On this West Virginia Morning, the West Virginia Legislature wrapped up its 60-day regular session Saturday night with a flurry of activity in the House of Delegates. The Senate, on the other hand, spent the last hour recognizing staff and shutting down 15 minutes early. Eric Douglas has this lookback.
On this West Virginia Morning, the West Virginia Legislature wrapped up its 60-day regular session Saturday night with a flurry of activity in the House of Delegates. The Senate, on the other hand, spent the last hour recognizing staff and shutting down 15 minutes early. Eric Douglas has this lookback.
Also, in this show, the Brasstown Carvers have been a part of the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina since the 1920s. The group’s woodwork has been celebrated, sought after and collected. Today, only a handful of Brasstown Carvers remain, but they’re still attracting new students and trying to shape a new future. Folkways Reporter Stefani Priskos has this story.
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On a foggy morning, Angela Wynn heads into the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina. Normally, she’d be starting a day of work as a housekeeper here. But today, she’s at the school for a different reason. She’s here to learn how to cut out wood blanks from Richard Carter, a longtime Brasstown Carver.
This story originally aired in the March 3, 2024 episode of Inside Appalachia.
On a foggy morning, Angela Wynn heads into the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina. Normally, she’d be starting a day of work as a housekeeper here. But today, she’s at the school for a different reason. She’s here to learn how to cut out wood blanks from Richard Carter, a longtime Brasstown Carver.
The Brasstown Carvers were once so celebrated that in the 1930s, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt purchased some of their carvings as state gifts. Today, only a handful of Brasstown Carvers remain. But a dedicated teacher, an enthusiastic student and a supportive community are helping to keep this local craft tradition alive.
Wynn pays close attention as Carter flips through a binder of photos, diagrams and instructions. Using this pattern book as a guide, they’ll use a bandsaw to cut out wood shapes to carve into animal figurines.
Finished and in-progress carvings sit in front of a box of wood “blanks” or “patterns.” Carter is responsible for cutting out all the blanks for the Brasstown Carvers. The carvers then carve, sand, buff, finish and detail each figurine to arrive at the final product.
Photo Credit: Stefani Priskos/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Wynn began learning to carve about a year and a half ago, after moving to Brasstown from Florida. She had tried different crafts before, but this just felt different.
“I was instantly hooked,” Wynn says.
Well, almost instantly.
“The first carving night, I absolutely was clueless and I didn’t even know where to start,” she says. “I could see what I wanted to do, I just didn’t have the nerve to do it.”
Then, Wynn got some help from Carter.
“He was very generous with his praise on my first carving,” she says. “I look at it now and … it’s pretty sad. It was a squirrel. I still have it. I laugh at it now.”
There’s a long tradition of whittling and woodcarving in Brasstown, but being an official Brasstown Carver is a special honor.
“People want to know, ‘How quick can I get to be a Brasstown Carver?’” Carter says. “And it’s not quick.”
Big Carving Dreams? Start With Tiny Beavers
Some of the Brasstown Carvers’ signature carvings are “least ones” — tiny animal carvings that stand under two inches tall. Carving small is hard, which is why “least ones” are on the list of carvings that aspiring Brasstown Carvers must master. Wynn carved this pig and “gossiping goose,” two classic Brasstown animal patterns.
Photo Credit: Stefani Priskos/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Now 73, Carter grew up near the Folk School and has been a Brasstown Carver for almost 50 years. He says each aspiring Brasstown Carver has to complete a checklist of challenges to prove their skill and consistency. One of those challenges is carving “least ones” — tiny animal carvings that stand under two inches tall.
Carter and Wynn compare “least one” beavers. Carving side by side allows Carter to give Wynn feedback and demonstrate techniques in real time. It also encourages ample chit chat — another time-honored woodcarving tradition.
Photo Credit: Stefani Priskos/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Wynn has already successfully produced a “least one” goat, bear, goose and pig, among others. Today, she and Carter are carving tiny beavers out of basswood. As they work, Carter shows Wynn some shortcuts and tricks.
Wynn says she’s learned a lot from carving — including patience.
