Mountain Talk: Recent Episodes
WMMT/Appalshop
Weekly conversations about what matters to the people of Central Appalachia. Broadcast from WMMT— the 24-hour voice of mountain people’s music, culture, and social issues. WMMT provides broadcast space for creative expression, community involvement, and discussion of public policy to benefit coalfield communities and the Appalachian region as a whole. Find us online at http://wmmt.org!
In this edition of WMMT's Mountain Talk, we dive into the history and legacy of radical Eastern Kentucky healthcare advocate Eula Hall. Eula was a larger-than-life presence, and over the decades, she organized and agitated around everything from black lung benefits, to food stamps, to clean water, and workers’ rights, among many other issues. But she’s perhaps best known for founding the Mud Creek Clinic in Floyd County, in 1973.
First, follow us to the field, where we visit the Mud Creek Clinic, now called the Eula Hall Health Center. Hear from clinic doctor Jeremy Parsons, Director of Strategic Planning and Development Pam Spradling, business administrator April Herald, and community health worker Jessica Atkins about the clinic's commitment to treating the uninsured, and to viewing healthcare as fully integrated with communities and their daily lives.
Then, we hear from Eula herself, through a 2010 interview with Bev May, discussing the continued urgency of healthcare, SNAP assistance, and workers' rights in rural Kentucky.
This story is part of the “America Amplified” initiative. America Amplified is a national public media collaboration focused on community engagement reporting.
This reporting is a part of WMMT's new labor series.
In this edition of Mountain Talk, as part of our ongoing storytelling series Prevent Diabetes EKY, we begin with a story on the Healthy Perry Challenge, an initiative of the Perry County Diabetes Coalition last summer. The Challenge aimed to bring people in the community together around building healthier everyday habits, with the ultimate goal of helping to lower participants' A1C (a/k/a "blood sugar") levels.
Also in this episode, while Ukraine is of course a world away, it has something substantial in common with Appalachia: coal, including a long history of mining, and then having to face the thorny question of what to do after coal declines. And the hard times and instability caused by coal's decline in Ukraine have formed part of the complex backdrop for Russia's recent invasions, first in 2014 & then this year. In this piece from the WMMT archive, which first aired back in 2000, Tom Hansell interviews Ukrainian coal miner Valentin Chukalov, who describes the difficulty his country's coal industry faced in transitioning away from the Soviet system and into private enterprise.
Music in this episode was performed by the Dutch Cove String Band (from the June Appal Records release "Sycamore Tea"), Don Bikoff (“Traveling Riverside Blues”, from the Free Music Archive), and by Glenn Jones (“Bergen County Farewell", also from the Free Music Archive).
2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the Buffalo Creek Flood, a disaster that occurred in Logan County, West Virginia, when a coal slurry impoundment dam suddenly burst and inundated multiple small communities along the creek. Over 4,000 were left homeless, 1,127 injured, and 125 killed. Community members in Logan County gathered this February to tell stories, bear witness, and commemorate the event. Benny Becker brings you the story.
In this edition of WMMT's Mountain Talk, in honor of Black History Month, we open with a profile on a one-of-a-kind Black Appalachian: the activist Evelyn Williams. Evelyn was a unique and influential figure in the region, and the subject of an eponymous 1995 Appalshop documentary film (produced by Anne Lewis). This radio story is an adaptation of that film, and includes Evelyn's recollections of growing up Black in East Kentucky in the 1920's and 30's.
Then, as a part of our ongoing series Prevent Diabetes EKY, we hear from Letcher County's Tiffany Scott about a local program & research project, Appalachians in Control, that has been helping people in the area live better with type 2 diabetes. (For more stories of managing & preventing type 2 diabetes in East KY, check out our project website: http://www.preventdiabeteseky.org.)
And finally, from the Appalshop Archive, we close with a clip of the inimitable Black Southwest Virginia musician Earl Gilmore, who discusses the blues (it's like being in a fight—but with yourself, he says) and closes the show with a gospel tune.
"Everybody's got something to say...."
That's a lyric from a new song called "Bad Faith" by a Tennessee-born duo called the Montvales. The song was released after an arsonist burned a Knoxville, Tennessee Planned Parenthood to the ground, a song meant to make people who seek reproductive healthcare - and yes, abortion - feel less alone.
Of people that can get pregnant, one in four will have an abortion sometime in their lives. We know not all of our listeners may support abortion, but we also acknowledge that it's a fact of life. Teenagers have abortions, but so do mothers. People have them for medical reasons, for personal reasons, for financial reasons. Statistically, someone you know - someone you love - has had one, or might someday. And in the mountains, access to reliable, accurate information about safe sex that might allow young people to make informed choices, is not always available.
In this episode of Mountain Talk, we talk with Sally Buice and Molly Rochelson of the Montvales about communicating through music about this deeply personal and highly politicized topic. We also speak to Shaylan Clark of Sexy Sex Ed, a peer sex education group in Eastern Kentucky formed to counter abstinence-based sex education with frank, open, and even fun discussion of sex, birth control, consent, and LGBTQ issues.
Songs featured are "Bad Faith" by the Montvales, and "The Pill" by Loretta Lynn.
If you have a response to this Mountain Talk segment, you can DM us on social media or email Katie at katie@appalshop.org to start a conversation.
"There's four words a girl loves to hear," said Cynthia Nicholson at a December rally outside the Tudor's Biscuit World location where she works. "Tudor's biscuits and unions."
In West Virginia, Tudor’s Biscuit World is widely beloved, part of the fabric of the state’s heritage. Many will say a strong labor movement is in their heritage, too. When the workers at one store in Elkview, a small town outside of Charleston, decided to start a union, it made waves throughout the state. Katie Myers visits workers at the store to hear them, in their own words, tell their story.
Music in this episode is "Everybody's Favorite," by John Herrod, from June Appal Recordings.
This story is part of the “America Amplified” initiative. America Amplified is a national public media collaboration focused on community engagement reporting.
This reporting is a part of WMMT's new labor series.
"One da longer, one day stronger."
In the Ohio Valley, the stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing labor shortage have encouraged workers to join what many say is a national and growing wave of labor actions.
In Huntington, WV, steelworkers at Warren Buffett-owned Special Metals, and hospital workers at Cabell Huntington Hospital went on strike this fall, citing the need for better benefits and safety protections. Reporter Katie Myers traveled to Huntington to hear why they took action, and what's at stake for them. Listen to hear the workers in their own words.
Music is the Coal Creek March, and is sourced from the Blair Pathways Project.
This story is part of the “America Amplified” initiative. America Amplified is a national public media collaboration focused on community engagement reporting.
This reporting is a part of WMMT's new labor series.
In the early 20th century, Harlan County, Kentucky was a thriving center of Black life.
The good and the bad often came together. In this episode, we listen to the dedication of a new roadside memorial to Leonard Woods, a Black man from Jenkins, Kentucky who was lynched in Pound, Virginia in 1927. Reverend Steve Peake of Fleming-Neon, Kentucky dedicates the memorial with a prayer.
Then, we hear from Dr. William Turner. Dr. Turner, writer of acclaimed sociological book "Blacks in Appalachia", grew up in the multicultural coal camp town of Lynch as the son of a Black coal miner. Now, in his latest work, "Harlan Renaissance", Turner writes a history of his hometown, and reconstructs the sometimes difficult but always vibrant lives of Black coal camp residents in Appalachia. This talk by Turner was given at the Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College in Hazard, Kentucky.
Music from this episode comes from Appalshop film "East Kentucky Social Club", about an annual reunion of the Black Harlan County diaspora that continues to occur annually.
WMMT celebrates Indigenous Peoples' Day by speaking with Carol Davis, coordinator of Dine Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment, or DINE CARE. DINE CARE is a nonprofit organization located in the Navajo Nation, and works with Navajo communities impacted by environmental issues, particularly coal, oil, gas, and timbering. With Carol, we discuss the retiring of coal mines and plants, the advent of renewable energy on tribal land, and the natural resource challenges still faced by the tribe.
One hundred years ago, years of conflict between unionizing West Virginia coal miners and coal company bosses culminated in the Battle of Blair Mountain, where thousands of coal miners confronted coal company militias and, eventually, the US Army.
During the #Blair100 celebration, we spoke with marchers and members of both United Mine Workers of America and American Federation of Teachers about their inheritance of the Blair Mountain struggle, and the state of labor in today’s Appalachia. Music is sourced from the Blair Pathways Project, and includes samples of "The Company Store", performed by Riley Baugus and Tim Erekson; "Hang Don Chafin", performed by Jamie Laval; and "Welcome, Mother Jones" performed by the Stray Birds.
This reporting is a part of WMMT's new labor series.
This month's Mountain Talk takes listeners to the Grayson Art Gallery in Grayson, Kentucky, where Appalachian artists collaborated to raise money for the Eastern Kentucky Mutual Aid Network to continue helping people in times of need. This episode is a meditation on what it means to be both an artist and a community member, how ordinary people help each other out, and the ways we find joy in our lives even in hard times. Along the way, you'll hear from comedians, jewelry makers, poets, musicians, and more, as well as excerpts of performances from the day.
In this episode WMMT's Katie Myers travels to Big Stone Gap, Virginia for the small Appalachian town's first-ever Juneteenth celebration, taking place on June 19.
Juneteenth is a historically Black holiday dating back to 1865, the year Black people in the United States were emancipated from slavery. The news didn't travel everywhere at the same rate, and Juneteenth marks the day it reached many people in the deep South. This year, the Biden administration recognized Juneteenth as a federal holiday.
In this piece, you'll hear speeches, music, and storytelling from Big Stone Gap community members, many of whom can recall a time when the town was segregated, about what this celebration means to them - about how far we've all come, and how far we have to go.
In this episode WMMT's Katie Myers speaks with residents of the North Fork Mobile Home Park in Morehead, Kentucky.
