This week, before emancipation, Appalachia provided pathways to freedom for enslaved people trying to escape bondage. A new project identifies more than two dozen previously unknown underground railroad sites. Also, the Fly Around Music & Arts Festival in North Carolina was inspired by the hard work that followed Hurricane Helene. And, a ballad about floods recorded a generation ago still provides solace for people today.
Underground Railroad And Fly Around Festival, Inside Appalachia
Richard Brown House (built c.1810), 2nd Ave between 4th & 5th Streets, Huntington, W.Va. Birthplace of Asbury Parker.Courtesy of William Wallace Photograph Collection/Marshall University
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Before emancipation, Appalachia provided pathways to freedom for enslaved people trying to escape bondage. A new project identifies more than two dozen previously unknown underground railroad sites.
Also, the Fly Around Music & Arts Festival in North Carolina was inspired by the hard work that followed Hurricane Helene.
And, a ballad about floods recorded a generation ago still provides solace for people today.
You’ll hear these stories and more, Inside Appalachia.
Asbury Parker, wearing the suit of clothes in which he escaped, disguised as a freeman of color.
Courtesy of Wilbur H. Siebert Underground Railroad Collection/Ohio Historical Connection
Before the Civil War, enslaved people in the South escapedthrough Appalachia to seek new lives in the north. Cicero Fain is a historian at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, who hasdocumented the region’s Black history. His latest undertaking is called the Appalachian Freedom Heritage Initiative. The project identified and documented more than two dozen previously unknown underground railroad sites throughout eastern Kentucky, southern Ohio and West Virginia.
Host Mason Adams spoke with Fain about the project.
Pregnant Women In Rural Va. Travel Long Distances To Give Birth
Mekesha Cody and her boyfriend live in Big Stone Gap and have to travel over an hour for some prenatal appointments in Johnson City, TN.
Photo Credit: Roxy Todd/Radio IQ
Across rural parts of Virginia, many women travel long distances to give birth. As more hospitals face increasing economic challenges, in part because of changes to Medicaid passed by Congress last year, those distances could grow longer. Radio IQ’s Roxy Todd reports that one of the last remaining birthing facilities in Southwestern Virginia sees patients from a 200-mile radius.
Designing Dignity For Aging Appalachians
Japanese neuroscientist Ayako Onzo smiles with her mother Keiko during a walk among cherry blossom trees.
Courtesy of Ayako Onzo
People in Appalachia are getting older. The region has a higher percentage of people over 65 than the national average.
In West Virginia, more than 19% of the population is over the age of 65. In Pennsylvania, it’s nearly 18%. Kentucky and Tennessee are at 16%. Health experts warn those aging trends will mean a rise in dementia cases.
WESA in Pittsburgh is asking whether Pennsylvania can learn from other countries where older populations are thriving. Reporter Kiley Koscinski went to Japan to find out.
Fly Around Music And Arts Festival
View from the Fly Around Fest outdoor stage on the campus of the historic Lansing School. From left to right, Trevor McKenzie, Sammy Osmond, Jackson Lewis, and Grayson McGuire.
Photo Credit: Rusty Williams/The Daily Yonder
Last summer, the small town of Lansing, in western North Carolina, hosted the inaugural Fly Around Music and Arts Festival. It was a benefit to raise money for those affected by Hurricane Helene.
The festival takes its name from “Fly Around my Pretty Little Miss,” a traditional song recorded by two giants in the old-time music world --Frank Blevins, and Ola Belle Reed. Both came from the Lansing area. With a nod to the area’s musical roots, the festival celebrated the community. Phillip Norman reported this story for Rural Remix, a podcast from the Center for Rural Strategies
Ballad of Muddy Water
Alan Johnston’s grandmother, Clara Blankenship Johnston on banjo, Druey Mitchem on fiddle, and father Raymond Johnston on accordion, in Carswell Holler in 1953.
Courtesy of Alan Johnston
Music has long been a source of healing for people affected by floods in Appalachia. Last month marked the 10th anniversary of the 2016 flooding that killed 23 people in West Virginia. People recovering from those floods had one song playing on repeat: Alan Cathead Johnston’s “Muddy Water,” a song about two horrific, hundred-year floods that tore through McDowell County, West Virginia in 2001 and 2002.
Folkways Reporter Connie Kitts found people were still drawing strength and comfort from this ballad a generation on.
Protecting Appalachia’s Flexing Mussels
Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia are home to many freshwater mussel species, but populations have dwindled over the years.
Photo Credit: Jared Kunish/WKU Public Radio
Freshwater mussels are scattered throughout waterways in southern Appalachia. They play a vital role in maintaining healthy ecosystems. WKYU’s Hope Heffley explains why those populations have dwindled over the years.
Studying Wood Turtles In Virginia Forests
Chris Polinski, lab manager for the Smithsonian’s Turtle Conservation Ecology Lab, holds up a male wood turtle.
Photo Credit: Randi B. Hagi/WMRA
Scientists at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia work to conserve ecosystems and threatened wildlife species. They’ve been studying a population of wood turtles in northern Appalachia for over 20 years. As WMRA’s Randi B. Hagi reports, that can take time and some detective skills.
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Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Alan Cathead Johnston, Company Stores, Hello June,Ron Mullennex and Gary Milnes and Larry Rader.
Bill Lynch is our producer. Abby Neff is our associate producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Irina Zhorov is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens. We had help this week from Folkways Editor Chris Julin.
You can send us an email: InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.
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