That’s something I can relate to on a personal level. I used to work at the Folk School, and I attended the carving nights that the Brasstown Carvers hold every week. I loved chatting with my neighbors while my hands were busy, but it was hard for me to see anything in the wood. I usually felt like I was getting nowhere.
But Carter says Wynn showed promise from her very first carving night.
“We watch people in here and we can tell when they’re going to be able to do real well and she does real good,” Carter says.
Being able to visualize the animal that a block of wood “wants” to become is key — and it’s one of Wynn’s favorite parts of carving.
“For me, the joy is just finding the animal in there and making it my own,” she says. “It’s just like a little surprise every time.”
Carter agrees.
“I know one of my great friends, he was here a month ago,” he says. “He took a bird home with him. And he brought it back last week and it was a little gnome.”
Although Brasstown Carvers all work from the same patterns, Wynn has enjoyed seeing her own personal style emerge as her carving skills have progressed. She has also developed her own original carving patterns, such as these walnut-shell hedgehogs on display at the John C. Campbell Folk School’s craft shop.
Photo Credit: Stefani Priskos/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Carvings Fit For A Future Queen
Brasstown Carvers Sally and Clarence Fleming carve on the porch of their house in Brasstown, North Carolina, circa 1935. Sally was known for carving pigs with curly tails. Brasstown Carvers hailed from around the region, including the nearby communities of Warne, Gum Log, Pine Log and Martins Creek.
The Brasstown Carvers were started by Olive Dame Campbell in the mid-1920s, a few years after she co-founded the John C. Campbell Folk School. The carvers were encouraged to carve what they saw — typically animals — and they became famous for their realistic figures. According to Caroline Baxter, the Folk School’s craft shop manager, the Brasstown Carvers program was part of Campbell’s larger vision of an economic future for Appalachians that didn’t require moving away from home.
“One of [Campbell’s] goals was to provide economic development for the carvers, give them a way to make money in the season where their fields were not being worked and they kind of had downtime,” Baxter says.
For many Brasstown Carvers, the earnings that they received from carving served as an important source of supplemental income. To express their gratitude, in 1947, the Brasstown Carvers organized a letter-writing campaign to Murrial “Murray” Martin, who was the carving instructor of the John C. Campbell Folk School from 1935 to 1973. In 2024, revenue from selling carvings is still a meaningful source of “side money” for Brasstown Carvers, although the money doesn’t stretch as far as it did in the 30s, 40s and 50s. The letters also mention other benefits of carving such as friendship, community, a meaningful and productive artistic hobby – which remain important to Brasstown Carvers today.
Photo Credit: Doris M. Reece/Courtesy Western Carolina University, John C. Campbell Folk School Records
The Brasstown Carvers soon began selling their work in shops across the country. By the 1930s, says Travis Souther, the Folk School’s archivist, Brasstown Carver fame had reached the White House.
“Some of those woodcarvings were purchased by [President Franklin D. Roosevelt] and Mrs. Roosevelt,” Souther says. “They were later given as gifts to a young lady who was living in England at the time.”
The young lady? Future Queen Elizabeth II.
There’s a legend in Brasstown about a family that was able to purchase a house during the Great Depression with the money they earned from carving alone. For today’s Brasstown Carvers, carving is still a meaningful source of extra income, but the earnings don’t stretch as far as they did during the carvers’ heyday. For one thing, carving requires immense hand strength and physical stamina, and many of the carvers now are in their 70s and 80s. For Wynn and Carter, carving is also something they fit in between other jobs and home and family responsibilities.
“It’s only side money now,” Wynn says. “I would love to be able to carve full-time, but I’m not to that point.”
A New Generation Of Carvers
These days, Wynn is more than just a student of Carter’s. At age 53, she’s the newest official member of the Brasstown Carvers, representing a new generation. To support her continued training, the North Carolina Arts Council recently awarded Carter and Wynn a folklife apprenticeship grant. Wynn says she looks forward to passing on what she learns to the nextgeneration of Brasstown Carvers.
On Thursday nights, the Brasstown Carvers host their free weekly carving night at the Folk School. It’s a place for experienced carvers to spend time together and talk shop.
