On September 11, 2001, I was in the sixth grade at Washington Irving Middle School in Clarksburg, West Virginia. We were sitting in homeroom taking the lunch count when my math teacher walked over from next door and told us to turn on the television in a panic. She left […]
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For the past several months, Sen. Joe Manchin has been the subject of national and international headlines alike. With the tight Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate, the moderate Democrat from West Virginia, first elected in 2010, has had a spotlight on his ability to make or break legislation being […]
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It took moving out of Appalachia to truly appreciate the richness of the culture I was raised in. I moved from my hometown of Pikeville, Kentucky, to attend the University of Louisville and study Political Science in 2018. I didn’t know then that other people weren’t privy to the same […]
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“’These people are all crooks and perverts,’ she told me. ‘All they want is money.’” – J.D.Vance quoting Mamaw I have always wanted a nemesis. When I saw him in my mind’s eye, I could make him out. He would be rich and white, a self-aggrandizing elitist with a “rising […]
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This time of year in North Carolina’s foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, the weather just cannot seem to make up its mind. Not cold enough to be refreshing, not warm enough to be a relief. Not quite winter, but not quite spring. Just somewhere in between, in limbo. Waiting. This […]
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Film critics have had nary a good word to say about Netflix’s new movie “Hillbilly Elegy.” Reviewers varyingly called it “Oscar-Season B.S.,” “woefully misguided,” “Yokel Hokum,” “laughably bad” and simply “awful.” I admit to delight when I read professional critics trashing the film, which is based on J.D. Vance’s widely […]
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