These residents formed a campaign called Justice 4 North Fork after a Lexington developer purchased their land for use as a strip mall, leaving the roughly eighty North Fork families facing eviction, even as rent continues to rise. Demands from the campaign included financial support for moving costs and assurance that affordable housing would become a funding priority for the city of Morehead. WMMT followed residents Mindy Davenport, Penny Gozzard, Shayna Plank, and others as they made demands on the Morehead City Council and rallied their community, drawing attention to a looming housing crisis in rural Kentucky.
In this episode WMMT's Rachel Garringer talks with novelist Carter Sickels about his second book "The Prettiest Star" - which will be published in May of 2020 by Hub City Press.
"The Prettiest Star" is set in 1986 and it tells the story of a young gay man living with HIV who leaves New York City and moves back in with his family in rural Appalachian Ohio. In the interview Sickels reads an excerpt of the novel and talks about the process of writing this book, his interest in the intersection of rural and queer stories, and the challenges of finding stories of the AIDS epidemic in rural communities. And, Sickels talks about getting to spend time on set in Harlan County, during the production of a film based on his first novel "The Evening Hour."
In this episode we talk with Matthew Algeo - a journalist based in Sarajevo - about his book "All This Marvelous Potential: Robert Kennedy’s 1968 Tour of Appalachia" which was published in March 2020.
Algeo talks about why he wanted to tell this story, what he learned about Appalachia as a researcher from Philadelphia, and he talks about some of the folks in eastern Kentucky he got to interview about their memories of RFK’s visit in 1968.
April is National Poetry Month, and so, we're bringing you two episodes celebrating Appalachian poetry with women writing in the region. This is Part Two, and in it, we'll hear from Savannah Sipple, Ansel Elkins, and George Ella Lyon!
April is National Poetry Month, and so, we're bringing you two episodes celebrating Appalachian poetry with women writing in the region. In Part One we'll hear from Pauletta Hansel, Rebecca Gayle Howell, and Rose McClarney!
In this episode WMMT's Rachel Garringer sits down with Black in Appalachia Director William Isom II, and audio producer Terence Harris, to learn more about the nearly-10-year-strong community history project documenting Black histories & communities in the region, and the upcoming podcast! Along the way, we’ll hear excerpts from some of the oral history interviews in the Black in Appalachia community archive.
In this episode we hear from Sister Bernie Kenny & Nurse Tauna Gulley about the book they co-wrote. It’s called “Better for Being With You: A Philosophy of Care” and it describes the life events of sister Bernie Kenny - who has worked as a nurse in Ireland, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and CA before she settled in swVA forty years ago. She helped establish a mobile health unit & has been a tireless advocate for the advancement of healthcare delivery in rural Appalachia. Sister Bernie & Tauna joined Rachel Garringer in the studio to talk more about the book, their work, and the state of rural healthcare.
Blue Ridge tacos, kimchi with soup beans and cornbread, family stories hiding in cookbook margins, African American mountain gardens—these are a few of the stories readers find in a new anthology from Ohio University Press. “The Food We Eat, The Stories We Tell: Contemporary Appalachian tables” includes writings from diverse contributors, showing us that contemporary Appalachian tables and the stories they hold offer new ways into understanding past, present, and future American food practices.
The book was edited by Elizabeth Engelhardt and Lora Smith, who joined me by phone to talk about the project’s history and scope. Plus, we’ll hear contributors Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, Courtney Balestier, Emily Hilliard, and Robert Gipe reading excerpts from their chapters.
In this episode we learn from Micah & Jakeli Swimmer. Micah & Jakeli are brothers, educators and enrolled members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee. They grew up hearing their grandmother, Amanda Swimmer, speak the language. And as the last remaining fluent speakers age and pass away, Micah & Jakeli find themselves in an urgent race to learn as much of the language as they can, and to help teach it to others in their community.
Dorothy Allison is a self-described "feminist, working class storyteller, Southern expatriate, and sometime poet."
The author of "Bastard Out of Carolina," she gave the keynote at the 2019 Appalachian Writers' Workshop at the Hindman Settlement School in Knott County, KY. Our own Rachel Garringer was there to capture her thoughts on writing, identity, class, memory and using language as a weapon.
We’ll hear Kentucky writer Silas House introduce her. Listen in for an hour of humor, brilliance, and fire from an iconic Southern writer.
On July 1st, 2019 the coal company Blackjewel declared bankruptcy. In the middle of their shift, miners were told to stop working. Blackjewel employed over a thousand miners across the Appalachian coalfields, who soon discovered that their last paycheck had bounced and their insurance policies had been cut off. In Cumberland, Kentucky, dozens of miners have been protesting for weeks by blocking the tracks in front of a Blackjewel coal train. The company's CEO, Jeff Hoops, was almost immediately fired by court-order, but as of August 12th (when this episode aired) miners have not yet received compensation. WMMT reporter Benny Becker, arrived at the railroad tracks at 7 PM on the strike's second day, July 30, 2019 and recorded throughout the night.
In this episode we’re exploring Appalachia’s complicated ongoing relationship to national media coverage. First, WMMT's Rachel Garringer chats with Appalshop staff: Ada Smith, Mimi Pickering, and Taylor Pratt about how the organization has produced media despite, and in spite, of oversimplified national stories about our home for 50 years. Then, we hear Garringer's recent interview with long-time NPR Reporter Howard Berkes, who talks about how technologies and conversations around journalism have shifted over the course of his nearly 40 year career; and shares a few favorite stories & tips for national reporters from his decade as NPR’s rural reporter.
Sheila Kay Adams and Bobby McMillon are both master storytellers and ballad singers from western North Carolina. The audio you'll hear in this episode is a segment of their live performance at the Hindman Settlement School on April 4, 2019 as the finale of their Seeds & Stories event.
In this episode, we're exploring the power of music to connect us across difference. Found Sound Nation's #MosaicInteractive crew guides us through this journey of musical and cultural exchange: connecting memories of Kurdish women in northern Turkey with those of women here in Eastern Kentucky, dreams of Palestinian children to international conversations around borders, and Moroccan Gnawa rituals to Appalachian old time songs. They passed through Whitesburg, KY in March 2019 while the project was in development, and sat down in the studio to talk about their process in building a multidisciplinary multimedia performance that premiered at Big Ears Festival March 21-23, 2019.
In this episode, we're celebrating 50 years of Appalshop, with the second in our series. Tanya Turner interviews Eli Smith of the Brooklyn Folk Festival about the JuneAppal artists performing there in April 2019. Then, she talks with Caron Atlas, a former Appalshop staff member and host of a Appalshop house party in NYC this spring. And finally, we hear from Appalshop's Executive Director Alex Gibson about where we've come from and where we're heading this 50th birthday year.
In this episode we’re celebrating Women’s History in the Mountains, by featuring an oral history project aimed to document the stories and experiences of women in Little Cowan and Big Cowan in Letcher County, KY. Letcher County’s own Nell Fields tells us about her motivation to record women’s stories in her own community, and then we’ll hear excerpts from two of interviews she recorded in October 2018 , the first with Carol Ison, and the second with Pat Yinger.
In this episode we’re exploring a different side of the black lung epidemic through the stories of women who lost their husbands to black lung. OVR Reporter Sydney Boles talks with Deborah Boggs, Joyce Birman, Vickie Salyers (pictured), and Nancy Potter who share fond memories from their husbands lives, as well as some of the struggles they faced while living with black lung. She also talks with Evan Smith, an attorney with AppalReD Legal Aid, about the federal black lung benefits system and how a program that was designed to help miners and their families became mired in bureaucracy.
You’re listening to Mtn. Talk on WMMT. In this episode we bring you an hour of interviews with women who lost loved ones to black lung disease. Up next, we hear from Deborah Boggs, whose husband Ronnie died in 2016.
Interviews/etc continued
That’s it for this episode of Mtn. Talk, featuring interviews with women who lost spouses to the black lung epidemic.
If you’d like to hear this or previous episodes again, visit our website at www.wmmt.org or download Mtn. Talk wherever you get your podcasts. Music on this episode features Carla Grover with a tune called “Could You Love Me One More Time” from the album “Hush, my restless soul.” That album was produced by Appalshop's own June Appal Recordings.
In this episode WMMT's Rachel Garringer spoke with Karida Brown - assistant professor of Sociology and African American Studies at the University of California in Los Angeles - who is also a member of what she calls the Eastern Kentucky African American diaspora. She has deep personal ties to Harlan County, KY where her grandparents lived, and much of her extended family still lives.
In this interview Dr. Brown talks about her new book “Gone Home: Race & Roots Across Appalachia” and the Eastern Kentucky African American Migration Project - a public humanities project and community archive out of which Brown’s book was born.
She also shares memories of coming home to Lynch from New York during the summers as a child to visit her grandparents and cousins, and she talks about her calling to document histories of Black community, work, and migration into and out of the eastern Kentucky coalfields.
February is Black History Month and to celebrate & honor the long legacy of Civil Rights Struggles across the South - and the continued work towards justice and equity in Kentucky - we spoke with Representative Attica Scott who serves the 41st district in the Kentucky House of Representatives.
At the time of her election in 2016, Scott became the first African American woman to serve in the Kentucky General Assembly since 2000. In this interview, Representative Scott talks about how her work as a community organizer, her faith, and her children all influence her approach to leadership as an elected official.
In this episode we talk about the beginnings of Appalshop’s 50th Anniversary celebrations, starting in our home state. As Appalshop celebrates 50 years of art & media making across the country through 2020, we’re getting an early start in our biggest Kentucky cities. Brett Ratliff tells us about the Lexington Old Time Gathering coming up in February, where Appalshop will be celebrated at the 21c Hotel & Museum. Filmmaker Mimi Pickering, of Appalshop’s founding generation, shares some about the early years and current work of Appalshop, as well as her most recent film, screening in March at The Speed Cinema. Finally, the Founding Speed Cinema Curator, Dean Otto will tell us about the Appalshop at 50 Speed Cinema Series bringing Appalshop Films to Kentucky’s largest art museum every month in 2019.
