Many artists, crafts people and musicians have made Appalachia their home, contributing to the culture and economy. A Morgan County couple is working to…
Many artists, crafts people and musicians have made Appalachia their home, contributing to the culture and economy. A Morgan County couple is working to document the local arts scene through an online video project called ArtVoiceWV.
Jack Kelly is a retired public television documentary filmmaker. He and his wife Marla Carr moved to Berkeley Springs a little over a year ago.
“I had an interest in continuing to do video work and video stories and found that the artists attracted me and they have great stories in themselves,” Kelly said. “And I thought it was a great way to pay back to the community that we now live in because my career has always been about doing stories that relate to the community that I live.”
ArtVoiceWV offers short videos of about a dozen or so artists who live in Morgan County or who perform and create there.
“We wanted people who had been able to make a living at selling their art,” Carr said. “And I think the other thing was that we wanted the arts to be diverse, so we looked at somebody who, photography, metal sculpture, water color, and we wanted a mix of men and women.”
“When we first started I was looking at things that would be visually compelling, not just a good story but they had to have a visual because we shoot at their studio,” Kelly added. “So having someone who’s doing something like pounding metal, that’s visually interesting in my mind.”
The videos show artists demonstrating their craft and telling their stories. Carr does the research and conducts the interviews, Kelly shoot the video and edits the stories together.
“So much of what I do when I work with the artist is to try to find out who they are and how they got where they are and at what point they made those decisions and why they’re passionate about what they do,” Carr said.
Kelly said the goal is to let the artists tell their stories in their own words.
“To explain who he is and who she is and what drives them,” Kelly said.
Kelly and Carr primarily focus on Morgan County artists right now but hope they can expand the project to include artists across the state. And they hope the videos give people a better sense of who creates the art in their community.
“I want them to take away who the artist is, what sparks their creativity, and if the person comes across as likeable and sincere and all that,” Kelly said.
“I love the arts and I very much would like to see artists successful,” Carr added. “I want people to see that and also how difficult some of it is.”
I just found out that if I were a Greek goddess, I’d be Athena! A proud and insightful warrior.
Or if I’m not Athena, maybe I was a royal queen in ancient Egypt. And this is fascinating—it turns out my aura is blue! These revelations must mean something!
Just take a few, or fifty, Facebook quizzes and you, too, can learn just how fascinating you are. It’s easy. Answer a few inane questions such as what’s your favorite movie or actor and the answer is: you’re Marilyn Monroe or Ryan Gosling!
I wonder: what did we do with our time before Facebook quizzes? Go down the street to visit a neighbor, who might offer you a cup of coffee and a chat? Or work in the garden cutting fresh flowers for a sick friend?
No need to find pen and paper, or type a letter, then struggle to find an envelope and stamp, just to keep in touch. Do it Cyber quick and post on a Facebook feed: how u doin? Lol — smiley face.
Give me the days of porch sitting on a hot summer night, listening to the stories of relatives. Lengthy conversations in person let us know who we come from and how to be in the world. The value of learning how to be in deep, lengthy, face-to-face conversations is still priceless.
Not one of my family or friends ever thought I was Athena, but they loved me anyway. And they showed it by listening to me, really hearing what I had to say. And the touch of my grandmother’s hand on mine as I listened to her funny or sad stories reminded me I was a vital part of a family.
Social Media is a wonderful way I contact folks via Facebook (but not Twitter—I can’t say anything in 140 characters) or to read their blogs. For people who aren’t mobile or who live far away, it’s a blessing. But it is one degree of separation that seems to stretch forever.
I fear we are forgetting how to be in one another’s proximity, like sitting in a coffee shop mirroring one another’s joy or sadness. And I know through teaching that the upcoming generation is facing increasing anxiety once placed amidst real people, not avatars.
I hope we find our way back to being in touch—real touch–like a hug, or a handshake, more and more. Podcast or Skype if it’s impossible to be together, but if it is, then let me know your true self, and you can know the real me. I’m not a super hero or a movie star, but I am a little like Athena, a bit insightful: because I wish you were here.
Cat Pleska lives in Scott Depot, West Virginia. She is a regular writer for Wonderful West Virginia magazine. She teaches English at West Virginia State University and is the director of the WVSU Writing Center.
Sean Covich will be the head coach of the men’s golf program. The golf team will start competing in July 2015, according to a news release.
Covich spent the last three seasons as an assistant coach for the Mississippi State University Bulldogs, a school in the Southeastern Conference.
Men’s golf was actually a varsity sport at WVU from 1933-82.
