A photographer’s “love letter to Appalachia”: Interview with Roger May
By Beth Newberry
“I am both insider and outsider,” says documentary photographer and Appalachian Roger May. Read more
Posts from the ‘Identity and Culture’ Category
Apr 17
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Pi(e) Day Revisited at North Carolina’s Arthur Morgan School
By Ronni Lundy, Photos by Lora Smith
Last March 14, the day each year known as Pi Day for its 3.14 month and day sequence, marked the first Pi(e) in the Sky fundraiser and social event to benefit the Get Real Summer Camp held at the Arthur Morgan School in the Blue Ridge mountain community of Celo, N.C. Here Ronni Lundy offers a delectable recipe for your own pie party (Apple-Chai-Bacon Pie!) and the story of the event and its roots. Lora Smith, Meghan Lundy-Jones, director of the camp, and Ronni Lundy organized the event. Read more
‘All my rivers run back South’: Musician Jonas Friddle’s Tale of Two Cities
By Beth Newberry
At the Appalachian Studies Association conference last year, I was talking to a student from Berea College, and I told him I was from Louisville. He asked, “How do you like it there?” which is how many conversations involving ex-Apps go—finding out where the others live and if it’s a viable place to live beyond the hills. Read more
Very (Silly) Superstitious
Upon dating a man from Eastern Kentucky, Louisville writer and editor Lisa Hornung recently discovered some of Appalachia’s more eccentric superstitions and pokes a little fun at us all.
Bristol Builds From Its Music History Up
By Niki King
BRISTOL Tenn./Va. – The moment the Gentleman of the Road tour announced that it would stop in Bristol this August, I emphatically decided I would go. It appealed to me for about a dozen reasons. Read more
Who Can Speak For Appalachia? A recent transplant wants to know.
by Parker Hobson
This past May 18, I made a 3-and-a-half hour trip in a rickety minivan, from my current home of Whitesburg, Ky. to my hometown of Louisville, Ky. I was traveling to represent my small, community radio station at Louisville Loves Mountains Day, a benefit for the grassroots citizens’ activism group Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. Read more
Finding Sweetness in Lost History
Tonia Moxley, avid writer, cook and gardener, shares the story of how she’s made room for bees in her backyard, like so many others experimenting in the urban agriculture movement, and why that journey has brought her closer to understanding her Appalachian heritage. Read more
From the Hollers to City Streets: A Review of 2/3 Goat’s EP “Stream of Conscience”
By Beth Newberry
The video for the title track of 2/3 Goat’s EP Stream of Conscience features members of the New York City-based band standing knee-deep in a stream in the mountains of Central Appalachia. Lead singer and mandolin player Annalyse McCoy belts: “Stream of conscience hear my cry / I don’t want my hills to die.”
Digital Decoration Day
By Niki King
I came across a story NPR reported last year about a Seattle company that is creating scannable codes for burial markers. It said these codes can be placed on tombstones so visitors can learn about their departed, leave messages or record stories about them. A person needs only a smart phone and a free app to access the information.
I listened in rapt attention, imagining the possibilities for such technology at my own family cemetery. At this time of year especially, my mind turns to the dead there and their safe keeping.
Cabbagetown: A Mountain Village in the heart of Atlanta
By Niki King
The HillVille spent an afternoon roaming the streets of Atlanta’s Cabbagetown, a historically Appalachian community, talking to old-timers and newcomers alike about the mountain ways that have manifested here. What emerged was the story of a people and a place in transition and a musical tradition that will not die.
