This week, we’re revisiting a show featuring storytellers out loud in front of audiences. Folks like five-time champion of the West Virginia Liars’ Contest, Bil Lepp. Also, musicians Anna & Elizabeth, whose storytelling used something known as a crankie. And, we’ll head to the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, Tennessee.
Randy Blake Thomas (a Creeker) and Trey Kay (a Hiller).Joni Deutsch
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Our cultural divides start early in America – some even in childhood.
As kids, we learn where we come from and where we belong. Those divisions can really run deep. When Us & Them host Trey Kay was a kid at George Washington High School in Charleston, West Virginia, you were either a ‘hiller’ or a ‘creeker.’ The sorting followed class lines and separated kids based on their family’s income.
Trey goes back to his old neighborhood to see if others remember it the way he does. Some of their differences were subtle while others were as basic as the clothes they could afford. But what he learned from these adult conversations is that they had a lot in common. They were all self-conscious and knew that even their shoes could define them.
Another thing they all share? The pain of those 40-year-old wounds can sometimes still sting.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the CRC Foundation and the West Virginia Humanities Council.
Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond. You also can listen to Us & Them on WVPB Radio — tune in every fourth Thursday at 8 p.m., or listen to the encore presentation on the following Saturday at 3 p.m.
George Washington High School Yearbook
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Randy Blake Thomas in 1977 as a sophomore at George Washington High School in Charleston, W.Va.
George Washington High School Yearbook
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Joey Minardi in 1977 as a sophomore at George Washington High School in Charleston, W.Va.
George Washington High School Yearbook.
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Trey Kay in 1977 as a sophomore at George Washington High School in Charleston, W.Va.
Joni Deutsch
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Randy Thomas sporting a pair of his coveted Nike Cortez sneakers.
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This week, we’re revisiting a show featuring storytellers out loud in front of audiences. Folks like five-time champion of the West Virginia Liars’ Contest, Bil Lepp. Also, musicians Anna & Elizabeth, whose storytelling used something known as a crankie. And, we’ll head to the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, Tennessee.
This week’s Inside Appalachia features storytellers from around the region, including author, television host and five-time West Virginia Liars Contest winner Bil Lepp. Here he is back in 2019, telling a story during a Mountain Stage performance at the West Virginia Culture Center.
Daniel Johnston recorded songs in his parents' basement in rural West Virginia that would eventually inspire artists such as Kurt Cobain, Beck, Wilco, and Sonic Youth. In this award-winning episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay explores the life, art, and enduring legacy of the late singer-songwriter and visual artist whose creative genius and struggles with bipolar disorder made him one of America's most influential outsider artists.
The late singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston grew up in West Virginia and came onto the indie music scene in the 1980s. Last year, Johnston was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame and he’s featured in the next episode of Us & Them. In this award-winning show, host Trey Kay learns about Johnston’s legacy which was partly shaped by his challenges with mental illness.