Traditional Appalachian pull candy — sometimes called cream pull candy or Kentucky pull candy — is known for two things: its buttery, melt-in-your-mouth flavor and the painstaking process required to make the stuff. The candy must include exact ratios of all the ingredients. It has to be cooked to an […]
Read More
When I was in elementary school, a teacher told me that I needed to speak “properly.” She said my twang made me sound unintelligent. When I began serving on a state leadership board for high school students my freshman year, one of the first people I spoke to mocked my […]
Read More
Belarusian musician and activist Siarhei Douhushau was in Chicago in March of 2019 on a U.S. tour presenting folk art and music from his eastern European home. Nadzeya Ilkevich, then a second-year graduate student at Ohio University, caught wind and lured her friend and fellow countryman to Athens, Ohio – […]
Read More
Appalachia, in the popular imagination, stubbornly remains poor and white. Open a dictionary and you’ll see Appalachian described as a “native or inhabitant of Appalachia, especially one of predominantly Scotch-Irish, English, or German ancestry.” Read J.D. Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy” and you’ll enter a world that’s white, poor and uncultured, with […]
Read More
As part of the Appalachian Youth Creators Project, we’re committed not just to young people telling their own stories, but doing so through the mediums that feel most honest and relevant to them. So much of this powerful storytelling comes not just through the voices of young people, but the […]
Read More
Election memes, bedsheet ghosts and whipped coffee: 2020 was a surreal year for TikTok trends. TikTok — or the app that lets users share short videos with original or repurposed audio — is known for being especially popular with Gen Z, with around 18 million U.S. users being 14 or […]
Read More