This week on Inside Appalachia, a Hare Krishna community in West Virginia serves vegetarian food made in three sacred kitchens. Also, an Asheville musician’s latest guitar album is a call to arms. And, we talk soul food with Xavier Oglesby, who is passing on generations of kitchen wisdom to his niece.
Us & Them host Trey Kay joined a small group to travel through America’s southern states learning about the country’s racial past and the impact of the civil rights movement today. This immersive journey took them across several states to places that have come to define periods in America’s racial history — from Charleston, South Carolina’s slave trade market to Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.
The group visited sites that put this country’s racist history on display, and Kay was along to hear them reflect on our nation and themselves.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council and CRC Foundation.
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James Person, one of the original Freedom Riders, in Atlanta, GA, with Us & Them host Trey Kay.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingProf. Todd Allen speaking to a tour group at King Center in Atlanta, GA.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingUs & Them host Trey Kay at Ebeneezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingFinal resting place for Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King in Atlanta, GA.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingBetsy Disharoon in her art studio in the suburbs of Boston, MA.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingMcLeod Plantation is a former slave plantation located on James Island, near Charleston, SC.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingJohn Gardiner stands in front of small cabins, which once house enslaved people, and speaks about the history of the McLeod Plantation and the slave trade in Charleston, SC.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingAziz Abu Sarah, founder of Mejdi Tours, rides on a bus heading to Charleston, SC and tells travelers about his experience as a Palestinian growing up in Jerusalem.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingMejdi Tours’ Civil Rights Journey stops at the site of the future International African American Museum in Charleston, SC.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
This week on Inside Appalachia, a Hare Krishna community in West Virginia serves vegetarian food made in three sacred kitchens. Also, an Asheville musician’s latest guitar album is a call to arms. And, we talk soul food with Xavier Oglesby, who is passing on generations of kitchen wisdom to his niece.
Affrilachian poet and playwright Norman Jordan is one of the most published poets in the region. Born in 1938, his works have been anthologized in over 40 books of poetry. He was also a prominent voice in the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s and 70s. He died in 2015, put part of his legacy is the Norman Jordan African American Arts and Heritage Academy in West Virginia. Folkways Reporter Traci Phillips has the story.
The 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline from West Virginia to Virginia took 10 years to complete. Author Denali Sai Nalamalapu was part of the protests to stop the pipeline. They have a new book, called HOLLER: A Graphic Memoir of Rural Resistance. It’s written and drawn in comics form and profiles six activists who fought the pipeline. Mason Adams spoke with Nalamalapu.
In West Virginia, homeownership is a paradox. While the state boasts the nation’s highest homeownership rate, low incomes mean many homes are aging and in disrepair. In one county, 67% of houses are over 80 years old. Across Appalachia by one measure, there are 500,000 people living in substandard conditions. This is the hidden crisis at the heart of Appalachia's housing landscape.