Arts & Culture Story Archives - Page 335 of 351 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Gala Set for W.Va. Arts Awards on Thursday

West Virginia is celebrating some of its best artists and art supporters.

The 2014 Governor’s Arts Awards ceremony is scheduled for Thursday night at the Culture Center in Charleston.

The Division of Culture and History and the West Virginia Commission on the Arts say the awards honor those who have made significant contributions to the state’s culture.

The honors include: the Arts in Education Award, the Distinguished Service Award to the Arts, the Leadership in the Arts Award, the Artist of the Year Award, and the Governor’s Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement.

This year’s event made news after a student’s plan to recite a poem about the Upper Big Branch mine explosion at the event was denied.

Officials blamed miscommunication and the student will be allowed to recite the poem.

You Can Help Paint a New Picture of Appalachia

Fifty years ago President Lyndon Johnson declared a War on Poverty, and photographs taken at the time continued to define what Appalachia looks like for decades afterwards. Now one Appalachian photographer is working to modernize this vision of the region.

Roger May started a new project called Looking at Appalachia: 50 Years After the War on Poverty and He’s asking photographers from across the region to submit photos.

“I thought a really good way to celebrate the 50th anniversary would be to crowd source a project whereby photographers working in these 13 Appalachian states could photograph what they know as Appalachia and use these photographs as sort of a visual archive,” May said.

May believes many people from outside Appalachia, and even those from the region, continue to define it through the photographs showing abject poverty that were taken 50 years ago.

“It was a very limited view of a very limited swath of Appalachia.”

March 8, 2014. Rachel Hartzler, 7, takes a minute in between sessions of playing tag behind the Sugar Tree Country Store during the Highland Maple Festival in McDowell, Highland County, Virginia. The families of the children were at the country store to sell maple ice cream and maple chicken as a part of the festival. Hartzler and her sister, who are Mennonite, say they have never cut their hair.

May doesn’t want to limit the input for this project so he decided to open it up to anyone willing to visually document the region. And he doesn’t necessarily want to intentionally avoid poverty and stereotypes.

“We have to be inclusive and to deny that those things exist doesn’t do anyone any good. We have to see that poverty does exist but there’s so much more to Appalachia than those poverty pictures from 50 years ago.”

May hopes the project will stimulate conversation among many, including photographers, scholars, sociologists and folklorists.

“And that is to sort of pull back and think about what it is to be from Appalachia. Visually has it changed, how has it changed?”

February 22, 2014. Brandon Kline, of St. Albans, West Virginia, rides his bicycle across the Antietam Iron Works Bridge. Spanning Antietam Creek south of Sharpsburg, Maryland, in Washington County, the bridge was built in 1832.

May will curate the collection online and hopes to feature some of the best photos in an exhibit eventually that can travel across the region.

The guidelines for submitting photos are:

All work submitted must be the copyright of the photographer
Photographs must be made in calendar year 2014.
Photographs must be made in one of the 13 state’s counties the Appalachian Regional Commission defines as Appalachia.
Submissions are open through 31 December 2014.

May also says the submissions must:

As much information as possible about each photograph, but at minimum the date, city, county, and state
Be in .JPG format, sized at 1500 pixels wide, 72ppi.
File names must include your last name and the city and state where the photograph was made (example: maychattaorywv2.jpg)
He would also like submissions to include a link to photographers’ websites

Student Allowed to Read Poem, State Officials Cite Miscommunication on Prior Denial

State officials blame miscommunication for denying a student’s plan to recite a poem about the Upper Big Branch mine explosion at a state event.

Hurricane High School student Grace Pritt selected “Black Diamonds” by Crystal Good to recite at the Governor’s Arts Awards on Thursday in Charleston.

A grant coordinator with the Division of Culture and History sent an email to Pritt telling her that she couldn’t read the poem because it dealt with coal, and state representatives would be attending the event.

The division drew criticism after an image of the email appeared on social media sites.