In September 2018 the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum hosted a Strike Supper. Their goals were: to bring people in the museum doors to learn more about the rich legacy of labor organizing in the area, and, to work towards busting the myth of Appalachia as a culturally and racially homogeneous region. They did this by exploring and celebrating the diverse cultural histories of Southern WV through food. Folks from near and far gathered to share dishes from the region, and while they shared food they also shared stories of personal family histories, immigration to and from the area in the 1900s, and the rich cultural legacies of the Southern Appalachian coalfields.
In this episode we'll hear some of those stories. To learn more about the WV Mine Wars Museum visit www.wvminewars.com.
This episode is jam-packed with memories of the one and only Jim Webb. Also known as Wiley Quixote, Jim was the eccentric and punny heart of this radio station since WMMT first took to the airwaves in 1985. Jim passed on October 22, 2018 at his home, Wiley's Last Resort, on top of Pine Mountain in Letcher County, KY. On this show, friends and family share some of their favorite memories of the unforgettable Wiley Q.
In this episode we bring you on a foodie audio journey of last weekend's Dumplins n' Dancin' at the historic Hindman Settlement School: a weekend event bringing people together to learn and share about food, recipes, and traditional dance.
You'll hear sounds from a variety of cooking workshops & sounds of the eating, conversation, and dancing that filled the Settlement School all weekend long.
The Black Lung Disability Trust Fund is set to expire on December 31st, 2018. The fund provides crucial support for miners suffering from the disease, as well as widows who have lost their husbands to the disease.
In late November a group of citizens from across the country, including right here in eastern KY, traveled to Washington D.C. to urge their representatives to uphold the Trust Fund and to support the Reclaim Act. The trip was put together by organizations across the country, including the Appalachian Citizens Law Center.
In this episode we'll hear audio of the press conference itself, and interviews with one of the retired miners who attended, Kenny Fleming, and one of the organizers, Eric Dixon of the ACLC.
In this episode we hear from Angie Hagaman, Operations Director for the ETSU Center for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment. Angie talks about the current state of the drug epidemic in the region, and describes how the Center works to partner with affected communities to research the epidemic. She also tells us about her own research, through her PhD program, with the Letcher County Culture Hub and some local volunteer fire departments. She says story circles and listening projects might be the missing piece to combating the opioid epidemic, and hopes that by adding more “heart” to the healing process we can start to see a real decline in the epidemic.
Happy Halloween from WMMT! In this episode we bring you an interview with Sabrina Flick of Whitesburg, KY’s favorite haunted house, Brimstone. Sabrina talks about her love of all things Halloween, and shares some history and stories about how to create creepy scenes.
In this episode we bring you a recent debate between two candidates vying to represent Virginia’s 9th District in the US House of representatives: Democrat Anthony Flaccavento and incumbent republican Morgan Griffith.
The debate took place at the Bristol Hotel, in Bristol VA. It was sponsored by the Bristol Chamber of Commerce, and the recording comes courtesy of WYCB.
WMMT does not endorse political candidates, but we welcome interviews with anyone running for political office as a public service. Opinions expressed in this episode of Mountain Talk are not necessarily those of WMMT or Appalshop, Inc.
In this episode we hear from the new All Access EKY fellows about their work to raise awareness about reproductive health justice in southeastern KY through youth media. All Access Media Director Willa Johnson and Peer Trainer Taylor Pratt host the show.
There's a reason #YourWMMT staff work in radio: we MUCH prefer being behind the mic to being in front of the camera! For this special Fall 2018 Fund Drive episode WMMT's General Manager Elizabeth Sanders, Public Affairs Director Rachel Garringer, and Ohio Valley Resource Reporter Sydney Boles went live on the radio: telling stories about our personal relationships to radio, sharing some behind the scenes details about how a community radio station works, and playing some clips from WMMT history!
In this episode we’re learning about the Artists Collaborative Theater in Elkhorn City, KY. We were joined in the studio by some of the youth theater participants to learn more about the theater, their youth education programming, and their upcoming play "The Adventures of Peter Rabbit."
In this episode we’re celebrating Indigenous People’s Day.
Many states across the nation celebrate Columbus Day, but a growing number have done away with a celebration of Columbus, and instead, celebrate Indigenous Histories and Presents each October.
For this episode, we spoke with Bonnie Brown, coordinator of West Virginia University’s Native Studies Program. Brown talks about the legacy of genocide sparked by Columbus’s arrival in North America.
Then, we spoke with Angela Arnett Garner, from the Legislative Committee of the Kentucky Native American Heritage Commission. Garner talks about her work organizing across the state encouraging towns and counties to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day.
The image is a screenprint by Jesus Barraza of the Just Seeds Artist Cooperative.
In this episode we were joined in the studio by two Letcher County, KY Fire Department Chiefs. Sand Lick Fire Chief Mike Amburgey and Kings Creek Fire Chief Bill Meade spoke about the many public services that volunteer Fire Departments Provide in Letcher County, the funding crisis they are facing, and the unique importance that volunteer fire departments play rural communities.
1 in 5 veteran miners now has Black Lung, and yet the Black Lung Disability Fund is at risk of effectively disappearing. This week a group of retired miners, widows, lawyers and organizers traveled from Appalachia to Washington D.C. to lobby on Capitol Hill.
In this episode of Mountain Talk we chat with some of them about their personal experiences with Black Lung Disease, and their work to try to save the Black Lung Trust Fund. We hear from retired miners Bethel Brock and Jimmy Moore, Patty Amburgey who lost her husband to Black Lung, and Appalachian Citizens' Law Center's Evan Smith.
In this episode, we bring you an interview with Kevin Rashid Johnson, who has been incarcerated since 1990 in prisons throughout the U.S., most recently in Southwest VA. Benny Becker spoke with Johnson by phone, about his own experiences on the inside, histories of organizing from within prison walls, and the national prison strike taking place right now.
The strike, which runs from August 21st - September 9, 2018 has a list of demands, including that "All persons imprisoned in any place of detention under United States jurisdiction must be paid the prevailing wage in their state or territory for their labor." Currently, incarcerated folks are paid next to nothing for their work. So, on this Labor Day, we bring you voices from an ongoing labor struggle inside U.S. Prisons.
Self portrait by Rashid Johnson from his website rashidmod.com
In this episode we’re honoring the history of the Battle of Blair Mountain which took place from August 25-Sept 2, 1921. The Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest labor uprising in United States history, and it took place in the context of the decade long WV Mine Wars. During that time miners and their families fought to bring a union, and through it, safer and more just working and living conditions to the Southern WV Coalfields.
We'll talk with people involved in honoring this history today, through the WV Mine Wars Museum in Matewan, and through work to preserve the Blair Mountain Battlefield itself as a National Historic Site. We’ll also hear audio from the Appalshop Film: Nimrod Workman: To Fit My Own Category - Nimrod participated in the Battle of Blair Mountain and was a proud union miner.
In this episode we’re learning about a new App developed right here in Letcher County, KY that launches this week in conjunction with Jenkins Homecoming Days. The app, Jenkins: A City Built on Coal, is a virtually guided walking and driving tour. Users are guided on the tour by oral history recordings of nine local residents who share memories of 14 different locations throughout the town.
We'll hear from Appalshop based Project Director Elizabeth Barret and Archivist Caroline Rubens, and excerpts from the interviews with nine past and present residents of Jenkins - recorded and edited by Benny Becker.
In this episode we bring you Nikki Giovanni’s keynote address to the 2018 Appalachian Writers Workshop. Nikki Giovanni is an award winning prolific poet, activist and educator. She was born in Knoxville in 1943, and raised in Cincinnati, OH. She now makes her home in Blacksburg, VA where she has taught at Virginia Tech since 1987.
Each July writers gather in at the Hindman Settlement School for the Appalachian Writers Workshop. This year was the 41st annual workshop, and Giovanni delivered the keynote address.
In this episode we bring you an hour of history and poetry from the Southern Appalachian Writers Cooperative (SAWC).
Formed in 1974 out of a gathering at the Highlander Center, SAWC aims to support Appalachian writers in their efforts to take control of a regional identity, and to take action on issues impacting mountain land and people. Each year members of SAWC travel to Whitesburg from near and far, to read poems as a part of Appalshop’s annual Seedtime on the Cumberland Festival.
We sat down with a handful of SAWC members at this year’s festival to learn more about their personal and collective writing histories, and to hear some great poems!
In this episode we'll hear about this summer's Appalachian Media Institute. This is a special AMI summer, because it’s the first in Appalshop’s history to be themed. To celebrate its 30th anniversary, AMI partnered up with another Appalshop program, All Access EKY, to bring a female/non-binary summer, focusing on the issues of reproductive health care and access to birth control in Eastern Kentucky.
Seven talented interns have spent six-weeks studying documentaries, partaking in hands-on workshops, and researching women’s reproductive healthcare in preparation to make their own films.
This mountain talk, produced by AMI peer trainer Hannah Adams, will include media created throughout this summer and past semesters of All Access, as well as interviews with the interns themselves.
In this episode we bring you an hour of interviews with wrestlers who will be competing in the Summer Bash on July 21st in Whitesburg, KY. WMMT's general manager Elizabeth Sanders guides us through this adventure through the drama and history of Appalachian Mountain Wrestling.
In this episode we’ll hear from two southern women using words to craft healing and comfort in the rural communities from which they come. First we’ll hear from Salaam Green, a writer and activist working with the Black Belt Citizens in Uniontown, AL to fight environmental, economic and racial injustice, and we’ll here about how Green uses writing to heal community members along the way. Then, we’ll hear from Ronni Lundy, an Appalachian writer and cook from Corbin, KY who talks about her book Vittles, and the people, landscape, foods, and stories that led her to create this homage to Appalachian food. While Green and Lundy work in communities that might look very different from the outside, and use writing towards different ends, their commitments to the rural landscapes, foodways, traditions, and health of their communities shows us just how much we have in common as rural people, across this country, and across this world.
