Bill Lynch, Mason Adams, Kelley Libby, Zander Aloi, Jack Walker, Margaret McLeod Leef Published

EJ Henderson After The Flood And “Little Seed,” Inside Appalachia

A young woman with dark hair and wearing a black shirt sits in a chair with a guitar propped up on her leg. She appears to be strumming the cords.
Jayne Henderson builds her own future as a guitar and ukulele maker.
Janie Witte
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After Helene, an Asheville guitar maker grapples with how to help her neighborhood when there’s so much need. 

A church in West Virginia is helping turn unwanted guns into garden tools.

And, for writer Wei Tchou, it took leaving her home in East Tennessee to start seeing herself in a new way.   

In This Episode

  • Catching Up With Luthier Jayne Henderson After The Flood
  • Gun And Garden
  • A Study Of Identity And Ferns In “Little Seed”

Catching Up With Luthier Jayne Henderson After The Flood

A middle age woman smiles as she stands at a table with a book in front of her. She wears a black shirt, and there are sketches under the book on the table. She looks to be in a workshop.
Elizabeth ‘Jayne’ Henderson in her workshop in Asheville, North Carolina before Hurricane Helene.

Credit: Janie Witte

Earlier this year, we visited the workshop of renowned guitar-maker Wayne Henderson, for a story about him and his daughter, Jayne Henderson.

Jayne lives in Asheville, North Carolina, and Wayne lives in Rugby, Virginia. Both places were wrecked by Hurricane Helene. Folkways reporter Margaret McLeod Leef caught up with Jayne in the days following the storm.   

Gun And Garden

A man breaks through a gun with a power tool. Other stand behind his work station, located in a parking lot.
Outside the Shepherdstown Fire Department, Craig Snyder runs a firearm through a power tool, dismantling it.
Photo Jack Walker.

Sometimes when people die, they leave behind guns, and their relatives don’t always know what to do with them. So a church in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle is providing a way to dispose of old firearms – and find new uses for them. WVPB’s Jack Walker reported. 

A Study Of Identity And Ferns In “Little Seed” 

A woman looks at her phone as she sits on a rock next to two bicycles.
Author Wei Tchou explores nature and personal identity in her book, “Little Seed.”
Courtesy photo.

The book “Little Seed” by Wei Tchou (CHEW) is a hybrid of nature writing and memoir. Tchou’s parents migrated from China and raised her in eastern Tennessee. The book’s chapters alternate between stories of her passage into adulthood, and descriptions of ferns and closely related plants. Mason Adams spoke with Tchou several weeks before Hurricane Helene. 

Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Amethyst Kiah, Wayne Henderson, Jane Kramer, Gerry Milnes, Steve Earle, John Blissard and Blue Dot Sessions.

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. You can find us on Instagram @InAppalachia.

You can send us an email: InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.

You can find us on Instagram, Threads and Twitter @InAppalachia. Or here on Facebook.

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