Kevin Nigel Watson

For me, living history has been a lifelong affair.  I’ve been a historical interpreter at Howell Living History Farm in Lambertville, New Jersey since I was a kid, and though we do what’s called “third-person interpretation” (we dress the part, but talk like it’s 2016), I actually plow fields, harvest wheat, drive horsedrawn sleigh rides, cut ice off a frozen pond—and get kids and visitors to help.  Through a national network called ALHFAM, I’ve interviewed dozens of living history professionals for material and inspiration, as I completed an MFA in fiction at The New School and wrote freelance for Edible Jersey magazine.  But The New People really began in 2011 with a visit to the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, and a conversation with a nurse who told me all about her favorite patient.  The nurse was an interpreter.  The patient was a ghost.