Tag: Arts & Culture

State Fair was fine despite bad weather, fewer visitors

The State Fair of West Virginia said this year’s event was a success, despite rain that reduced attendance.
 
State Fair Chief Executive Officer Marlene Joliffe said in a news release that the 89th annual event saw about 175,000 visitors, down from the decade’s average of about 180,000-195,000 fairgoers.
 
Rain fell on five days during the fair’s eight-day run in August in Fairlea, WV.
 
Joliffe said 67 percent of fairgoers who responded to an online survey rated their experience at the fair as above average or excellent.
 

There were an estimated 4,000 entries in the livestock, 4-H, FFA, home arts and garden competitions.

Winning exhibitors were paid a total $175,000 in award premiums.

About 20,000 concert tickets were sold, and 20,000 pounds of food collected which was distributed to six area food banks, along with cash donations.
 
Joliffe estimated the Fair had a $14 million dollar economic impact on the state.

New CD tells a mountain’s story before strip mining comes

Story telling is an old art form in Appalachia. One West Virginia story teller’s newest project, a CD of music and stories entitled The Mountain Came…

Story telling is an old art form in Appalachia. One West Virginia story teller’s newest project, a CD of music and stories entitled The Mountain Came Alive, attempts to modernize this tradition by addressing today’s concerns.

The CD combines Booth’s interest in music and storytelling with 20 tracks that follow the year in the life of a southern West Virginia mountain that is slated for strip mining.

Booth said he wanted to use traditional methods to tell a story to young people about Appalachia and events in the region that are happening now.

“I found that there were a lot of young folks who didn’t know quite know what Appalachia was or who they were and so I tried to put a lot of folk elements into this and also a lot of contemporary elements into it,” Booth said.

The mountain’s story starts in the winter and takes listeners through the seasons of life including the communities of people, animals, water and plants.

“As I have been telling stories around the country, particularly in Appalachia, one of the themes that comes up is mountain top mining and environmental issues,” he said.

“It tries show that all of these things are very closely related to a sense of place, which is what I believe is one of the strongest aspects of Appalachia, that we’re really related to a sense of place,” Booth said. “And forever and ever that place has been the mountains.”

Knitters wanted to help families of cancer victims

A pink scarf that stretches more than 6,060 feet is draped across the inside of Tamarack and anyone is welcome to add a few more knitted feet. Knitters that contribute then fill out a card with a message.

“This is in memory of Telo of Richmond Hill, Georgia who passed away at a young age of 47 from cancer,” Deaner Will said. “Telo know I’m always thinking of you with much love and blessings; Linda Crawford from Middleburg Florida.”

Williams, a Tamarack employee, reads a card that’s attached to the pink scarf in Tamarack. The cards are from knitters who contributed to the length.

The project began in January 2010 to honor the memory of Terri Lynne Massey, who died of breast cancer in October 2009. The scarf has gained attention and contributions from people in states across the country and even other countries. Massey left a family including three children.

The funds raised go to the Terri’s Tribute a non-profit organization that helps send loved ones to college who lost a family member to cancer.

The event is special to Williams. She has been cancer free for almost eight years.

“We need to take the time and the trouble and the money and whatever it takes to get the awareness out,” Williams said.   

The scarf will be on display through the month of October. Tamarack is supplying yarn and even a rocking chair for anyone interested in contributing to the length with some knitting of their own.

Can Marshall Basketball rebound after tough 2012-2013 season?

Marshall Men's basketball began practice this week for the 2013-2014 season. After finishing last season with a 13-19 record, there were not many…

Marshall Men’s basketball began practice this week for the 2013-2014 season.

  After finishing last season with a 13-19 record, there were not many positives to look forward to this season for Marshall Basketball. But the Herd is a team of newcomers mixed with just a few returnees. Counting graduations and departures Marshall only returns six players from last season and mixes them with nine newcomers. Marshall Head Coach Tom Herrion said he likes the mix of guys he has.

“I know how far we have to go, we’ve got a lot of areas that we have to become really good at and that’s going to happen over time, but I can assure you the one thing I’m confident about as I sit here is the fabric of our group. They’ve really displayed great attitude, pride and willingness,” Herrion said.

One thing that will help the Herd with its inexperience is a new NCAA rule that allows teams to start practice earlier. Marshall officially began practice last Friday, almost two weeks earlier than past seasons. The new NCAA legislation permits 30 days of practice in a 42-day period before the first game. The Herd’s first game is November 8th against South Carolina State.