This episode features interviews with Robertson Scholars who have worked in Whitesburg, KY over the years. The Robertson Scholars Leadership Program supports students at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill & Duke University in developing leadership skills and thriving during college.
Since the early 2000's students from all over the country (and world!) have lived and worked in Whitesburg each summer. 2018 Scholar, Mikey Muller, interviewed past scholars about their experiences visiting Appalachia for the first time, and learning from our people, our cultures, and our work.
In this episode we bring you excerpts from the Firestarters: seven committed citizens who kicked off the National Rural Assembly in Durham, NC in May 2018 with personal stories about the work they do to address issues and build civic courage in rural America.
In this final Mountain Talk in our series celebrating LGBTQ History Month, we bring "Gay in the Eyes of God." A special production of Interfaith Voices, the leading religion news magazine on public radio. It explores the ways in which the major American religious traditions (Christianity, Judaism and Islam) grapple with acceptance of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
From Catherine Moore we bring you a rebroadcast of Cedar Grove: a story about transition–bridging the past and the future. The hour-long radio documentary features stories from West Virginia’s history, the work of renowned novelist Mary Lee Settle, and the voices of people from her hometown in Kanawha County, WV.
In this episode (the third in our month long series celebrating LGBTQ History) we’ll be hearing excerpts from an ongoing oral history project called Country Queers. This ongoing multimedia oral history project has gathered stories from 60 rural and small town LGBTQ+ folks in 15 states. In this episode we'll hear excerpts from seven of those interviews. From MA to CO, TN to TX these excerpts show the wide range of identities and experiences held by country queers in the U.S.A.
In our second installment for June's LGBTQ+ History Month programming we bring you an interview with Kentucky author and activist Silas House. "Southernmost" released June 5, 2018 is House's sixth novel, and in this interview he reads an excerpt of the book and talks about the central themes of parenthood, religion, and sexuality in the rural south which are threaded throughout. He also talks about his writing process and inspiration, national misconceptions of working class and rural people, and the complexity of rural mountain communities' navigation of a changing political and social world.
This episode is the first in our month-long series celebrating national, regional, and local LGBTQ+ History Month, and we’re starting with national history by remembering Stonewall. The Stonewall Inn was a gay bar in New York City, where in June of 1969, after a commonly occuring police raid, the queer folks at the bar fought back. The riots were led by trans women of color including Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, and this historic event marks the beginning of the modern gay rights movement.
In today’s show, we’ll hear two audio histories of Stonewall. The first from Making Contact produced in 2015, and the second from Outcasting, an LGBTQ youth podcast, which was produced in 2017.
In this episode we're learning about the Mountains of Music Homecoming series of concerts and other events held throughout Southwest Virginia each summer. Ted Olson, a music historian at East TN State U and MC of many past Mtns of Music concerts, sat down in the studio with myself and WMMT programmer Rich Kirby to talk about the history of the program, and to highlight this summer’s excellent schedule. Along the way we’ll hear tunes recorded live at past Mtns. of Music concerts!
In this episode we’re celebrating the 30th Birthday of an important youth leadership and media training center based here at Appalshop: the Appalachian Media Institute.
First we’ll hear from current AMI Director Kate Fowler, and All Access EKY Project Director at Appalshop, Willa Johnson, who share their personal histories with the program, as well as an overarching history of the project’s 30 year legacy.
Then, Oakley Fugate and Destiny Caldwell, two former AMI interns, who are still involved with the project today, share a few favorite memories and describe how AMI has shaped their lives.
Dollars & Cents: Race and Class in the West Virginia Coalfields is the second installment in the Hope audio series, commissioned and directed by the Mountain of Hope Organization, supported by the West Virginia Humanities Council and produced by Talking Across the Lines, LLC, www.folktalk.org; www.facebook.com/klinesacrossthelines/
Hope is an interracial documentary project conducted over the past 18 months in Mount Hope, WV—the heart of the New River coalfields. Michael and Carrie Kline, along with O.H. Jackson Napier, have collected more than 40 life story interviews from sons and daughters of coal miners. The stories focus on the whole fabric of what life and work in this small, diverse town was like a half-century ago. The defining occupation was deep mining with all of its attendant dangers, health hazards, and intricate working relationships. The resulting impacts on family and society come alive in this conversational audio documentary inter-weaving spoken memories from 60 hours of field recordings.
From livelihood to loss of life, these heart-rending voices portray the struggles and camaraderie of this iconic work, facing down stereotypes of race relations in the region. A mixture of southern blacks, European immigrants, and white laborers from hard-scrabble local farms were all employed underground, working together and watching each others’ backs. The resulting bonds that grew among working coal miners shaped the social milieu of the town above and minimized differences and conflicts across the usual boundaries of race, class and ethnicity found in other regions. Sentiments that,“When everybody came out of the mines, they were all black anyway,” resonate through the interviews.
More installments of Hope are coming soon.
On this episode of Mountain Talk we're celebrating, remembering, and reckoning with mothers. Maybe you had the best mom in the world, or maybe the worst, or maybe (and most likely) your mom is a complex, contradictory, nuanced individual - deeply wonderful, and deeply flawed, and only human like the rest of us. Maybe you’re a mom, maybe you’re about to be a mom, maybe you were raised by two moms, or no moms.
Holiday’s are complicated times for many people, and in this episode Appalshop staff share their gratitude and lessons, and their stories of resilience and healing from their relationships with their mothers. Others share dreams and hopes about types of mothers they aim to be. These aren’t all happy stories, and one person talks about childhood abuse (though not in great detail). But there are moments of joy and kindness and growth too.
This one's for all the moms! And all the children of moms!
On this episode we’re learning about The Moth: a live storytelling series that will be here at Appalshop on Thursday May 10th! First, director Jenifer Hixson joins us on the phone to talk about some history and behind the scenes details of how The Moth works. And then, we hear two Moth stories recorded at live shows across the country. The first features Dame Wilburn who will MC the Moth event here at Appalshop, and in the second Wilburn introduces Australian comedian Jon Bennett.
It's Spring Fund Drive at WMMT and this week we're talking about radio! What is this thing, and why does it matter? Why is it unique in today’s world of constant visual media input? What makes community radio different than commercial? And, we’ll learn about the life-long professional and personal journeys of two super cool women in radio. Neenah Ellis’s parents ran a small commercial country radio station in northern Indiana when she was growing up. Neenah went on to work at National Public Radio in Washington, D.C. for 30 years, before becoming the general manager at WYSO in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Sally Kane’s parents started a small community radio station in a coal mining community in Colorado when she was a kid, and she now directs the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. Neenah & Sally talk about their histories with radio, their love for the form, and why they believe in the community radio model.
In this episode of Mountain Talk we're exploring approaches to agriculture as economic development in Eastern Kentucky - from a macro to micro scale.
First WMMT's own Jim Webb interviews Jonathon Webb of AppHarvest about their plans to build a 30 acre high-tech greenhouse on a former mountain top removal site in Pike County, KY.
Then, we hear a 2016 story produced by Benny Becker about the annual Appalachian Seed Swap featuring an interview with Joseph Simcox of Gardens Across America Project about his vision for community farm hubs in Central Appalachia to sell heirloom and rare crops to east coast markets.
And finally, in 2017 Kelly Haywood interviewed Letcher County's Tim Sanders of Indian Creek Settlement Farm about his work to reclaim the family farm, and produce heritage livestock breeds to sell at local farmers markets.
We're celebrating National Poetry Month here at WMMT by bringing you a 2012 interview with Nikky Finney from Profiles, a show out of Bloomington Indiana’s WFIU station, where they interview notable artists, scholars and musicians.
Nikky Finney is a powerful poet, born in South Carolina, who taught at the University of Kentucky for twenty years. She’s a founding member of the Affrilachian Poets and her Book "Head Off & Split" won the National Book Award in 2011.
Our celebration of #NationalPoetryMonth continues! This episode of Mountain Talk comes from our archives, and features a presentation by Affrilachian poet Frank X. Walker at Alice Lloyd College in 2016.
On today’s episode we bring you audio from a recent event in Benham Kentucky. On March 29th Reverend Dr. William Barber II and Reverend Dr. Liz TheoHarris stopped at the Benham Schoolhouse Inn amidst their national listening tour with the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.
The Poor People’s Campaign is an effort to unite tens of thousands of people across the country in lifting up the need for a “moral revival” to address systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, and environmental devastation.
We're celebrating National Poetry Month through spending time with the renowned eastern Kentucky author James Still. Still was born in Alabama in 1906, and lived most of his adult life on Dead Mare Branch in Knott County, Kentucky and the Hindman Settlement School. This episode features an interview with Mr. Still conducted by Judi Jennings at Appalshop in 1991, and audio of him reading some of his work from a recording made in the 1970s.
In this episode we bring you voices and ideas from a recent event we held here at the Appalshop. On March 31st, WMMT and Scalawag Magazine co-hosted a day long event focused on Ethical Appalachian Reporting, followed by a screening of Appalshop film Stranger With A Camera and a Q&A with author Elizabeth Catte. In this episode we’ll hear part of the community discussion about media coverage of the region, as well as Elizabeth Catte’s Q&A.
This episode of Mountain Talk is a tribute to Kentucky Women in Traditional Music and was produced by Rich Kirby and John Harrod. It features the music and stories of Lily May Ledford, Addie Graham and more!
