Poet Torli Bush reflects on how his journey runs counter to the narrative pushed by JD Vance’s memoir, that you have to leave the region to be successful.
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Commentary
Can Democrats reverse their disconnect with rural voters?
The Democratic Party has been ignoring rural and working class people for decades. Now, they’re trying to pay more attention.
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Remembering the Legacy of the ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’ Who Rewrote the Appalachian Narrative
I don’t remember the first time I heard “Coal Miner’s Daughter.” The song has been a familiar hymn from infancy, a lullaby my grandmother would sing along with “You Are My Sunshine” and “Rock-a-Bye Baby.” You see, like Loretta Lynn herself, my grandmother was a coal miner’s daughter from eastern […]
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The ‘Divisive’ School Lessons States Are Outlawing Have Been Improving Appalachian Education for Generations
Fog obscures the Clinch River on a Saturday morning this past October, as a group of educators gathers at St. Paul, Virginia’s Matthews Park. Shortly after arriving, part of the group moves to the riverbank, discussing how to tackle pollution from illegal dumping into the waterway. Another huddles around an […]
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Keep Your ‘Elegy’: The Appalachia I Know Is Very Much Alive
Ivy Brashear is the March 2022 host of 100 Days’ Creators and Innovators newsletter series. Sign up for the weekly email here. She backed her Cadillac long-ways across the one-lane road in front of her house, lit the Virginia Slim in her mouth, pulled her .38 pistol from her purse, […]
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Commentary: Instead of Raging Over ‘Maus,’ Support Local People Who Are Fighting the Ban
Plenty of people in East Tennessee are livid over a school board’s decision to remove “Maus” from the language arts curriculum. But indiscriminate outrage on TV and social media isn’t helping the local dissenters who are trying to build a better way forward. A few minutes before I gave an […]
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