“With this new start date it’s been good for me as a coach because it’s really forces you have to a little bit better management of your practice situations. With the move up of the time you get 30 practices in roughly a 42-day window and I think it’s good because we’re really not going to go no more than three days at a time, at least for the first three or four weeks without a day off,” Herrion said.

It’s not just starting practice earlier that has the Herd encouraged though, a late summer trip to Canada to play in NCAA exempted games against Canadian Schools has given the Herd needed experience in game situations. Herrion said these added experiences and a line-up of guys with more versatility will allow them do some different things offensively and defensively.

“I think what you’ll see most is our level of extended aggressiveness, we’ve been more of a team that’s played you purely in the half-court defensively. I think you’ll see both in makes and misses defensively our ball pressure point of pick-up will be much higher,” Herrion said.

What that all means is guys like freshman point guard Kareem Canty will be applying full-court pressure to the man with the basketball. Canty sat out last year when he didn’t qualify academically. Canty said he’s looking forward to an aggressive playing style.

“We get to run and jump, we get to run and go, if we can get a stop easy, we can get easy dunks and layups, easy baskets will help us offensively,” Canty said.

Senior forward Elijah Pittman is the leading returning scorer for the Herd at 16 points a game. He echoed coach Herrion’s sentiment, saying versatility will be the key for the Herd.

“There is going to be certain games where we need four guards on the floor, there’s going to be certain games where we need three bigs on the floor and some people are going to have to play positions there not use to, but there is a lot of people on this team that can do that,” Pittman said.

Pittman said with schools like perennial Conference USA power Memphis leaving the conference, it’s time for the Herd to step up.

“When someone leaves the kings chair or the throne they have to pass it down to somebody and I feel like we need to be the team that they pass it down too, we need to be that big time school,” Pittman said.

Pittman and the Herd tip off exhibition play October 28th at home against Concord at 7 p.m.

Civil Rights Activist visits Marshall as part of Constitution Week

Civil Rights Activist Joan C. Browning visited Marshall this week as part of constitution week. The Freedom Rider told her story on the 50th anniversary…

  Civil Rights Activist Joan C. Browning visited Marshall this week as part of constitution week. The Freedom Rider told her story on the 50th anniversary of the rides.

Joan C. Browning was a Freedom Rider. The Riders were a group of men and women who boarded buses and trains headed for the Deep South in 1961 to test the 1960 Supreme Court ruling outlawing segregation in interstate public facilities. What makes Browning’s perspective different though is that she’s Caucasian.

“I just felt lucky to see what was going to happen and to be able to choose a role for me in it and to be able to be in a group with people that I knew would support me. I felt very lucky, I really felt like I was in the right place doing the right thing and whatever happened then or later, for one time in my life I did the right thing,” Browning said.

Browning was at Marshall University this week as part of Constitution Week. While on campus she spoke to classes about what her experiences were like.

“I was one of the few white people that was involved in the black freedom struggle in the south in the early 1960’s and the sit-in movement and I was a Freedom Rider and picketed and things of that nature. I’m sort of that oddity that you don’t expect when you read about the civil rights movement,” Browning said.

And she gave two lectures, one on civic responsibility and the other on the relationship between the constitution and civil rights.

Browning joined the Freedom Riders after attending an all-black Methodist Church in Milledgeville, Georgia. As a result of her church attendance, she was thrown out of Georgia State College for Women. In June of 1961, she moved to Atlanta where she discovered the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee that would later organize the Freedom Rides. Browning says it excites her when she sees young people following standing up for things they believe in.

“When the occupy movement first started I was very excited, I thought it was possibly the beginning of a mass resurgence of young people and empower people to take to the streets literally. I’m at the point now where I can’t march very long, but I can be in the back cheering people on and doing whatever I can to encourage it and that’s one reason I talk to young people is to try to encourage them,” Browning said.

Browning volunteered with SNCC on projects in Georgia and Alabama, worked in human relations and anti-poverty programs throughout the sixties and was an organizer of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives.

In the end, Browning said she still speaks to classes and groups because she wants people to know no matter their situation they still have power.

“I want them to know that young people have power, poor people have power, old people have power, and you know the great panthers came out of the model of the freedom rides. I want people to feel like this is your world and you have a chance and a right to make it the way you want it to and find other people and don’t give up, don’t give in,” Browning said.

Browning now lives in Greenbrier County and has a degree from West Virginia State University. 

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