As our #WomensHistoryMonth series comes to a close we celebrate organizing women in Appalachia. In this episode, we bring you voices of women on strike today, and voices of women from strikes past. We’ll hear from West Virginia teachers who walked out earlier this month demanding a pay raise and affordable healthcare for all public employees, and we’ll hear from teachers in Letcher County, KY who protested Governor Bevin’s proposed pension reform bill just last week. And finally, from the Appalshop archives we bring you audio of women in Brookside KY who supported miners on strike in Harlan County in 1973.
Our women’s history month series continues on this episode, with one of our favorite Appalachian women in music: Amythyst Kiah. Amythyst is a powerful singer, songwriter, guitar and banjo player from Johnson City, TN. In November of 2016 she joined WMMT’s DJ Aunt Bernice on Pine Mountain Morning’s Feminist Friday radio show for an interview. Later that evening she performed live in the Appalshop theater with the Local Honeys for the first ever Feminist Friday Live Concert. We’ll hear excerpts from both their conversation and her performance on this episode.
This month we’re celebrating Women’s History in the Mountains and beyond. In this episode, we’re drawing from our Archives here at WMMT. In 1995, then WMMT producer Maxine Kenny recorded 15 Appalachian women writers talking about their lives and reading their work. The recordings were edited into an audio series, narrated by Tennessee Poet Nikki Giovanni.
The series is made up of interviews with Jo Carson, Lou Crabtree, Denise Giardina, Wilma Dykeman, Michelle Y. Green, Barbara Kingsolver, George Ella Lyon, Bobbie Ann Mason, Sharyn McCrumb, Rita Quillen, Mary Lee Settle, Ann Shelby, and Lee Smith. And with Marilou Awiakta and Nikki Giovanni whose interviews and readings you'll hear in this episode
This episode of Mountain Talk explores women's reproductive health and history in Southeastern Kentucky. It's brought to us by four young women who are Fellows with All Access EKY: an initiative coordinated by the Kentucky Health Justice Network, Appalshop, and Power to Decide. All Access EKY works with ten Southeastern Kentucky counties to build support for programs and services to ensure young people have access to the full range of contraceptive methods.
This is the second episode in our month-long series celebrating Women's History in the mountains and beyond. Fellows interview women young and old about their experiences with reproductive health care in the mountains, and about gender roles in the mountains we call home.
This is the first in our month long series of Mountain Talks celebrating Women's History Month! Willa Johnson produced this hour long radio documentary honoring a community of women who have powerfully shaped her own life and the town of Hemphill, Kentucky. You don't want to miss this personal celebration of Hemphill women's strength, leadership, and commitment to their community!
This is the last episode in our long series celebrating Black histories, current realities, and futures in the mountains and beyond. We were joined in the studio this afternoon by the cast of KY Opera’s “OH Freedom.” They performed segments of the show, talked about the importance music and art in education, explained how opera singers amplify their voices without microphones, talked about the challenges of wearing a corset on stage, and spoke about the power of music to connect us across difference.
In this episode, we continue our month-long series celebrating Black Histories, Current Realities, and Futures in the mountains and beyond. Gabrielle Chapman joined us by phone to talk about her work with the Charleston, WV based CARE Coalition - CARE stands for Call to Action for Racial Equality. We end this program with an excerpt of a live discussion between legendary activist Angela Davis and anti-racist author Tim Wise. The excerpt comes from the Making Contact Radio Program.
Game Changer: Football as a Catalyst for Peaceful School Integration is the first installment in the Hope audio series, commissioned and directed by the Mountain of Hope Organization, supported by the West Virginia Humanities Council and produced by Talking Across the Lines, LLC, www.folktalk.org; www.facebook.com/klinesacrossthelines/
Hope is an interracial documentary project conducted over the past 18 months in Mount Hope, WV—the heart of the New River coalfields. Michael and Carrie Kline, along with O.H. Jackson Napier, have collected more than 40 life story interviews from sons and daughters of coal miners. The stories focus on the whole fabric of what life and work in this small, diverse town was like a half-century ago. The defining occupation was deep mining with all of its attendant dangers, health hazards, and intricate working relationships. The resulting impacts on family and society come alive in this conversational audio documentary inter-weaving spoken memories from 60 hours of field recordings.
From livelihood to loss of life, these heart-rending voices portray the struggles and camaraderie of this iconic work, facing down stereotypes of race relations in the region. A mixture of southern blacks, European immigrants, and white laborers from hard-scrabble local farms were all employed underground, working together and watching each others’ backs. The resulting bonds that grew among working coal miners shaped the social milieu of the town above and minimized differences and conflicts across the usual boundaries of race, class and ethnicity found in other regions. Sentiments that,“When everybody came out of the mines, they were all black anyway,” resonate through the interviews.
More installments of Hope are coming soon.
Continuing our month-long series celebrating Black histories, current realities, and futures in the Appalachian region and beyond - we bring you the story of Derek Akal - a 22-year-old African-American athlete struggling to stay in Lynch, KY where he was raised. WMMT’s Benny Becker followed Akal for a four part series which originally aired on West Virginia Public Broadcasting's Inside Appalachia. This episode also features a 2016 interview with sociologist Karida Brown - Akal's cousin and the Director of the Eastern Kentucky African American Migration Project.
In the first of our month-long series of Mountain Talks celebrating Black histories and futures in the region and beyond we explore the Appalachian African-American Cultural Center. Founder and Director Ron Carson led WMMT's Benny Becker on a tour of the Center in 2016. And, we hear a piece from the archive, produced for WMMT in 1992 by Maxine Kenny - which focuses on the life and music of Ron Carson's grandfather: Spike Carson.
It’s been over 25 years since the Appalachian Land Ownership report was published, and there’s now a growing effort to conduct another study to explore current land ownership realities in Central Appalachia. This episode explores the history of the original study, released in 1981, and the current work to launch a new land study.
On this week’s program we bring you voices of women in eastern KY. First, we’ll hear speeches and poetry from Pikeville, KY on the one year anniversary of the historic 2017 Women’s March. The speakers eloquently and powerfully lay out the situation for women in Eastern KY and the world today. Then, we’ll travel back in time with a story from our archive’s here at WMMT. Produced by Maxine Kenny in 1991, the piece brings us voices of women in fast food restaurants. And last, we’ll hear two brief interviews conducted by Kelli Haywood in 2016. All of these stories paint a picture of the strength, resiliency, and leadership of mountain women.
In this episode of WMMT’s Mountain Talk we explore the idea of social haunting, or how the troubles of the past might be playing a role in community problems of today. We hear from Dr. Geoff Bright who is leading a participatory research project based around the theory of social haunting in formerly industrialized areas in the north of England, and Max Munday shares his documentary, Songlines and Social Haunting, which further details the project’s arts-based process used in "Ghost Labs" in former coal mining communities. We are joined by Dr. Wayne Coombs, recently retired as director of the West Virginia Prevention Resource Center, who speaks about the role that social haunting or historical trauma may be playing in the growing substance abuse crisis in central Appalachia. Take a listen and tell us what you think about this concept of "social haunting." You can send your comments to wmmt@appalshop.org with "Social Haunting" in the subject line and we will share them as part of an international conversation with Max Munday and colleagues in Manchester, U.K.
Released by: Ribbon Road Music
On this special MLK Day edition of Mountain Talk we bring you an interview with Terran Young, Willie Dodson, William Isom II, and Marley Green about their work to register and document Black cemeteries, and counter the erasure of Black histories in Appalachia.
This week's program features the life and legacy of KY born Civil Rights activist, journalist and educator Anne Braden. This audio program was produced by Mimi Pickering in 2014 based on the 2012 documentary she and Anne Lewis made called "Anne Braden: Southern Patriot." Braden is pictured on the left with Rosa Parks on the right.
We're starting 2018 off right here at WMMT with this re-broadcast of an hour long program of stories and songs of the late great Jean Ritchie! Jean Ritchie was a folk musician, ballad singer and songwriter - well known for her dulcimer playing. Ritchie was born and raised just up the road from WMMT in Viper, KY. She is dearly missed, but we're grateful her legacy lives on through recordings and words such as those in this week's edition of Mountain Talk.
This episode of Mountain Talk features senior citizens in Letcher County, KY reading their letters to Santa, followed by a re-broadcast of our 2015 Christmas program chock-full of holiday stories and songs. Merry Christmas from possum radio!
This special episode of Mtn. Talk is dedicated to the memory of Sonny Houston: a Hemphill, KY born and raised musician who passed away during the summer of 2017. In this episode we hear stories about Sonny's life from his family and friends, and we hear Sonny's voice through songs he wrote, and live recordings of some of his bands.
This week's program features three stories about fundamental needs in our community: educational programs that prepare students for real jobs, pensions that allow our public workers to retire, and access to fast, affordable rural internet.
This week on Mtn. Talk we bring you an interview with Dr. Genesia Kilgore-Bowling. Dr. Kilgore-Bowling is Director of the Social Work program at the University of Pikeville, and she spoke with us about her research into anti-fat bias in Social Work education and society.
This week on Mtn. Talk we hear from youth media makers with the All Access EKY project, who are documenting stories about reproductive health access in Eastern Kentucky. Listen here: for an interview with All Access Project Director Willa Johnson, an interview with the youth fellows, and a few of the audio pieces they've produced so far!
This week's show is all about food! We begin with a recorded conversation between chef Travis Milton, who grew up in southwest Virginia - and food writer Sheri Castle, who was raised in western North Carolina. Travis stopped by the studio earlier this week, and Sheri joined us by phone. They share stories about who taught them to cook, their own definitions of Appalachian cuisine, some innovative new takes on the food of our region, and a few of their own Thanksgiving favorites. Our program today wraps up with some Appalshop staff members’ favorite Thanksgiving Recipes. You might want to grab a snack, cause this program is sure to make you hungry! We hope you enjoy!
This week on Mtn. Talk we bring you voices of concerned residents of southeastern Kentucky speaking out against Kentucky Power’s proposed double-digit rate increase.
