I can remember going to a convention for changemakers in West Virginia about four years ago. There was a booth for one organization with the slogan, “Here for the Long Haul.” The idea was that they were here to support the generation of young people that didn’t move away. They […]
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In journalist Beth Macy’s “Factory Man”, the slow demise of the manufacturing industry is meticulously and beautifully chronicled. Despite its main protagonist John D. Bassett III’s personal success in beating back the tide of globalization and other factors that have contributed to the atrophy of the backbone of Appalachian economic […]
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Young people in protected rural areas in Brazil see positive things in both contemporary and traditional lifestyles. What if choosing one didn’t preclude holding on to the other? Prosperity manifests differently for different people. In the United States, some might say living well requires wealth. In the Brazilian Amazon, some […]
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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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Dave Hathaway is a coal miner in Greene County, in the very southwestern corner of Pennsylvania. Apart from a brief stint living in Colorado as a child, he’s lived his whole life there, and he’s never really thought much about leaving. So, when he was laid off in late 2015, […]
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