The Appalachian Voice
Bark Houses: Built With Nature’s Shingles
By Nan Chase Four years after completion, the rustic bungalow near downtown Asheville, N.C., is a local landmark. Covered in big overlapping shingles of tree bark — rather than the usual wood, brick or stone — it looks odd, a bit like a square tree. Although the unusual house appears antique and rooted in the…
Read MoreAppalachian Voices Celebrates 15 Years — And You’re Invited!
Join us on Sat., June 21 for Artists for Appalachia — a celebration of our 15th anniversary, our annual membership meeting and a special fundraising event. The venue for the evening will be the renowned Jefferson Theater in in Charlottesville, Va. Artists for Appalachia will include traditional mountain music, readings and revelry as we come…
Read MoreKicking Coal Ash in Carolina
Over the past months, Appalachian Voices and our Red, White and Water campaign have continued the fight against toxic coal ash in North Carolina. In Charlotte, Appalachian Voices teamed up with the local Greenpeace chapter to host a coal ash tour, led by award-winning reporter Rhiannon Fionn, who has covered issues related to Duke Energy’s…
Read MoreToo Big to Fail, But Not to Change
When “pink slime” hit the headlines in March, Americans were rightfully disgusted. The thought of being poisoned for profit by beef-product filler treated with ammonia sparked national outrage. Grocery stores and even mega-fast food restaurants such as McDonald’s and Taco Bell were quick to publicly shun the slimy substance. Over the course of just a…
Read MorePerusing Kentucky’s Pine Mountain Park
By Joe Tennis High above Pineville, Ky., near the start of the challenging Laurel Cove Trail, an old joke straddles a rock at Pine Mountain State Resort Park. Local lore suggests that the people of Pineville were worried about the menacing-looking boulder coming loose and rolling off Pine Mountain. In the 1930s, shortly after Pine…
Read MoreCapturing Appalachia: Finalists From the Appalachian Mtn Photography Competition
By Jamie Goodman It took three judges almost a full day to narrow 1,156 entries down to 49 finalists. The results were stunning. This year’s Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition, currently on display at Appalachian State University Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, features works by photographers from around the Southeast, and a diverse and artistic…
Read MoreIt’s Not My Mountain Anymore Review
Barbara Taylor Woodall, a distinguished writer and Appalachian native, tells the gripping — and sometimes humorous — story of her life growing up in the heart of the Georgia Appalachians in “It’s Not My Mountain Anymore.” Woodall was born in 1954 and raised in a family that maintained a very traditional Appalachian farm life. From…
Read More“The Day Baby Brucie Died”: An Oral History of the Buffalo Creek Flood
by Betty Dotson-Lewis Author’s note: Larry Conn is a Freewill Baptist Preacher, a public school teacher in Logan County, West Virginia, and a member of a gospel singing group. The oral history of Buffalo Creek Flood survivors such as Larry Conn may have been told repeatedly, but with each time it is relived. Forty years…
Read MoreHooded Crane
In an extraordinary story of “taking the long way ‘round,” a bird from the other side of the world paid a visit to the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge in eastern Tennessee, shortly before the New Year. Jeffrey Davis drove 12 hours from Chester County, Penn., to take this photo of the Hooded Crane, a 3-foot tall…
Read MoreWe Can End Mountaintop Removal in Tennessee
By Dr. Minnie Vance Chattanooga, Tenn. In Tennessee, we love our mountains. These peaks and valleys inform our southern heritage, enhance our connection to family and represent the best of what we call state and country. Our mountains are home. Nevertheless, we too are facing down the barrel of continued mountaintop removal mining. Unfortunately, in…
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