A collection of Wynn’s “least ones” carvings at different stages in the carving process. From left to right: a wood blank of a goat; a carved and sanded bear; a finished pig and “gossiping goose.”
Photo Credit: Stefani Priskos/West Virginia Public BroadcastingEvery Thursday night, Brasstown Carvers, Folk School students and staff, and Brasstown locals of all ages gather for the Folk School’s community carving night. Attendees get to know each other as they try their hand at a new or long-loved craft.
Photo Credit: Stefani Priskos/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
It’s also a place for newcomers to try out carving. Carter and Wynn especially want to encourage young people to come.
“We got a young one, a nine-year-old, coming tonight, so hopefully he’s excited to get into this,” Carter says. “I’ve got a six-year-old at home that wants to do it, but I’m trying to hold out on that for a while. I may give him a bar of soap and something to let him work on.”
As the newest Brasstown Carver, Wynn has some advice for beginners:
“Don’t be afraid. Don’t be intimidated,” she says. “Just give it a shot. You never know what you can do until you try it.”
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This story is part of the Inside Appalachia Folkways Reporting Project, a partnership with West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Inside Appalachia and the Folklife Program of the West Virginia Humanities Council.
The Folkways Reporting Project is made possible in part with support from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies to the West Virginia Public Broadcasting Foundation. Subscribe to the podcast to hear more stories of Appalachian folklife, arts and culture.
This week on Inside Appalachia, for nearly a century, some of the best wood carvers in Appalachia have trained at a folk school in North Carolina. The Brasstown Carvers still welcome newcomers to come learn the craft. Also, in 2021, Willie Carver was named Kentucky’s Teacher of the Year. Then he left his job over homophobia and became an activist and celebrated poet.
For nearly a century, some of the best wood carvers in Appalachia have trained at a folk school in North Carolina. The Brasstown Carvers still welcome newcomers to come learn the craft.
In 2021, Willie Carver was named Kentucky’s Teacher of the Year. Then he left his job over homophobia and became an activist and celebrated poet.
And, the zine Porch Beers chronicles the author’s life in Appalachia — including a move from Huntington to Chattanooga, and back again.
You’re hear these stories and more this week, Inside Appalachia.
Angela Wynn and Richard Carter carve tiny beavers out of basswood at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina. The Brasstown Carvers continue on through new generations of woodworkers.
Credit: Stefani Priskos/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
The Brasstown Carvers have been a part of the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina almost since its founding in the 1920s. The group’s woodwork has been celebrated, sought after and collected. Today, only a handful of Brasstown Carvers remain, but they’re still attracting new students and trying to shape a new future.
Folkways Reporter Stefani Priskos has the story.
Gay Poems For Red States And Appalachia’s Love Language
Willie Carver, Kentucky educator, poet and proud Appalachian.
Courtesy
Willie Carver was Kentucky’s teacher of the year in 2021. He taught English and French for 10 years at Montgomery County High School, where he also oversaw several student clubs.
He’s also gay and not everyone accepted a gay high school teacher. Carver said he and his LGBTQ students were harassed.
In 2022, he resigned from the high school.
Last summer, Carver released the bookGay Poems for Red States, which attracted a lot of praise and helped turn him into a much-followed, outspoken voice on social media.
Bill Lynch spoke with Carver.
Cracking Open Porch Beers
Elliott Stewart, the publisher of the zine Porch Beers takes a look at life as an Appalachian trans man.
Courtesy
Elliott Stewart has been making zines since he was 13. His ongoing zine “Porch Beers” is an incisive look at Appalachian culture, through the eyes of a queer trans man. “Porch Beers” dives into pop culture fandom, West Virginia food and Stewart’s complicated relationship with his hometown of Huntington, West Virginia.
Mason Adams spoke with Elliott Stewart about his zine and about what a “porch beer” is anyway.
A Trip To Cabbagetown
Cabbagetown was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
Archival Image
After the Civil War, droves of Appalachian workers migrated to a mill town in the middle of Atlanta, eventually known as Cabbagetown. Many went to work at the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill and raised families in Atlanta, but the area is still home to urban Appalachian culture and traditions.
