One of America’s pioneering filmmakers had nothing to do with Hollywood but nevertheless left his mark on the emerging industry. Oscar Micheaux was a homesteader, who then turned his attention to making movies in the early 1900s. He was a Black man who made movies for Black audiences at a time when they weren’t allowed into mainstream, white-only theaters. And for several pivotal years in the 1920s, he operated out of Roanoke, Virginia.
What Ballads And Science Fiction Tell Us About Appalachia’s Past, Future And Present
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This week’s episode is all about ballad singers and storytellers. If you’ve listened to Inside Appalachia over the past year, there’s a good chance you’ve heard music by Anna & Elizabeth. This week on Inside Appalachia, co-host Mason Adams sits down with Elizabeth LaPrelle, who grew up in Rural Retreat, Virginia. She and her husband Brian Dolphin moved from Brooklyn back to southwestern Virginia just before the pandemic hit. As longtime performers and new parents they took to Facebook Live, posting weekly livestreams of lullabies and stories. We’ll also hear about a song called “Tom Dooley,” which was first released shortly after the Civil War. It resurfaced 60 years ago, when it topped the Billboard charts. It had everything: A love triangle, a grisly murder, a manhunt, and a hanging. Folkways reporter Heather Duncan is a native of Wilkes County, North Carolina, where the song unfolds. Recently she set out to explore why ballads like Tom Dooley, based on real tragedies and real people, have such staying power.
The West Virginia Mine Wars played out over two decades of fighting between coal miners and their employers over the workers’ right to belong to a union. In 1921, the conflicts culminated in the Battle of Blair Mountain, when thousands of armed miners and company men faced off in the remote hills of Logan County, West Virginia. The miners eventually surrendered peacefully, once the U.S. Army showed up. This August marks the 100th anniversary of the battle. Folkways reporter Rebecca Williams talked with Saro Lynch-Thomason, ballad singer and folklorist from Ashville, North Carolina. Thomason created the Blair Pathway Project, which tells the history of the West Virginia Mine Wars through music.
Rebecca Williams
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Saro Lynch-Thomason is a ballad singer and folklorist from Asheville, North Carolina. Saro created the Blair Pathways Project, which tells the history of the West Virginia Mine Wars through music.
Editor’s note: In the interest of full disclosure, Saro Lynch-Thomason was one of our Inside Appalachia Folkways reporters in 2019.
Haunting, Near-Future Sci-Fi Novel Set In Appalachia
Books, like ballads, can also tell stories that play out in the imaginations of listeners. “Road Out of Winter,” is a one such novel. Written by journalist Allison Stine, the book won the Philip K. Dick Award in 2020 for distinguished science fiction. The central character is Wyl, a young woman who’s grown up on her family’s illegal marijuana farm in rural southeastern Ohio. And while “Road Out Of Winter” is technically a sci-fi novel, it describes a future that feels frighteningly real. After two years without spring — Wyl and her community find themselves living in a perpetual winter. Wyl decides to leave the farm and head to a warmer place in California. “It’s funny that everyone does call it ‘speculative fiction,’ and it does have a wild element. This is not exactly what’s happening in our world — but I think it’s close,” Stine told Inside Appalachia co-host Mason Adams. Stine focuses her novel on themes of cooperation among Appalachians, of neighbors helping each other, and the resilience of women. Spoiler alert: The novel closes with a scene of hope for humanity’s future that revolves around farmers and women.
Stine’s second novel, “Trashlands,” comes out in October.
Courtesy Alison Stine
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Alison Stine’s novel “Road Out of Winter” is a near-future science fiction novel that plays out across an Appalachia where spring never comes.
Storyteller Ilene Evans Reads “Big Max”
Ruth Ann Musik is one of West Virginia’s most famous storytellers and has been described as “a public relations for West Virginia folklore.” She brought energy and passion documenting the state’s rich storytelling tradition. This led to five books and dozens of short stories, including “The Telltale Lilac Bush.” Decades after Musik collected these tales, they’ve been told and retold by storytellers across our region by people like Ilene Evans. This week, we hear Evans, a storyteller based in Thomas, West Virginia, telling one of Musik’s stories called “Big Max.”
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Our Inside Appalachia theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Dinosaur Burps, Elizabeth LaPrelle, Brian Dolphin, Anna & Elizabeth, Saro Lynch Thomason, Grayson and Whitter and the Kingston Trio.
Roxy Todd is our producer.Jade Artherhults is our associate producer. Our executive producer is Andrea Billups. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens. Caitlin Tan and Zander Aloi also helped produce this episode. You can find us on Twitter@InAppalachia. You can also send us an email to Insideappalachia@wvpublic.org.
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After a frigid winter, we are now in the month that will bring us spring. The Allegheny Front, a public radio program based in Pittsburgh, that reports on environmental issues in the region, brings us this look at how climate change might affect just how early spring flowers bloom.
WVPB will be screening excerpts of Ken Burns’ recent PBS documentary series "The American Revolution" this week at Marshall. Us & Them host Trey Kay will moderate the event, and he spoke recently with WVPB News Director Eric Douglas about why revisiting the nation’s founding story matters today. Also, a bill to temporarily delay moving a child to homeschooling during an active case of abuse or neglect hit a snag in the Senate on Monday.
West Virginians gathered at the capitol last week to urge lawmakers to take action on rising electric bills. Also, state leaders have been quick to respond to news of the U.S.-led attack on Iran. And, Larry Kump, a Republican member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, died over the weekend.
On this West Virginia Week, residents demand action on energy bills, the Hope Scholarship bill moves forward and changes to homeschooling requirements meets resistance.
