This week on Inside Appalachia, we talk with East Tennessee’s Amythyst Kiah. Her new album contemplates the cosmos. Also, hair salons are important gathering places where Black women can find community. And West Virginia poet Torli Bush uses story to tackle tough subjects.
The coronavirus pandemic continues to prove just how interconnected the world is. Now, a new COVID strain called “omicron,” shows the potential downside of our global vaccination approach.
As people in the U.S and Europe line up for booster shots, low vaccination rates in some countries allow the virus to mutate into new strains. ‘America first’ has been a consistent focus for the Biden administration’s vaccination campaign.
Early in 2021, high income countries controlled nearly 60 percent of global vaccine doses, despite having just 16 percent of the world’s population. Millions of people around the world continue to wait for their first vaccination dose.
COVID may prove the only way to defeat a virus is to provide equitable treatment around the world.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the CRC Foundation and the West Virginia Humanities Council.
This program is made possible by funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 through the West Virginia Humanities Council. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations do not necessarily represent those of the West Virginia Humanities Council or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Trey Kay
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Patrick Hancock, owner of the Heroes Pub in Goose Creek, SC.
United Nations Journalism Fellowship
Amitoj Singh, is an on-the-move international multimedia journalist driven to be a first responder providing information from the trenches. Currently, he is the India Regulatory Reporter for CoinDesk. He has contributed to CNN, Business Insider, SBS Australia, Al Jazeera, Columbia Global Reports, and India’s New Delhi Television Ltd. (NDTV).
Amitoj Singh hugging his grandmother in Gurgaon, Northern India
Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr is the director of Columbia World Projects and director of the Mailman School’s Global Health Initiative. She is an international expert in infectious diseases and public health with extensive experience in epidemiology and research on the prevention and management of HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, and emerging infections, among others.
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Columbia Univeristy – Mailman School of Public Health
Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr,
Misbil Hagi-Salaad is Somali-American and lives part time in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is a nurse practitioner, who works two jobs: one at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, and the other at Sibley Memorial Hospital, which is part of Johns Hopkins in Washington, DC. This photo was taken in the Dubai Mall in 2019.
This week on Inside Appalachia, we talk with East Tennessee’s Amythyst Kiah. Her new album contemplates the cosmos. Also, hair salons are important gathering places where Black women can find community. And West Virginia poet Torli Bush uses story to tackle tough subjects.
Folkways Reporter Zack Harold recently made a trip to the small town of New Vrindaban, in West Virginia’s Northern Panhandle. It’s a Hare Krishna community started in the late 60s. These days, the town is home to a few hundred permanent residents, but thousands of pilgrims visit each year. They come to worship in the temple — and to visit the opulent Palace of Gold. But those main attractions were a pretty small part of Zack’s trip. He ended up spending much of his time in the kitchen.
This week on Inside Appalachia, a Hare Krishna community in West Virginia serves vegetarian food made in three sacred kitchens. Also, an Asheville musician’s latest guitar album is a call to arms. And, we talk soul food with Xavier Oglesby, who is passing on generations of kitchen wisdom to his niece.
Affrilachian poet and playwright Norman Jordan is one of the most published poets in the region. Born in 1938, his works have been anthologized in over 40 books of poetry. He was also a prominent voice in the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s and 70s. He died in 2015, put part of his legacy is the Norman Jordan African American Arts and Heritage Academy in West Virginia. Folkways Reporter Traci Phillips has the story.