Jess Mador has the story.
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Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Dinosaur Burps, John Inghram, Tyler Childers, Mary Hott, Joyce Brookshire and John Blissard.
Bill Lynch is our producer. Zander Aloi is our associate producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens.
Some call it primitive, but perhaps it’s better to call folk art “unpretentious.” People call 89-year-old Minnie Adkins the Matriarch of Appalachian Folk Art. She says she’s just a whittler.
Appalachian Folk Art cuts to the heart of Appalachian life.
Some call it primitive, but perhaps it’s better to call folk art “unpretentious.” People call 89-year-old Minnie Adkins the Matriarch of Appalachian Folk Art. She says she’s just a whittler.
Born in the midst of the Great Depression, Minnie grew up a farm girl. Her father also ran a sawmill and dug coal out of a tunnel on a nearby hillside. For extra money, he made ax handles and homemade sleds. Minnie said there was a lot of whittling to it. When her father saw she was intrigued with a mostly young boy’s pastime, he gave his daughter a pocket knife. That helped begin a prelude to folk art history.
The Eastern Kentucky woodcarver recently sat down over a bowl of homemade soup and talked about blue roosters, children’s books and fighting poverty with art.
“I loved whittling as a child and I made toys for myself,” Minnie said “I made slingshots and bow and arrows and a little paw paw whistle and all kinds of stuff to play with.”
Minnie’s whittling creativity expanded as she grew up. But she went back to the slingshot – and saw something more hidden within the y-shaped branch.
“I was making a sling shot and you know how the prongs go like that and the handle like that,” Minnie said. “I thought that well, if that had a tail and a head on it, that could be a rooster with a pair of legs. And I tried it and it turned out good. And from then on I kept making roosters.”
Minnie Adkins Big Blue Rooster in front on the Huntington Museum of Art
Minnie continued to whittle her roosters, (soon to be painted blue and become her signature piece), along with various birds and other hand-sized creatures. She would give the pieces away or sell them for a meager price. Her avocation graduated to something more when she and her husband Garland took some of her carved creations to a mecca of Appalachian Folk Art, the gallery at Morehead State University.
A variety of Minnie Adkins’ carved wooden figures on her workbench.
“I sold about three pieces: a cow, horse and something else for $35,” Minnie said. “After that, me and Garland would go down there to the art department, and when we’d drive in, a whole bunch of workers would come out, and we’d sell our stuff on the hood of the truck, and they’d buy everything we took. They’d hurry out there to see which one could get there first.”
Soon after, a new-found friend and art vendor would come to Minnie’s Elliott County, Kentucky home once a month and pick up what she and Garland had made. She said he’d take it all down south and sell it to art galleries and such. When Minnie’s work was featured in a big coffee table book called “Appalachian Artists of the Southern Mountains” her avocation turned into vocation – and a star was born.
“After that book came out, people began to hunt for me and Garland from all over the country,” Minnie said.
Minnie Adkins talking with Vickie Yohe in her workshop.
Minnie and Garland lived in one of the poorest counties in eastern Kentucky. Elliott County had no major highway, not one railroad track – not even a stop light. She took it upon herself to get some of her friends and neighbors whittling and painting.
“When Garland was alive, Randy, you remember coming down here, we had 15 folk artists making folk art and making a living at it,” Minnie said. “They’re all gone but me and Tommy and Jimmy Lewis. They’ve not been at it long as I have, but they’ve got a reputation with their folk art too.”
What does the Russian ballet have to do with this Appalachian tale? In 1992, at Kentucky’s Centre College, a multicultural hub, Soviet ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov was giving master classes and performing at Centre’s Norton Center for the Arts. Minnie was invited that celebratory weekend to receive the first Norton Center award for achievement in the arts in Kentucky.
Centre College Communications Director, musician and children books author Mike Norris was asked to squire Minnie Adkins around for the event.
“Within about five minutes, I felt like I’ve known her all my life,” Mike said. “She told me later, she felt the same way about me. She’s probably the most generous person I’ve ever met. She was wearing these little wooden carved animals. She had made foxes, bear, she brought a bunch of them with her and somebody would praise one. And she said, ‘Well, here honey, just take it with you.’ And she’d take it off her neck and give it to them.”