The reintroduction of men’s golf as a varsity sport will satisfy a requirement from WVU’s Conference, the Big 12, that a school must meet a minimum of six men’s and six women’s sports.
At the start of the 2015-16 academic year, WVU will have six men’s sports and 10 women’s sports, recognized by the Big 12.
The West Virginia Wildlife Center in French Creek has announced its newest resident: a female bison calf. The calf, born Friday, May 2, joins the many…
The West Virginia Wildlife Center in French Creek has announced its newest resident: a female bison calf. The calf, born Friday, May 2, joins the many animals native to West Virginia that are on display at the Wildlife Center.
“A bison calf can walk almost immediately after birth, albeit a bit wobbly,” said Rob Silvester, wildlife biologist for the Wildlife Center in a news release. “It will begin to nurse within minutes as well. The calf will nurse for four to six months before beginning to nibble on grass and grain.”
According to the West Virginia Wildlife Center, Bison once were found in large numbers in West Virginia and across North America, but now are mostly found in captivity for display purposes or on public lands and ranches. They can weigh as much as 2,400 pounds when fully grown. The Wildlife Center has several adult bison as part of the facility’s exhibit.
“This is a great opportunity for the public to see a bison calf,” Silvester said. “If you want to see one in the wild you’d have to go out west. This is a big event for the Wildlife Center and we hope people will visit us over the spring and summer to help us celebrate.”
Monday, marked the 94th anniversary of the Battle of Matewan; a showdown between the United Mine Workers of America and Baldiwn Felts detectives hired by coal operators. The Mingo County town marked the anniversary over the weekend with a re-enactment. Re-enactment organizers hope the momentum of the project will help them complete a 14 year old dream.
Donna May Patarino lives in nearby Kentucky but has organized the Matewan re-enactment for the past 14 years. She, like many involved in the project, think that heritage will play a key role in the revitalization efforts.
Patarino says she wants children to know the stories of the past to appreciate the amenities of today.
“They have no idea what it would have been like to live on company owned property and have to shop at the company grocery store, go to the company doctor go to the company school," she said, "and I feel like they need to know."
The mine war re-enactment depicts efforts in the coalfields to unionize, demand fair wages, and better working conditions.
Credit Daniel Walker
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A crowd of about 100 people sit and stand under white canopies as they watch and listen to the reenactment.
On June 25, 1938, 18 years after the showdown, President Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act which established minimum wages, overtime pay, record keeping, and child labor standards for private sector and government workers.
Moving Mountains
So what are some of things that need to ‘turn’ in order to “Turn this Town Around”? Some of the challenges include:
Geography: It’s unlikely that they found Matewan by mistake. The roads that lead to the small town with a population of less than 500 are riddled with switchbacks as they weave their way up the edge of the mountains, far off the beaten path.
Flooding: The town sits at the foot of towering mountains in the Tug River Valley, so flooding has historically been an issue.
Corruption: Mingo County has also endured a few black eyes over the past nine months as the county’s circuit judge, prosecutor, chief magistrate and a county commissioner resigned following their convictions.
Poverty: More than 30 percent of residents in Mingo County live below the poverty level -almost double the rate for West Virginia’s at nearly 18 percent poverty rate from 2008 to 2012 according to the US Census Bureau.
“This looks like the town that time forgot,” eighth grade West Virginia history teacher Claire Webb said. “That was my first impression but I’ve been here just a couple of hours now only but the people here are just so rich and warm.”
Webb teaches at Wildwood Elementary School in Jefferson County.
For Webb, the trip was humbling. She says, Jefferson County is a different West Virginia than Mingo County. As basically a suburb of Washington D.C., her home county has a different environment socially, and economically. The same census report says Jefferson County has more than 50,000 residents with an 11 percent poverty rate, that’s six-percent less than the state average.
“We have different challenges we have a different perspective we have different lives in West Virginia and it’s all about where you’re from,” she said, “and these communities in the southern part of the state and the coalfields, it really is I do feel sometimes an alternate universe.”
“I’m so grateful to my fellow West Virginians for their love for their state that allows them to live here and deal with these immense challenges that exist on a day to day basis that exist with living in a southern coalfield.”
MingoMomentum
The West Virginia Community Development HUB and volunteers aren’t starting from scratch. Federal, state, and local lawmakers are already investing time, money and energy into the region. Here’s a look at some of the work meant improve the region.
Geography: The geographic challenges are being addressed in part with the King Coal Highway; an incomplete road that runs close to Matewan. It’s an example of public private partnerships that allow coal companies to mine coal and leave road beds for paving.
