This week, in author Willie Carver, Jr.’s new book, he reconsiders a negative childhood experience with a neighborhood girl who might have just been looking for a friend. Also, a southwestern Virginia community rang the alarm after more and more of its children were diagnosed with cancer. A local journalist is trying to unravel the cause. And, the city of Asheville has a new crusading reporter. He’s a puppet.
The Grand March And A Year After A Denied Abortion, Inside Appalachia
The Grand March is part of Kentucky's oldest festival, the Kentucky Mountain Laurel Festival.Will Warren/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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For nearly a century, the Kentucky Mountain Laurel Festival has staged a formal dance. We visit the festival and learn about a manual that’s been passed down for generations.
Also, abortion is illegal in most cases in Tennessee. A photographer spent a year following one mother who was denied an abortion.
And we talk to Marshall University professor and poet Sarah Henning about her latest book, Burn.
You’ll hear these stories and more this week, Inside Appalachia.
Memories Of Family And Loss With Burn Poet Sarah Henning
The Tradition Of The Grand March
The Kentucky Mountain Laurel Festival is the oldest festival in the state of Kentucky, and it happens Memorial Day weekend.
It’s a four-day celebration culminating in “The Grand March,” a traditional dance that has been passed down since the first festival in 1931.
Folkways Reporter Will Warren, a Pineville native, went to the festival over Memorial Day weekend last year and brought us the story.
Indian Creek Water Worries Residents
One of the three places along the creek where water started sprouting out, and with it a white stringy slime.
Courtesy of David Stover
Residents of Wyoming County, West Virginia, say their drinking water is making people sick. But it’s unclear exactly why — and who’s responsible for fixing the problem.
State regulators say water from a nearby mining complex is flowing into the creek, but who owns the mine and who is responsible for cleaning up the toxic water?
WVPB’s Briana Heaney reported.
Stacy Kranitz And “A Year After A Denied Abortion”
Photographer Stacy Kranitz documented a family’s difficult year, following a denied abortion.
Photo Credit: Stacy Kranitz
Tennessee photographer Stacy Kranitz acknowledges the complicated history of people taking pictures of poor Appalachians, often focusing on the harsher, ugly elements that reinforce stereotypes. She actively wrestles with it in her work.
Host Mason Adams spoke with Kranitz about her work documenting the lives of a young family last year called “The Year After a Denied Abortion.”
Memories Of Family And Loss With Burn Poet Sarah Henning
Sara Henning’s latest book of poetry is Burn.
Courtesy Photo
In her new book Burn, Marshall University professor and poet Sara Henning draws on her complicated family history and rough upbringing to explore young love, loss and the weight of grief.
Producer Bill Lynch spoke with her.
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Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Sierra Ferrell, Ed Snodderly, Ron Mullenex and Gerry Milnes, Jeff Ellis, Eric Vincent Huey 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.
You can send us an email: InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.
This week, in author Willie Carver, Jr.’s new book, he reconsiders a negative childhood experience with a neighborhood girl who might have just been looking for a friend. Also, a southwestern Virginia community rang the alarm after more and more of its children were diagnosed with cancer. A local journalist is trying to unravel the cause. And, the city of Asheville has a new crusading reporter. He’s a puppet.
Kentucky writer Willie Edward Taylor Carver Jr’s new book Tore All To Pieces weaves poetry and short stories into a narrative about people and place. Inside Appalachia’s Bill Lynch recently spoke with Carver and brings us this conversation.
As the U.S. approaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Americans are debating not just politics but the nation’s past. In this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay brings together student and academic scholars and community members at Marshall University in West Virginia to examine what the revolution means to us today.
The American Lung Association has released its 27th State of the Air report on air pollution and awarded grades for metro areas across the country. No one in West Virginia lives in a county with a failing grade. We talk with Kevin Stewart, director of Environmental Health for the American Lung Association, about the report and what it all means.