Mike said Minnie gave him a whittled blue guitar about 12 inches tall since she had heard he played guitar. As a thanks, Mike sent her a cassette tape that he had recorded with the Raggedy Robins String Band.
One song’s opening line went like this; “A bright blue rooster and a three legged hog, a wore out tractor and a no-count dog.”
“She called me up about a week later,” Mike said. “And she said, ‘Well, I wish you hadn’t given me that tape.’ And I said why? And she said ‘it’s got that song on it about the bright blue rooster and I can’t quit thinking about it and it’s aggravating.’ And I said well just lay down to rest and maybe you’ll feel better when you get up.”
Mike said Minnie didn’t rest but went to work, and a week later he got a big box in the mail.
“There was this beautiful 14-inch-tall blue rooster that she had carved with his beautiful plume tail,” Mike said. “Just giving it to me out of the goodness of her heart, maybe to get it out of her head. And I set it up on my mantel and then I couldn’t quit thinking about it every time I’d walk by. About a week later, I called her back and I said ‘Many of my songs got the bright blue rooster, the three legged hog, the wore out tractor, the no count dog. If you’d carve all the figures in the book, I believe we could make a children’s book.’ And she didn’t say yay or nay. But another week went by and I got a box. And it had a three legged hog in it. And the third week came and I got a box with a wore out tractor, ‘worn out’ we would say in English class. The fourth week I got a bigger box and it had two dogs and she had a little note in there and she said ‘you decide which one’s the most no count.’ So that got us started.”
With Mike writing and Minnie illustrating, the pair is now working on their fifth children’s book. Taking the collaboration a major step further, Mike and Minnie have constructed an art gallery display with hundreds of carvings and the stories to bring 30 years worth of their books to a new life.
Museum display:; Three carved wooden sheep with hymnals singing “Amazing Grace.”
“It was kind of like that old program that used to be on TV in the 50’s, called ‘This is Your Life,’ Mike said. “It was kind of a tour of our creative life and it’s something to be remembered. We hope it’s going to continue to travel. There’s interest from other museums as well.”
Minnie’s artistic endeavors branched into other mediums, painting, ceramics, quilting and hand-blown glass, all decorated with her animal and human designs. Her works sell in the hundreds and thousands of dollars.
Woodcarver Minnie Adkins and Vickie Yohe with a Minnie whittled fox.
Minnie’s public recognition has come in landslides. Numerous distinguished American art awards, collegiate certificates of merit, an honorary doctorate, and the prestigious Kentucky Governor’s Artist Award for her contributions to art and artists.
Minnie says her faith teaches her that humility and helping others are the true rewards. She said she doesn’t understand what “Matriarch of Appalachian Folk Art” means – but maybe she does.
“What does matriarch mean?” Minnie said, chuckling. “I don’t want to be, you know, lifted up like I’m something because I’m not. The Bible teaches us our righteousness is as filthy rags. So that doesn’t say a lot for us that when we get to thinking we’re a goody two shoes. I feel like I just love to help somebody that wants to help themselves. But a lot of people think it’s too much work.”
Mike said simply that nobody has done it longer, done it more and done it better than Minnie Atkins.
“She’ll be 90 years old,” Mike said. “And she has not slowed down. She works six days a week. She’s got as much enthusiasm as she ever had. Minnie, just by the volume and the quality of her work, it just rises above the crowd. She’s been called the most important female woodcarver in America, and I don’t know whether I’d even put female in front of that or not.”
Right next to Minnie’s whittling chair sits a well worn, dogged eared, place mark-filled Bible. She said that book is her life’s manual for living, and she’s far from done. She had a stand pat answer for when she might retire from whittlin’.
WVPB’s Randy Yohe interviews Minnie Adkins in her Isonville, KY home
“Until they put me underground if I’m able,” Minnie said. “I’ve been awfully blessed. I just can’t thank the good Lord enough for his blessings. That Bible, Martha Sluss and my sister in London, and somebody else bought me that Bible when I was 50 years old. And you see I’ve really worked with it.”