In June of this year Kentucky Power filed a request to the Public Service Commission for a 16.8% increase, which would mean an increase of about 80 cents a day, or 24 dollars a month for the average customer. KY Power’s stated reason for the increase is to make up for the the loss of nearly 2,000 residential customers and 450 industrial customers in Southeastern Kentucky, since 2014.
The Public Service Commission held three meetings in order to gather public comments which will be used in their decision making process. WMMT attended the November 6th meeting in Hazard, Kentucky. About 40 people signed up to speak to the PSC, and out of those only one spoke up in support of Kentucky Power’s rate increase.
Today’s edition of Mountain Talk brings you some of the concerns of the southeastern Kentuckians present at the November 6th meeting. If you would like to submit comments to the Public Service Commission about the proposed rate hikes you can submit them up until December 6th when the PSC will hold a formal hearing in the case. You can submit comments by mail: P.O. Box 615 Frankfort, KY 40602, or through the website at psc.ky.gov.
This week on Mountain Talk we learn about the work of two Appalachian Transition Fellows working on agricultural projects in the Central Appalachian region. First, Hope Hart, an AppFellow working at Appalshop, visits AppFellow Courtney Boyd in Huntington, WV. Hope guides us as we learn more about Courtney’s work with Unlimited Future, Inc., The Wild Ramp, and Refresh Appalachia - organizations supporting economic development and local agriculture. Next Sam Hamlin, an AppFellow with the Community Farm Alliance, brings us a story about alpaca farmers in Kentucky. Enjoy!
This week we explore the new Netflix documentary "Heroin(e)" which follows three women - a fire chief, a judge, and a street missionary as they battle Huntington, West Virginia’s drug epidemic. We interviewed the film’s director, Elaine McMillion Sheldon, and one of the stars: Huntington’s Fire Chief Jan Rader on October 27th here in the studio. Listen to learn more about the state of the drug epidemic in Huntington and the making of this film.
This week on Mountain Talk we hear former head of the New York office of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Bob Stutman, speaking about the Opioid Epidemic in Rural America. Audio for this evening's program was recorded by WMMT's Benny Becker who attended Stutman's presentation to teachers at Letcher County Central High School on October 16, 2017. In his talk, Stutman discusses his experiences working for the DEA, and his perspective on the Opioid crisis.
This week on Mountain Talk we hear from tobacco farm workers on strike in Garrard County, Kentucky. The seven workers - from the states of Nayarit and Hidalgo Mexico - are here as a part of the H2A guest-worker visa program, and called a strike due to violations of their contract. Mountain people are no strangers to patterns of in and out-migration for work, or to histories of strikes demanding better pay and safer working conditions. WMMT's Rachel Garringer and Elizabeth Sanders host this episode and we hear stories from these striking workers.
Today on Mountain Talk, we’ll learn all about Kenaf: a fiber producing plant native to Asia which grows well in Kentucky – and can be used to make a variety of products including rope, twine, paper, cardboard, and more! This episode of Mountain Talk comes from Sam Hamlin - an Appalachian Transition Fellow with the Community Farm Alliance - who produces the Woven Roots Fiber Podcast.
This week on Mountain Talk we explore how black lung looks from right here in Eastern Kentucky. Benny Becker of the Ohio Valley Resource and WMMT brings us 3 pieces. The first is Fighting For Breath where Dr. James Brandon Crum diagnoses a man with black lung. Dr. Crum lives in Pike County and is responsible for getting the Federal Government to begin an investigation into the black lung epidemic in the mountains. The second piece is a recording of Dr. Crum's August 2017 presentation to the Southeast Kentucky Black Lung Association in Whitesburg. The third is an update about the Federal investigation into the black lung epidemic. And last, but certainly not least, we listen to the audio from a short documentary, "Dying Breed" produced during the summer of 2017 by youth at Appalshop's Appalachian Media Institute. We hope you enjoy!
What does poetry have to do with health? How do we talk about health outside the doctor's office?
Tune in at 6 PM for tonight's Mountain Talk on EKY HEAL. EKY HEAL is a collaboration between health, arts, and community organizations - with the aim to have our communities take control of their health. Hear about HEAL and initiatives around poetry and fitness that have started because of this work.
Guests include (clockwise from top): Emily Hudson, Robert Donnan, Morgan Kirk, Ben Fink, and Sandra Kay.
A recording of our Wednesday, August 9th Mountain Talk with the cast and crew of BETSY! Listen for the scoop on this Kentucky premiere. BETSY! is a Puerto Rican-Appalachian musical developed and written/composed as a collaboration between Roadside Theater: Art in a Democracy from here at home and Pregones / PRTT (Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre) in the Bronx. Join host Elizabeth Sanders as she talks with Lisa Davis of Big Stone Gap, VA; Caridad de la Luz from the Bronx, NY; Rosalba Rolón from Pregones/PRTT; and Ron Short from Roadside
Did you miss the roundtable discussion about Economic Transition in Germany and Appalachia? Well, you're in luck!
For this Monday Mountain Talk, we'll have a recording from the July 2017 roundtable. Guests include Dr. Timon Wehnert, an energy expert and researcher based at the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy based in Berlin, Germany; Betsy Whaley, Vice President of MACED, and Eric Dixon with Appalachian Citizens' Law Center.
This compelling investigation of the gripping true crimes behind American ballads dispels myths and legends and brings to life a cast of characters—both loathsome and innocent—shadowy history, courtroom dramas, murders, mayhem and music. Book talk by: Richard H. Underwood
Get a insider's look at the Cowan Creek Mountain Music School. It’s a small but close-knit group that gathers here each year—some of the country’s finest old-time musicians, and students of all ages and levels – to celebrate our rich mountain heritage of lively tunes, heart-felt singing, spirited square dancing and storytelling.
Whether you’re an absolute beginner or accomplished musician, eight years old or eighty, you’ll have the opportunity to dig deep into the rich repertoire of Kentucky music and gain experience playing with other musicians.
Mountain music has been passed down through the generations as young learners listened to and played along with their older family members and neighbors. In keeping with this tradition, Cowan is a school for all ages, with classes taught in call and response, rather than written music, improving both your ear for music, and your ability to join other musicians from the get-go!
The Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) move to repeal Net Neutrality and classification of Broadband Internet as a Title II Telecommunications Service could have significant impact on rural America, where the digital divide is already the largest. In this edition of Mountain Talk, host Mimi Pickering explores potential impacts with economist Roberto Gallardo from Mississippi State University Extension Services and Christopher Mitchell, Director of Community Broadband Networks at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. We also hear from a 2015 interview with Edyael Casaperalta, representing the Rural Broadband Working Group of the National Rural Assembly, on the 2015 reclassification of broadband as a Title II Telecommunications Service and its potential to reduce the digital divide, increase competition, and protect consumers. Finally, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn talks about her work on the FCC to increase access and affordability for people of color, low income, and rural communities. Her term at the FCC will soon end but she promises to continue to speak for those who are not typically represented and calls on all individuals and organizations to make their voices heard at the FCC at every opportunity.
In this episode, Dr. Edward Lee Petsonk, a professor of Medicine specializing in Pulmonary and Critical Care at West Virginia University and former leader of the NIOSH Black Lung Program, speaks on the proper diagnosis of black lung disease and navigating applying for related health benefits. In the second half, we revisit the award winning story produced by WMMT's Benny Becker for the Ohio Valley ReSource in collaboration with Howard Berkes of NPR about 38 year old Mackie Branham Jr. and his fight with the worst form of black lung disease.
In this episode, five University of Virginia students in the Master's of Urban and Environmental Planning program report on their assessment of the existing conditions within a roughly one-mile corridor within downtown Whitesburg, Kentucky. The assessment lays out a foundation for Whitesburg to participate in the Environmental Law Institute's BRIGHT program. The students inventory assets and challenges, highlights resources, and offers a palette of design opportunities, and strategies for community directed corridor revitalization.
Art from cultures not included in mainstream America-- Zuni Pueblo,Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, Coeburn VA-- have more in common than one might think. Why do humans create art and why is it important to all our lives? This is just one question that is addressed in this Mountain Talk discussion of art and creativity, as we seek to take back the narrative of our lives in the places we live! Host Kelli Haywood, Kelsie Makae Hale, Ron Short, and Edward Wemytewa converse on the importance of art in representing ourselves and our culture.
This episode features highlights from the East Kentucky Leadership Conference with keynote speaker Earl Gohl who is the federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC). You will also hear from Peter Hille the Executive Director of Mountain Association of Community Economic Development (MACED). More than $100 million in new federal funding has been committed to projects serving eastern Kentucky over the past year. These highlights explain how some of it was put to use. Also, from the Ohio Valley ReSource hear some analysis on three ideas that could help mend things in coal country. And, from Homefront Chronicles, hear how one Seattle mother created a safe place for mom's to cut loose and be free. *Music featured in this episode was "Hightop Shoes" by George Gibson from his Last Possum Up the Tree album on the JuneAppal label.
In this episode, learn more about the Mountains of Music Homecoming and the The Crooked Road: Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail. Host Kelli Haywood and guest host Rich Kirby from WMMT's Deep in Tradition speak with the MOMH assistant coordinator and professor of Appalachian Studies at ETSU, Ted Olsen on the upcoming 9 days filled with wonderful traditional music and cultural events. Find out more at www.mtnsofmusic.com!
In February, it was made public that white nationalist groups were planning training and rally events in Pike County and Floyd County, Kentucky at the end of April. The response across eastern Kentucky has been largely that these groups are not welcome here. However, there are differences as to what folks believe the response should be. In this episode of Mountain Talk, host Elizabeth Sanders speaks with Ariana Velasquez of Pike County and Patrick Davis of Floyd County who are organizing community responses. ~ Art by Lacy Hale (art created by local artist Lacy Hale in response to the upcoming events)
Did you know Kentucky ranks 2nd in the US for the number of colon cancer cases only behind West Virginia? However, when it comes to deaths from colorectal cancer, we move to number 1! There are lots of factors at play including, our genetics, our environment, our diet, and more. In this episode, host Kelli Haywood talks with Tom Collins of the UK Rural Cancer Prevention Center about how you can beat the odds! Listen today and share the link with a friend.