Corruption: Just this week, Governor Earl Ray Tomblin appointed Family Court Judge Miki Thompson to the vacated Circuit Court Judge seat. Former Judge Michael Thornsbury left the seat vacant after pleading guilty to scheme that would protect the former sheriff, who was fatally shot.
Flooding: The late Senator Robert C. Byrd secured federal money to construct a flood wall more than 2,000 feet long, varying in height between 6 and 29 feet above the ground. The wall was completed in 1997.
While residents claim the floodwall has worked to protect the town from high water, Patarino says it’s kept more than flood waters out. “It seemed like … people were afraid to come across those railroad tracks and come into town to shop at our businesses,” she said. “That’s why we’ve got to focus on our history. That’s why we’ve got to focus on that because that’s bringing people here and we’ve got to do all we can to turn this town around.”
Still Patarino says Matewan has a lot to offer visitors.
“Matewan has so much to offer and really you can name just a few small towns across America that have as much rich history as Matewan does. And a lot of those small towns are no more and we’ve got to hold onto our small town.
The reenactment is performed on the main street in downtown Matewan. The show climaxes during a shootout between union organizers and Baldwin Felts detectives hired by coal operators.
If they build it, will they come?
Patarino has worked on the Matewan Massacre drama for 14 years and has been preaching every sermon she can in favor of an amphitheater.
“We can teach our history on a regular basis to our young people,” she said. “We can bring music events in we can do all sorts of things at our theater for our young people that we would no other way be able to do.”
Patarino says the momentum of the Turn this Town Around is igniting even more hope for the $300,000 amphitheater dream.
Leigh Ann Ray, Project Manager for the Mingo County Commission says the county got involved about a year ago and gave $48,000 for engineering and architectural work for an outdoor theatre. Based on those drawings the theatre will cost about $300,000. Some of those funds have already been raised. Town officials were not available to share the financial progress of the project.
Appalachia has a rich culture and history with music and stories passed down from generation to generation. But sometimes it’s non-natives who are working…
Appalachia has a rich culture and history with music and stories passed down from generation to generation. But sometimes it’s non-natives who are working to document that history so it can be passed on to future generations. This has been the life calling of two folklorists and musicians who now make their home in Elkins, West Virginia, Michael and Carrie Kline.
Exploring the Natural Gas Industry
With support from the Oral History Association Emerging Crisis Research Fund the Kline’s are currently working on a project called Pay Dirt, documenting the gas rush in north central West Virginia, a subject they say is highly polarized.
“And we’ve seen documentaries on both sides and they’re good for the side that they represent but they’re not helping people from other sides to hear one another’s story,” Carrie said. “So we’re currently working with everything we can bring to bear to try to tell a story that will help people from various perspective open up to hearing their own views in the context of others.”
The Kline’s create a discussion on an issue like gas drilling by collecting individual stories, recording each person in a setting and with a demeanor where they feel safe about talking. Later, in the studio they combine the multiple interviews they’ve collected with a goal of deepening community understanding.
“So that it becomes an extended conversation,” Michael said. “It’s a way of bringing together many different views and perspectives in a way that everybody is heard and everybody responds.”
The Kline’s say the shale drilling project is a perfect example of a controversial topic where all sides of an issue can be explored in one place by editing together comments from separate interviews that represent the perspectives of many individuals. And they’ve found some surprises in what they’ve collected, like how little folks from different sides of the issue talk to each other.
“We go to Doddridge County and we visit people who are devastated by the changes in their lives, we interview microbiologists who are documenting people who are sick from air pollution, we go to the homes and workplaces of people in industry who are so excited and we think ‘could you all visit each other?’” Carrie said.
“I guess that’s our mandate to create intimate visits with one another, people from different sectors, because we need all of us, we’re all here in this world and these communities and we’ve got to interweave our experience and broaden our understanding,” she said.
“And become more human in our policies and our vision of a better world. It has to have more humanity in it and more good citizenship and I think our work speaks to all of those things,” Michael added.
Their Musical Side
But the Klines are not just documentarians of life in Appalachia. They are also musicians, with a mission of keeping traditional music alive and adding new music to the genre. For about 50 years now Michael has been collecting old songs passed down through families that are generally sung from memory.
“And so we try to share these songs in as many ways as we can,” he said.
Michael Kline says they’ve sung the songs to their own children, to children in schools all over West Virginia and at festivals across the state. He says it’s thrilling to see the excitement students have when they learn traditional Appalachian songs and gives the children a connection to local culture and history.
Michael and Carrie Kline have recently released a two CD set, Wild Hog in the Woods and Working Shoes.
