Following U.S. Route 219 through five counties in West Virginia, the Mountain Music Trail highlights the old-time music of the Mountain State.
Blog Archives
Appalachian Millennials and social media in Wyoming County
Guest Contributor Donald Welch: The Rural Appalachian Improvement League encourages plenty of groups to visit the Mullens, W.Va., area to volunteer. But, as an organization focused on sustainability and creating social change in southern West Virginia, the group also uses social media to engage youth and create opportunities for local residents.
Common Connections: An Appalachian-Romanian Exchange
An exchange program between high students from Mason, W. Va., and Anina, Romania, identified similarities in the music and traditions of these two coal-mining regions.
Paying Tribute to a Beloved Daughter of Appalachia
Jean Ritchie, Kentucky-born folk hero, environmentalist and activist, died this June in her Berea, Ky. home at the age of 92.
Ginseng’s growing role in the new Appalachian economy
Most people who live in the mountains know that just being here can have a healing effect on the soul. But not as many people know that many native plants have real medicinal properties. Growing and marketing those wild medicinal plants and herbs was the subject of a recent workshop offered by the group AppalCEED in Norton, Va.
Appalachian Regional Commission receives citizen input
On June 4, the Appalachian Regional Commission held one of its five 2016-2020 Strategic Plan Listening Sessions in Morehead, Ky. The session successfully facilitated the sharing of ideas by Appalachian stakeholders that will inform the commission’s plan for improving economic opportunities in communities across the region.
TAGS: appalachia Appalachian Culture clean energy Coal Economy Energy Efficiency Health Kentucky Politics
Silas House: A Remembrance of Jean Ritchie
“Kindness always lit up the face of Jean Ritchie,” begins this remembrance by author Silas House of the Appalachian folk icon who died yesterday at 92. “She was a source of incredible pride for my people. Everyone I knew loved Jean Ritchie, and they especially loved the way she represented Appalachian people: with generosity and sweetness, yes. But also with defiance and strength.”
TAGS: appalachia Appalachian Culture Appalachian Voices Coal Kentuckians for the Commonwealth Kentucky Mountaintop Removal Water Water Pollution
Walking the Walk of Preservation
History provides a sense of place. Increasingly, communities are building their own place in history, and finding that preserving the past and marketing it to visitors can also provide a boost in the present.
Appalachian Voices Book Club
Appalachia’s triumphs and tragedies, its beauty and mystery, and its people’s tenacity, love and good humor have long been enshrined in fiction. This year, the stories of the region’s struggles with coal are reaching a national audience thanks to two powerful new novels.
TAGS: Appalachian Culture Appalachian politics books Climate change mountaintop removal coal mining nuclear weapons
Museum Celebrates Birthplace of Country Music
In the 1920s, regional musicians often jammed together in Bristol while waiting for the next train. Those sounds were recorded during the now-famous Bristol Sessions, and now a new museum pays homage to the living legacy of country music.