Culture and History deputy commissioner Caryn Gresham says the incident was a miscommunication. She says Pritt will be allowed to recite the poem.

Former Marshall Star Makes a Name with Globetrotters

The Harlem Globetrotters will crowds Tuesday night in Charleston and Wednesday night they will do the same in Huntington.

Johnny Thomas played one season at Marshall University in 2010-2011 after transferring from North Carolina State University. The Morehead City, North Carolina native endeared himself to Marshall fans with his hustle and attitude. Finding him on a team known for being flashy comes as a bit of a surprise. During his time on Marshall’s basketball team, Thomas had a reputation as a guy that did the small things. Thomas joined the Globetrotters last year; he said it was an honor.

“I always wanted to play professional basketball, so when the Globetrotters offered me that opportunity I took it and ran with it,” Thomas said. “The Globetrotters organization is so recognizable through everyone’s eyes and it get so much respect that you want to be a part of a brand that is associated with being ambassadors of goodwill.”

The Globetrotters have been playing ball for 88 years all over the country and world. They’ve played in 122 countries and according to their website in front of a 188 million fans.

Thomas goes by the nickname Hawk. He said he was working out for the team before joining the Globetrotters and they noticed he could jump a little. The coach told him after seeing him dunk, we’re calling you hawk because you can really fly.

Thomas said it takes a unique basketball player that can fit with the Globetrotters and do all the tricks, while still being charismatic and interacting with the crowd all the while playing a little basketball. Those tricks recently led to an attempt by Thomas to hit a shot from five stories above the floor at Madison Square Garden in New York.

He said it’s nice to see how much the Globetrotters mean to the people that come out to see them all over the world.

“I am excited to be a part of it, it does amaze me at the fan loyalty that we have, we’re the only supported franchise in history where people are always on our side, people are always wanting us to win, that’s what I love,” Thomas said.

Thomas is excited about the chance to play in the area once again. He said his short time in Huntington meant a lot to him.

“I’m looking forward to coming home and really seeing people that I haven’t seen in a long time and just having a great time with it,” Thomas said.

Goldenseal Celebrates 40 Years

Goldenseal magazine, known as the state’s journal of traditional life, is marking its 40th year of publication with a special commemorative issue, on sale now.

Goldenseal has been published quarterly by the West Virginia Division of Culture and History since 1975.

The Spring 2014 edition revisits favorite stories from past issues, along with story updates and additional content.

The commemorative issue includes a story on the 1931 death of the leader of a band of traveling gypsies in Weirton; a story about a near-fatal military plane crash at West Virginia’s highest summit; and the history of a luxury car made in Berkeley County from 1912 to 1922.

Goldenseal is supported entirely by subscriptions and newsstand sales, and has about 11,000 subscribers in all 50 states and several other countries.

Stories are based on the recollections of living West Virginians, written and submitted by freelance authors. Illustrations include archival images, family photographs and recent pictures.

The anniversary issue is available at bookstores, online or by calling the WV Division of Culture and History at (304)558-0220, ext. 134.

Fasnacht Celebration Urges Old Man Winter to Leave

The little town of Helvetia, W.Va., tried its best to frighten away Old Man Winter at its Fasnacht festival, which takes place every year on the last Saturday before Lent.

Hundreds of people thronged the streets of the remote Swiss community in Randolph County, many of them squeezing into the community hall for the square dance.

People this year had large, papier-mâché masks that resembled long nosed-monsters, Chinese dragons, and druid-like trees.

But before the party, cooks and volunteers were busy helping to prepare the Swiss feast in the Hütte restaurant, which included sausage, spiced sauerkraut, brat wurst, green beans, parsley potatoes, homemade applesauce, and peach cobbler.

Three years after one of the most important matriarchs of Helvetia, Eleanor Mailloux, founder of the Hutte, passed away, the question many people are asking is: how will the traditions change without her?

Editor’s Note: Traveling 219 is a production of Allegheny Mountain Radio with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the West Virginia Humanities Council, and AmeriCorps VISTA.