Feb 7
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
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
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.
The HillVille unabashedly loves stories, community building and especially innovative ways to use stories to build community. So when we saw Hollow, an interactive documentary about McDowell County, W.Va., on Kickstarter, we were intrigued. We caught up with project founder and ex-App Elaine McMillion earlier this week to get the scoop.
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.
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.
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
ex-App: An ex-Appalachian (in abbreviated form, ex-App) is a person temporarily or permanently residing outside of Appalachia, the region of their upbringing, heritage or heart. Example: Bob’s an ex-App, he lives here in Seattle now, but hails from Southwest Virginia and is totally back home proud.
Urban Appalachian: An Appalachian living in one of the region’s cities or a city on the region’s fringes.
Urba-lachia: What happens when you say urban Appalachia real fast.
By Niki King
Say the word “Appalachian” and many images come to mind. A city skyline may not be among them. And maybe that’s our own fault. Our cities haven’t been a hot topic in the Appalachian Studies community and there are few representations of our regional urbanity in art, media and literature.
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by Niki King
Look up “urban Appalachian” and you’re sure to find the Urban Appalachian Council, which has worked since 1974 to “promote a decent quality of life for Appalachian people of Greater Cincinnati” through direct services and advocacy. They’ve also created an astounding body of research, that taken together, traces the experience of Appalachians in Cincinnati and other Mid-western cities over the last 40 years. This fall, The HillVille caught up with Phil Obermiller, a longstanding member of the Council’s Research Committee who has written extensively on the subject, to find out what’s new. Read more
The HillVille 