lights by USA TODAY. But this week’s Portrait, Daniel Embree, the executive director of Kennett Collaborative, has convinced me that I need to stay a little longer and explore the restaurants and quaint shopping areas in Kennett Square, and perhaps come back for the giant Mushroom Drop on New Year’s Eve!
You’re an ambassador for Kennett Square but where are you originally from?
I’m from Illinois. That’s actually where I am right now, visiting my family. I grew up in a suburban town north of Chicago, called Lincolnshire. But I’ve spent my adult life on the east coast, a number of years first in the greater Boston area, then in New York City.
I read that you worked at Emerson College which is where I went!
Yes, I started my career as an adjunct professor. I taught at Emerson and several other schools in Boston. But teaching part-time paid only half my bills. So my career moved in a different direction. I got more involved in administrative roles, which kind of landed me in the nonprofit world.
What subjects did you teach?
My background is in visual arts so I’ve taught drawing, printmaking and painting to all different age groups from very young to very old.
Tell me a little bit about growing up in the suburbs of Chicago.
I come from a big Mormon family and I’m the oldest of seven kids. Coming from a very conservative and religious background, as the oldest, I pioneered a lot of things. I was the first to come out and the first to do a lot of things. My family is very close and very supportive and wonderful, but it wasn’t always easy. I have a younger brother who is also gay and I like to say that I opened the closet door for him to walk out of.
I have a nephew I did that for. What is a fond memory from childhood?
So being the oldest, I was hanging around a lot with my siblings, and their friends who were all a little bit younger than me. So I kind of became the ringleader, organizing the neighborhood games. Back then, we’d play outside. This was before everybody was glued to the screens in their hands. So I would orchestrate these games, you know, fighting dragons in the forest or chasing unicorns or whatnot. It was a lot of fun and I think that some of the work I do now is informed by that sense of being a community, knowing who your neighbors were and being engaged with them.
Sure. And what did your folks do?
So, when I was growing up, my mom was at home juggling seven kids and when we got older, she went into nursing. My dad was in sales and spent a lot of his career at Oracle selling software.
What’s something that we either might not know, or that was different about having a Mormon upbringing?
Being part of a Mormon community was something that made me different, so it was a very defining part of who I was. It exposed me to families who all have the same kind of beliefs and cultural traditions and it was a very tight knit community. And so there were older people who were mentoring me, there were younger people that I was mentoring, there was a very strong sense of community. Ultimately, that community had expectations for me as a gay person that were really difficult and often painful. Back then, it was common to try to change your orientation and I underwent what was then called “reparative therapy.” There’s a reason that people are banning the practice. It can do a lot of harm.
And bottom line, it obviously doesn’t work!
[Laughing] It’s not evidence-based science. But I’m grateful that I found people during that time who showed me a different path to self acceptance. And I have to say that I did truly value my upbringing because it taught me how important community is. And as an adult, I’ve been able to access that in other ways, through the LGBT community, for example. And even where I live, I’ve sought out a place where there is a sense of community.
I can understand that. As someone who is not a faith-based person, sometimes I watch something like “American Ninja Warrior,” where everybody seems to be named Daniel or Josiah. I can appreciate the warmth and camaraderie that they seem to have.
Yes, it’s almost like a built-in second language. You have a shared vocabulary, an automatic connection.
Where did you go for higher learning?
I started at Brigham Young University (BYU), where I got my undergrad. And then I got my master’s degree from the School of Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, Massachusetts. I was living in a town called West Newton. I think that’s where I gained my appreciation for and understanding that different neighborhoods have different vibes and different programming and things going on.
You’ve done some teaching. Who was a favorite teacher of yours?
I have both a favorite teacher and a mentor if that’s OK. For teacher, I have to go with my elementary school art teacher, Mrs. Goldman. At that age, I did not fit in with my peers. I was not into sports, I had a funny way of talking, I liked creative things, I was weird in that way. But I was very interested in drawing and painting, and she never treated me like I was a kid doing those things. She always treated me with a lot of respect, like I was an adult, a professional artist. And she let me use her paint brushes, taught me how to take care of them and clean them. Using professional art materials and being supported in my passion gave me a lot of confidence. That had a lasting impression.
Then, coming out of grad school, I had a mentor, Debra Samdperil. I was teaching as an assistant in the pre-college program, and she saw my skills. She nurtured me and saw that I had more to offer than what I was doing so she found ways of expanding my role. She introduced me to the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, where I spent almost a decade of my career. I really grew in that program and even after she was no longer my boss, she continued to mentor me and advise me. To me, that’s an example of LGBT community and mentorship, and how we take care of each other.
When did you come out?
I came out during my undergrad at BYU, which was difficult. At the time, BYU had a very strict honor code. They still forbid homosexual behavior but at the time, it was even one step further, it was against the rules to promote homosexual behavior, which was obviously very vaguely described. In many cases, even the very act of coming out could be considered promoting that lifestyle. But we had a little underground community, where we all kind of protected each other and we had code words, like we would refer to each other as “family.” So if you were going to a party, you would ask “is that a ‘family’ friendly party?” Or you’d ask, “are they a member of the family?” I just thought that was such a lovely way to talk about this thing that we were trying to hide from the outside world. But we were also so excited to be expressing it to ourselves for the first time and to each other.
