Arts & Culture

On this West Virginia Morning, we hear from a young girl in North Carolina who shares her story of growing up in Appalachia; we hear about the new Voter ID law that went into effect this year; and the Ohio Valley ReSource brings us an update potential tariffs of steel and aluminum manufacturers.

On this West Virginia Morning, we’ll hear the latest from the Democratic Primary Race for U.S. Senate, and we’ll hear a report on Republican U.S. Senate candidate and former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship – who’s holding third place in the Republican six-way race.

On this West Virginia Morning, we hear from detainees and soldiers who were held or worked in Guantanamo Bay Detention Center; the latest on new tariffs for steel and aluminum imports; and we hear how a new study found a link between drug overdose deaths in the U.S. to an increase in organ donors.

Community members are rallying around a school in the Eastern Panhandle. They want to build an outdoor classroom so that kids can get into nature more readily. The goal is to improve academic achievement and provide more opportunities - especially for kids from low-income areas.

On this West Virginia Morning, we hear about a growing educational trend to get young students outside more often; how an elementary school in the Eastern Panhandle aims to provide more opportunities to its students with an outdoor classroom. Also, we hear a panel discussion from Wheeling on race and living as a minority in the historically white state of West Virginia.

The YWCA’s National mission is to empower women and eliminate racism.  With that mission in mind, Wheeling’s YWCA held a panel discussion on race which focused on educating the community on the experience of being a minority in the historically white state of West Virginia.

On this West Virginia Morning, West Virginia chef-journalist Mike Costello appeared on CNN’s Parts Unknown. Costello talks about that experience, plus what he’s working on for 100 Days in Appalachia. Also, in this episode, we hear about a multi-state outbreak of Hepatitis A infections in the Ohio Valley  linked to the region's addiction crisis.

On this West Virginia Morning, two years ago, for our Struggle to Stay series, we began following two apprentices with a job-training program called Refresh Appalachia. The program is teaching Crystal Snyder and Colt Brogan to farm, while also helping them go to college. On this weekend’s episode of Inside Appalachia, we’ll look back on the challenges Colt and Crystal faced at work, and in their personal lives. Roxy Todd caught up with Colt and Crystal earlier this year at a Refresh Appalachia work retreat, to hear how things are going at work, and what their plans are after graduation.

On this West Virginia Morning, it’s been a year since we started following six Appalachians as they grappled with whether to stay in their home state or leave for better opportunities.

On the latest episode of Inside Appalachia, we revisit two of the people we profiled in our Struggle to Stay series, Colt Brogan and Kyran Dawe. Both traveled with the Inside Appalachia team this spring to present at the Appalachian Studies Association Conference, which was held in Cincinnati this year. We hear part of the discussion.

On this West Virginia Morning, a year ago this week, white supremacist groups descended on Pikeville, Kentucky, aiming to rally “white working families,” where they were met by anti-fascist groups from across Appalachia and elsewhere in the country. After a deadly incident in Charlottesville, Virginia in August, many of these white supremacist groups fractured as a result of increased scrutiny and internal power struggles.

There is evidence that remnants of those groups have recently sprung up in north-central West Virginia. Dave Mistich takes a look some incidents where the groups have been active, the community reaction and how to identify such messages if you find them in your own neighborhood.

On the latest episode of WVPB’s podcast Us & Them, host Trey Kay puts an episode they produced back in 2015 under the microscope. The episode featured a conversation between West Virginian Karl Priest, a retired public school teacher, and physicist Christopher Keating.

When this show was originally released, some listeners thought Trey handled the whole thing badly. So he went back to see where things went off the rails.

In this week's episode of Inside Appalachia, we visit communities impacted by creation of flood-control lakes. In one, the Village of Lilly, about 40 families were pushed off their land along the Bluestone River in Summers County, W.Va., in the 1940s. Many of these families had lived there for more than 200 years. 

On Sunday, April 15, Temple Beth El and the Beckley community will gather at WVU Tech to remember those who were killed during the Holocaust. On this West Virginia Morning, Alderson Broaddus journalism student Lora Owston reports the annual event was inspired by the story of the late Max Lewin, who moved Beckley after escaping the horrors of the holocaust himself.

For many teens the prom is the epitome of their high school experience. But for students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or queer, it can be a challenge to feel like they belong. This year, some West Virginia students decided to start a new tradition: The Rainbow Formal, the state's first dance for LGBTQ youth.

On this West Virginia Morning, for many teens, the prom is the epitome of their high school experience. But for LGBTQ students, it can be a challenge to feel like they belong. So this year, some West Virginia students decided to start a new tradition. Molly Born reports.

Billy Hobby’s days are largely filled by two things: church and pool.

“I play everyday, mostly,” Hobby said, sitting next to his wife, Barbara.

“Well, I enjoy watching him play,” Barbara Hobby said. “He’s got health problems, can’t go out of town and play all the time.”

On this West Virginia Morning, President Donald Trump held a roundtable discussion Thursday in White Sulphur Springs that was originally billed to highlight the impact of last year’s federal tax reform legislation. But, at various points, Trump veered off course to address issues such as immigration, trade, energy policy and the race for U.S. Senator Joe Manchin’s seat. Dave Mistich brings us the details.

Yesterday marked the 50th Anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. On this West Virginia Morning, one of the national journalists who covered King’s final speech the day before his death, West Virginia native Ed Rabel, speaks with Roxy Todd about his memories of King.

On this West Virginia Morning, a student at Concord University worked through trauma by finding ways to express herself with art. She’s hoping a degree in art will help her teach others how to find the same freedom. But without the help of a new program at Concord, she may have quit school. Jessica Lilly reports.

A student at Concord University worked through trauma by finding ways to express herself with art. She’s hoping a degree in art will help her teach others how to find the same freedom. But without the help of a new program at Concord, she may have quit school.

On this West Virginia Morning, in an effort to get more people who are addicted to opioids into treatment, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources has awarded a $260,000 grant to the Prestera Center to establish a team in Kanawha Valley that visits overdose patients and tries to convince them to get into treatment.  That program is the second of its kind in the state. Kara Lofton take us to Huntington where West Virginia's first quick response team was launched in December.

A national campaign that aims to unite disenfranchised populations across the U.S. held events in Kentucky and West Virginia late last week.  Meetings are part of a two-month tour designed to highlight social inequity, and build on a movement begun 50 years ago by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

On this West Virginia Morning, the U.S. Detention Facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is the longest-standing war prison in our nation’s history.

Trey Kay, host of WVPB’s podcast Us & Them, has been thinking a lot about how Guantanamo compares to similar detention facilities throughout history. He recently interviewed journalist and Parkersburg native Andrea Pitzer, who just published a book that provides an extensive history of concentration camps. She says if you want to know about the history of -- or current state of -- concentration camps, look at Cuba. We have part of the latest Us & Them episode called “Suburb of Hell.”

In this episode of Inside Appalachia, we’ll travel to the sugar shacks of Appalachian maple producers, and we’ll learn how to use syrup in everything from glazed greens to buttermilk ice cream – and even roasted rabbit.