The once-in-a-generation results from Tuesday’s special election in Alabama, and the campaigns that preceded it, offer several windows into the present-day political and social issues facing the nation. It would be easiest to look at those lessons tied to the winner, Doug Jones: that Democrats must reach both Black voters, […]
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Jewish communities across West Virginia are struggling to keep their traditions alive. “It is actually kind of scary. I worry because a lot of people my age are moving away for, like, school or jobs and because of that the communities are getting smaller,” said Kirston Kennedy, a young Jewish Appalachian who […]
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“To be an Appalachian American Arab Muslim … that’s a big title. I feel like I’m wearing so many hats at the same time.” Malak Khader of Huntington, West Virginia finds herself constantly fighting stereotypes about her religion and her home state. She started a multiethnic Girl Scout Troop at […]
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Just because we’re located in a rural part of Appalachia, this part of Virginia and in a small, rural county — don’t count us out. The people here — they have lives, they have lives that tell stories. Morris Fleischer: Depending on the measurements, we’re basically in the zone. We’re […]
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I’m not very good at running the register because I give basically everything away. — Joe Farmer of Axis Coffee Shop and Gathering Place in Manchester, Kentucky Tracy Farmer: We saw the need in our church to expand. We needed room for children’s ministry and youth ministry, but we also wanted […]
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Bob Jones is a sixth generation West Virginian and a Muslim convert. He feels at home in Appalachia at the intersection between his Christian roots and Islamic faith and lives within 10 miles of where his ancestors immigrated to W.Va. in the 1800s. “West Virginia is my story,” he says. Bob’s full […]
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