Ha! My column is actually called “Family” Portraits.
Yes, I think that a lot of that comes from this idea of chosen family and I think that’s very important in the queer community.
How did you end up in Kennett Square?
So like many good romance movies start, I came to Kennett Square to be with a boy. But then what happened is I fell in love with Kennett Square and the boy is now long gone. I came here in 2018 and I just love it. It’s the right kind of community for me. It hits all the buttons, some of them very specific to me. I discovered that my family has history sites all over the area. There’s even an Embreeville, Pennsylvania about 10 minutes north of here. I had this vague knowledge that my ancestors on my dad’s side had lived in Pennsylvania, but I didn’t really know much about it. And now I’ve caught the family history bug. Ironically, because it’s very common for Mormons to love family history. So even though I didn’t grow up there, I feel connected to the area. But there’s a lot of things I love about it. I love to garden and to be around gardens so Longwood Gardens is one of my favorite places in the world.
For people who’ve never been to Kennett Square, why should someone come out here?
Well, It’s a great place to live, work and visit. If you want that charming Hallmark movie vibe, just go to uptown Kennett Square on State Street. It’s a really quaint little magical, fun place. Anticipating a question you might ask, one of the things I love is how inclusive it is here. Going from the city and towards the country, that’s not the first thing you think of but Kennett Square has a really wonderful LGBTQ community. I have felt very welcomed and have become embedded in the community. In fact, we have a number of LGBT leaders in pretty much every sector — nonprofit, business, real estate and municipal government. And at Victory Brewing, there’s a drag brunch that’s really fun. It’s a really great place to be a gay person!
Sounds great!
Yes. It’s also a very family-oriented place to settle and raise a family. I like that I meet and have befriended people from all generations here. Oh, and I want to mention two upcoming things to do in Kennett Square.
Please do!
So one of the things I love about Kennett Square is that it’s such an active community. For a small town, there’s always something going on. We just had an incredible holiday village market. It’s one of my favorite things. But upcoming, two things not to miss would be our New Year’s Eve celebration. Kennett Square is the Mushroom Capital of the World so we do a giant Mushroom Drop at midnight. It’s a 500-pound stainless steel mushroom beautifully covered in lights. We really love our mushrooms in Kennett Square. It’s a fun kind of motif, almost like a mascot in town. So the whole downtown is closed off and people are getting drinks and food and there’s live music and it’s just a party in the streets. It’s like a little mini Times Square. But having lived in New York City, I can say I would 100 times over pick the Mushroom Drop here over being in Times Square on New Year’s Eve.
Another event I’m really excited about is a collaborative event called Kennett Winterfest on Feb. 24. Tickets are on sale now and they usually sell out the first or second week of February. It’s right in the center of town and there will be tents with heaters and live music and food trucks and more than 60 brewers with different brews. When you get your ticket, you get a tasting cup and unlimited tastings, so it’s a really fun event. I can’t think of anywhere else around Philly where there’s an outdoor party in February!
So I’m assuming liking mushrooms is a prerequisite for your job?
I do love mushrooms and I love to cook, so it is nice being able to pick up really good, fresh and exotic mushrooms to cook with. We have a weekly farmers market collaborative.
I know that you have a big Mushroom Festival that I’ve always wanted to come to, but it’s always the weekend after Labor Day and I go away to SisterSpace every year that same weekend!
That’s a shame. It’s a great event. The Mushroom Festival brings people from all over the world. It’s great for people watching. People come in mushroom costumes or Victorian clothing. There’s a fried mushroom eating contest. And vendors selling handmade artisan objects, unique stuff that you can’t find anywhere else. That’s another thing I really love about the shops in KS, you’re not getting mass-produced stuff that you get at a mall. It’s all very local. There’s a culture of artists and local unique craftspeople here.
What’s the strangest mushroom item you’ve seen?
Woodside Creamery makes a pumpkin-mushroom ice cream which is surprisingly great!
Swap day — who would you want to change lives with for a day?
[Laughing] That’s hard because most of the people I admire are people who I admire because they succeed in very difficult circumstances that I wouldn’t necessarily want to be in! I’d swap places with someone young, maybe my nephew. Just to feel that sense of joy from seeing the world for the first time. That sense of awe and wonder you have as a kid. I try to approach life that way still but it’s a different feeling when you’re a kid.
Fashion faux pas or era you miss?
I miss the fun of the hairstyles in the early 2000’s. I did that Jim Halpert from “The Office” cut with the swoops behind the ears that were supposed to be natural but actually took a lot of work!
Favorite G-rated curse word?
I actually don’t like G-rated curse words, because growing in Mormon culture that’s all you heard. In the vernacular of my childhood and even at BYU, you heard soooo many euphemisms for swear words and they did very little to hide the intention of the words and sounded silly on top of it. The most common was to say “flip” instead of the “F” word.
I never heard of that. Last question, what’s a favorite quote, lyric or motto?
This is hard. When I was younger, I used song lyrics to cryptically convey the things I was feeling when I was still in the closet. But I’d say that my motto — and it’s not really a catchphrase — but I just believe in honesty and integrity. I think that those two things are so important and if you can be honest and authentic, you will have a better life and so will the people around you.
For more information on Kennett Collaborative, visit kennettcollaborative.org.