When people think of Central Appalachia these days, it seems often the next words are "Trump Country", or white working class. Is Central Appalachia homogenized? Are we a diverse group of people? What is the legacy of diversity in the coalfields of Appalachia? Big Sandy Community and Technical College in Prestonsburg, Kentucky is delving in to the answers at their symposium on March 30th from 8:30am - 4:30pm called - The Get Together. In this episode, host Kelli Haywood speaks with Janie Beverly and Greta Slone who are members of the Diversity Committee for the college and helped to put together the events for the symposium. The group talks about diversity in Appalachia and just where we are with that these days.
In this episode, host Kelli Haywood speaks with Justin Allen and Laura Krueger of Kentucky Educational Television (KET) about their recently released hour-long documentary film - Journey to Recovery. The trio discusses the making of the film and various pieces of its content. Journey to Recovery highlights the options for addressing treatment of the opioid addiction crisis facing Kentucky and many other locations in Central Appalachia. The film also illustrates how addiction to opioids in particular changes the brain chemistry creating dependence upon the drug. The film can be viewed online for FREE at http://www.ket.org/opioids/journey-to-recovery/
Host Kelli Haywood and WMMT's Mimi Pickering share two engaging speakers from the 2017 Kentucky Center for Economic Policy Conference - Dr. Kathryn J. Edin from Johns Hopkins University and KCEP Executive Director Jason Bailey. Dr. Edin discusses her book $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, describing the situations and survival of the nation's poor. 40% of America's $2 a day poor live in Central Appalachia. Then, Jason Bailey gives his "Where We Stand" address, reflecting on Kentucky's economic condition and providing information on current and future state economic policy.
Host Kelli Hansel Haywood speaks with representatives of Appalachian Sustainable Development and the Appalachian Beginning Forest Farmers' Coalition about the possibilities of creating an income from forest farming in Appalachia. They discuss the whys, hows, and whens of cultivating medicinal herbs, edible mushrooms, and more under the forest canopy. The group gives details on upcoming workshops so that you can become involved. Also, highlighted is the progress of creating the Appalachian Harvest Herb Hub in Duffield, Virginia that will allow farmers to clean, dry, package, and potentially sell their product to a worldwide market. www.appalachianforestfarmers.org
Dr. Dustin Anderson DVM of the Animal Wellness Center speaks with host Kelli Haywood about the importance of seasonally appropriate pet care for both indoor and outdoor pets. Dr. Anderson answers questions like - How should I best keep my outdoor dogs and cats warm in the winter months? Do you need flea protection in the winter time? Are those little doggie clothes actually useful or a waste of money? How do I make sure my indoor pets get enough exercise in bad weather? Do dogs and cats tolerate cold weather and heat better than humans do? ... and MUCH more. Listen in for some interesting pet conversation and a few laughs to boot.
-photo by Jade Amburgey (Alice the Pink Lady)
January is Radon Awareness Month. Have you ever had your home's radon gas levels tested? Dr. Ellen Hahn Ph.D of the University of Kentucky College of Nursing and Director of the BREATHE Program, stopped by WMMT to speak with host Kelli Haywood about the dangers of radon gas in your home and what you can do to limit your risk. Radon gas is the 2nd leading cause of lung cancer. Listen and learn more.
Host Kelli Haywood discusses small town economics with a group of politically diverse members of the local community - Harry Collins of CANE, Betsy Whaley of MACED, and Ben Fink of Appalshop and the Letcher Co. Culture Hub. What does it take to transition the economy of a small coalfields community? Economic diversity. But, why are some residents wary of diversification of business and the entrepreneurial spirit? Can arts and cultural play a critical role in that economic diversification? The group discusses these topics and much more.
Journalist, critic of music and food, and Appalachian foodways writer Ronni Lundy visited Appalshop Gallery in early December 2016 to read and discuss her newest cookbook - Victuals. This podcast features that reading, and her prior appearance on WMMT's Honky Tonk Jukebox show with radio's Elizabeth Sanders and Mimi Pickering.
In this Mountain Talk Monday, WMMT's Benny Becker takes us to a special gathering at the Appalachian Media Institute's Boone Motor Building Youth Drop-In Center to hear the story of death row exoneree - Randy Steidl. Randy Steidl spent 17 years in Illinois prisons, including 12 on death row, before his exoneration in 2004. He was wrongly convicted and sentenced to die for the 1986 murders of Dyke and Karen Rhoads. But an Illinois State Police investigation in 2000 found that local police had severely botched their investigation, and that the case was riddled with political corruption that led all the way to the Illinois Governor’s office.
On Mountain Talk Monday, host Kelli Haywood talks with Shawn Lind, director of Mines to Minds. Sign up before Jan. 5 for Mines to Minds, a technology training program from SKCTC & Appalshop. Financial aid is available & after the short 16 week program, a tech job could be yours. The two Accelerated Certificate options include Systems Administration (IT Networking and Support) and Multimedia Design and Implementation (Designing, Creating, marketing, and branding using High Tech Creative Software tools and websites). And, hear the entire 3 Part collaboration of WMMT's Benny Becker for the Ohio Valley ReSource with NPR.
WMMT brings you Anthony Flaccavento’s recent book talk held at the University of Virginia at Wise. His book Building a Healthy Economy from the Bottom Up: Harnessing Real-World Experience for Transformative Change was published this year by the University of Kentucky Press and features six components to building a sustainable economy in regions going through the worst economic hardship. Flaccavento highlights those six components in his talk and gives real world examples of their effectiveness in communities across the country.
f you’re on social media like us, you’ve likely heard about Standing Rock — the Dakota Access Pipeline and the water protectors who are working to stop it. We set out to educate ourselves on what’s going on and how we’re connected here in the mountains. For this edition of Mountain Talk Monday, we speak with Crystal Willcuts Cole, a Lakota woman living in Big Stone Gap, VA, with connections to Standing Rock; DL Hamilton and Karan Ireland, from Charleston, WV, both of whom recently returned from Standing Rock; and Christopher Boulay, a military veteran from Evarts, KY, who is in voluntary deployment to Standing Rock with thousands of other veterans. We also bring you a song from the camp and the latest on yesterday’s Army Corps of Engineers announcement and the response from Energy Transfer Partners (who own the pipeline). Join your hosts, WMMT Community Correspondents Tanya Turner, Jonathan Hootman, and Elizabeth Sanders for Mountain Talk Monday: Standing Rock.
Carrie Mullins joins host Kelli Haywood in WMMT studios for this edition of Mountain Talk Monday. Carrie’s debut novel, Night Garden, was released by the Lexington small publisher Old Cove Press in 2015. In Night Garden, Carrie tackles the issue of substance misuse and addiction in Appalachia from the eyes of 17 year old Marie Massey. Kelli speaks with Carrie about the process of writing her book, the realities of the Appalachian experience with addiction, solutions, and the importance of literature tackling the hardest issues working in our communities.
In this episode of Mountain Talk Monday, host Kelli Haywood welcomes to the studio representatives from Hospice of the Bluegrass. Novemember is Hospice and Pallitative Care Awareness Month, and the group discusses questions and concerns that families might have when their loved one is receiving or may need such care. The Hospice team describes their multifaceted form of care, all the services they provide, and the many volunteer opportunities for the community. Also, several great upcoming events are highlighted, including the “Before I Die” wall.
In this special edition of Mountain Talk Monday, host Kelli Haywood takes you on an exploration of an Appalachian Halloween! The episode begins with a general history of the holiday tracing it back to the Celtic New Year – Samhain, which was later transformed by the Catholic church into All Hallow’s Eve or Halloween. From there, you will hear tales of ghosts and mischief pulled from the WMMT archives and told by our staff and volunteer DJs. Add in a few good old-time murder and death ballads, and you got yourself one scary good time. Listen and share this episode with your friends! Happy Halloween!!!
In this episode of Mountain Talk Monday, host Kelli Haywood interviews author Willie Dalton from Duffield, VA about her debut novel – Three Witches in a Small Town. The pair talk of second sight, herbal cures, divining, prayers of protection, publishing with a small press, and much more.
Benny Becker talks to University of Kentucky Engineering Professor Gail Brion Ph.D, who is also a waterbourne illness expert. Brion and Becker discuss our crumbling water systems infrastructure in the eastern Kentucky coalfields. The pair also relate the current efforts to remedy these issues with the early movement of environmental activism to show how the distinct difference between environmental justice and environmental change are behind the lack of action we see today.
Host Kelli Haywood is interviews Harlan Co. native and resident Austin Rutherford. Austin works as a production assistant on Hollywood movie sets, big studio TV shows, and creates his own horror/sci-fi/and costume masks and special effects make-up. How does a good old mountain boy end up working for Hollywood?
In this episode of Mountain Talk Monday learn more about the EPIC Program - Enhancing Programs for IT Certification that is being offered through the KCTCS community colleges in our area! Guest host Mimi Pickering speaks with Tracie Davis, David Dixon, and students who are participating in or are graduates of the program.
For this episode host, Kelli Haywood speaks with guest New York Times reporter Sheryl Stolberg who recently wrote a feature for the newspaper on the effort toward economic transition in eastern Kentucky. The pair discuss the responsibility of a journalist in representing a culture not their own, effects of mainstream media on public perceptions, hillbilly stereotype, Trump vs. Clinton in coal country, economy, and more. Read the entire article here - http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/18/us/beyond-coal-imagining-appalachias-future.html?_r=0
In this edition of Mountain Talk Monday, host Kelli Haywood speaks with Dr. Ellen Hahn who is a Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky College of Nursing and the Director of the Kentucky Center for Smoke Free Policy. Jean Rosenberg, a community advocate from Prestonsburg, Kentucky and a former consultant for the Floyd County Health Department also joins the conversation. The topic is local smoke free policy. What does it take to make your businesses and public spaces free of the harmful chemicals found in second hand smoke? Why should you advocate for smoke free policy in your community? Is smoke free policy discriminatory? Listen today and learn more!
