Jan 30
This week we explore not only mass media portrayal of Appalachians, but the ways Apps respond to stereotyping. Contributor Abby Malik reports on how six writers dismantle stereotypes and misconceptions through their creative work and public art.
This week we explore portrayal of Appalachians in media and reality television, as well as the ways Apps respond to stereotyping. In this article, W.Va. native Josh Gardner responds to the news of MTV’s latest reality show documenting the “real lives” of Mountaineer teens.
This is the first installment of our “Back Home Proud” series, a re-occurring feature in which Apps and Ex-Apps tell us, in their own words, what their Appalachian identity means to them. In keeping with our “Rural Retreat” issue, we hear from John Haywood, a painter and musician, who moved from Eastern Kentucky to Louisville and back again. He now operates his own tattoo parlor on Main Street in Whitesburg, Ky.
For our Rural Retreat issue, The HillVille caught up with Meghan Dorsett, who publishes The Community Planner, a practical ‘how-to’ planning guide, to find out what trends she’s encountering in Appalachia’s small towns and communities. She wasn’t surprised a bit when Forbes.com recently listed Boone, N.C., as one of the fastest growing small towns in America. Change is here for some areas, she says, and it’s all about the baby boomers.
In 2008, Katie McCaskey made the decision to move from NYC, back home to Staunton, Va., where she could afford to own a house and open a business. Even though Staunton is small, she still enjoys downtown amenities, the town’s historic character and walkability, the same things she loved about urban living. Becoming an entrepreneur hasn’t always been smooth sailing, but the experience has made her a passionate advocate for small towns, ‘micropolitans’ as she calls them, and their potential. She’s written an inspiring manifesto encouraging others to invest in them as she has. She recently shared her discoveries with The HillVille.
By Beth Newberry
We’ve collected a short list of a few blogs we read to keep us in touch with our rural roots. These blogs are kin to The HillVille in the shared purpose of uplifting folklore, current events, culture, news, politics, connecting rural and urban areas and exploring that unshakable yearning for back home.
By Niki King
This week chicagomag.com’s Whet Moser contemplated race relations and Southern migration to the Windy City in the years up to and following World War II, a time when millions of Appalachians were moving to Chicago and other Midwestern cities to find work.
By Cyerra Crumrine
Five breweries. One cidery. And many scenic views. That’s the idea behind the Brew Ridge Trail, the most intoxicating tourism trail in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Read more
By Glenny Brock
On MLK Day, in Birmingham, admission to the Civil Rights museum is free. You might go after the Unity Breakfast (scrambled eggs and over-cooked bacon from a buffet line, biscuits and gravy, grits with cheese and without), during which some speaker or another pays tribute to the great man, by giving a talk on social justice. Read more
For five months, at the request of and via the introduction of Frank X Walker, editor of PLUCK! The Journal of Affrilachian Arts and Culture, four writers shared stories of food, land, home, race, sexuality and writing. In doing so, they illuminated the experience of being Latino in the United States and in Appalachia specifically. Read more
The HillVille 