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kysmokefree
Website: http://www.breathe.uky.edu
Quit Line: 1-800-QUIT-NOW
This edition's guest is the medical anthropologist Claire Snell-Rood who has been studying depression in Appalachian women for the last three years. Snell-Rood and host, Kelli Haywood, discuss the upcoming WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Planning)-- a community lead treatment program that is about to get underway in Hazard, Kentucky, how women in eastern KY deal with depression, and a whole lot more. Snell-Rood completed a similar evaluation of the women in the slums of Delhi, India which she documented in her book -- No One Will Let Her Live.
In this edition of Mountain Talk Monday with host Kelli Haywood, Jenny Williams and Matthew Druen with the Kentucky Community and Technical College system come by the studio to discuss an exciting upcoming project for the 9/11 Day of Service – The Big Dip Redux. Learn how college students and community members from around the region will participate in water testing that will bring us real data on our water quality while boosting potential possibilities for future jobs in eastern Kentucky.
In this episode of Mountain Talk Monday, hear the voices of the 2016 Appalachian Media Institute summer interns. This year’s cast are all from eastern Kentucky! The work of AMI youth producers has been heard on NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered, screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and the Sundance Film Festival. AMI helps young people explore how media production skills can be used to ask, and begin to answer, critical questions about themselves and their communities. This year’s interns tackled the issues of discrimination, the struggle to stay in the mountains, to whom does old time Appalachian music belong, and sexual/gender identity. In this hour, the interns discuss why they applied to AMI, how they chose their topics, the experience of the institute, and what they hope to see in the future of their Appalachia.
On July 14-18, Appalshop and Imagining America, a national consortium of 100 colleges and universities based at Syracuse University in rural upstate New York, co-hosted a gathering. 45 people — faculty, students, and community members — sponsored by nine institutions of higher education from Oregon to Ontario,Canada to Florida came to Whitesburg and Letcher County to learn about the economic revival just beginning in our mountains. The participants’ goal was to take lessons home. In this episode of Mountain Talk Monday, some of those who made the trip speak about what motivates and challenges them to work for better economic, political, and cultural opportunities for everyone back in their home towns.
On June 22, 2016, Gov. Matt Bevin presented Kentucky HEALTH, a comprehensive plan to transform Kentucky’s Medicaid program, which he says will empower individuals to improve their health and well-being while simultaneously ensuring Medicaid’s long-term fiscal sustainability in the commonwealth. See the proposed changes here – http://chfs.ky.gov/…/0/62216KentuckyHEALTHWaiverProposal.pdf As a means of receiving public feedback, the administration held a series of public forums. WMMT reporter Mimi Pickering attended the forum in Hazard, Kentucky. This episode of Mountain Talk Monday presents the overview of that forum. Many Kentucky citizens are concerned that the proposed changes will be a drawback to the positive changes we’ve seen in coalfields, Kentucky and for those previously uninsured Kentuckians.
The public comment period ends on July 22nd @ 5pm. Written comments on the Kentucky HEALTH waiver proposal can be mailed to: Commissioner Stephen Miller Department for Medicaid Services 275 E. Main Street Frankfort, KY 40621 Or via email to kyhealth@ky.gov.
In this episode of Mountain Talk Monday get your dose of literary musings when as we feature the 2016 Seedtime on the Cumberland’s Southern Appalachian Writers’ Cooperative Literary Reading. Hear writers from Letcher County, Kentucky and all over southern Appalachia read their work.
Host Kelli Haywood interviews Erv Crisp of the foster care agency NECCO which has several locations throughout the region. The pair discuss many topics associated with becoming foster parents and the adoption process. You will also hear the stories of foster parents who have chosen to foster medically fragile children and the importance of consistent healthcare for all foster children.
In this episode of Mountain Talk Monday, we welcome special guest hosts Tanya Turner and Willa Johnson with the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative. They interviewed four students involved in KVEC’s initiatives around the region’s schools about the effects that their participation has had on their educational experience in the mountains of eastern Kentucky. KVEC activities was one of the highlights of the 2016 SOAR Innovation Summit. They discuss everything from coding, student senate, creative writing, and the educational social platform – The Holler!
Host Kelli Haywood and special guest host Kate Fowler speak with award winning photographer Wendy Ewald. Ewald visited Letcher Co., Kentucky in the late 1970s and worked with youth to document life as they saw it. The work became the book Portraits & Dreams. The methods she developed in Appalachia she took around the world. Ewald and hosts discuss a variety of topics including how Ewald and her students made the photos, who can tell the story of a place... who has the right, and what is similar across cultures when we view them through the eyes of children.
Are you thinking about getting a pet, or do you already own one? Spring is the season where we tend to see plenty of puppies and kittens around. So, it’s timely that in this episode of Mountain Talk Monday our guest is Dr. Dustin Anderson, DVM with the Animal Wellness Center in Pikeville, KY. Dr. Anderson and host Kelli Haywood discuss basic pet care, budget care, pet allergies and food, and the most common diseases of dogs and cats. Plus, listen to learn more about pet adoption and the efforts of the Appalachian SPCA.
WMMT’s Mimi Pickering traveled to Lexington to talk with author Katherine J. Black in her home and garden about her book Row by Row: Talking with Kentucky Gardeners, and how the idea for a simple oral history project turned into a book that is truly an illustration of how growing gardens of all types ultimately brings new levels of personal growth for those who choose to take it on
Katherine J. Black reads two selections from her book Row by Row: Talking with Kentucky Gardeners. Can, Dry, and Pickle: Mae Raney Sons - Back and Forward: Jashu, Kasan, and Seema Patel
Host Kelli Haywood speaks with Jon & Sheena, a married couple who have shared the disease of addiction throughout their entire relationship and have gone through the process of recovery together. They share how they reached their lowest low, the steps they took to regain their health, and what it is like living daily as a recovering addict and parenting their four children.
In this edition of Mountain Talk Monday, host Kelli Haywood speaks live with the director of The Rising Center – Holly Combs. The Rising Center in Hazard, Kentucky located beside Appalachian Regional Hospital provides an array of services to adult and child victims of sexual assault, abuse and incest in Kentucky River Community Care’s (KRCC) eight county area. In doing so, it works closely with local health service agencies, criminal justice systems, and social service agencies to ensure a coordinated system of reliable and appropriate care. Throughout the show, the pair discuss what it means to be sexually assaulted, the feelings associated, what to do if it happens to you, and more.
In this edition of Mountain Talk Monday, we celebrate Women’s History Month. Women from our listening area in Kentucky and Virginia share the stories of the Appalachian women who inspire them to live boldly and to stand tall. Just like women the world over, Appalachian women are no two alike, but in navigating their collective history, culture, and lifestyle, they share a distinctive bond. Only a mountain woman knows what it really means to be a mountain woman.
Language shapes our world, and defines our identities. In this edition of Mountain Talk, host Benny Becker dives into the stories and identities of Appalachian dialect with Professor Amy Clark, who is a Sociolinguist, the co-chair of the UVa-Wise Appalachian Studies Program, and the co-editor of a new book, Talking Appalachian. She tells the story of how Appalachian dialects came to be, shares her personal journey of learning to embrace her voice, and offers advice for anyone who worries about their accent.
Frank X. Walker from Danville, Kentucky is the former Poet Laureate of Kentucky and the first African American to hold the title. His groundbreaking first collection of poems published in 2000, Affrilachia, helped to “challenge the notion of a homogeneous all-white literary landscape in Appalachia.” Walker was a co-founder of the Affrilachian poets group and coined the term “Affrilachia” which is now used to describe a multitude of mountain-centric creations, philosophies, and activities. Walker is a professor at the University of Kentucky and has many publications. Recently, Walker spoke at a convocation given at Alice Lloyd College in Pippa Passes, Kentucky. Mountain Talk Monday host, Kelli Haywood, was there for the address and reception where she talked with Walker about what it means to be Appalachian, what our future here holds, and more.
Crystal Wilkinson is a well known Kentucky author, owner of Wild Fig Books & Coffee in Lexington KY, and a founding member of the Affrilachian Poets. In this edition of Mountain Talk Monday, host Kelli Haywood with the help of WMMT’s Mimi Pickering interviews Crystal on the eve of her upcoming book release, The Birds of Opulence. Kelli and Crystal delve deep into what it means to be Appalachian and to write about Appalachia for the contemporary audience. Crystal tells the story of Frank X. Walker’s coining of the term “Affrilachian” and how it has grown from representing a very specific group of people to being the identifying term for those contributing to the world stage in a wide variety of ways. Crystal also reads from her newest book which will be released in early March. Find Crystal where she is the Appalachian Writer in Residence at Berea College, or at Wild Fig Books & Coffee in person or on the web. Come to Seedtime on the Cumberland Festival here on the WMMT/Appalshop grounds in June of this year to visit the Wild Fig Pop-Up Bookstore display!
Gary Bentley, Letcher County native and former undergroud coal miner, sits down with Mountain Talk Monday host Kelli Haywood to discuss his new column for the online publication The Daily Yonder, “In the Black.” Through his column Bentley tells his personal story of life underground, and addresses the stereotypes often portrayed in mainstream media of miners and mining, “King Coal”, and Appalachians in general. Bentley also speaks of the importance of telling one’s stories for the sake of posterity and a broader understanding of the current truth of the coalfields of Appalachia. Listen today for the rare opportunity to hear it like it is straight from the mouth of a miner. See Bentley’s writing on The Daily Yonder website. Each new column appears on Monday.