from left: Herb E. Smith, Pat Beaver, Judi Jennings, Helen Lewis, Amelia Kirby, and Sylvia Ryerson

This past Seedtime Friday, June 8, 2012, saw an extra-special event take place in the Appalshop conference room.  Appalachian studies pioneer Helen Lewis, along with editors Judi Jennings and Pat Beaver joined Beth Bingman, Amelia Kirby, and Herb E. Smith in reading selections from Helen Matthews Lewis: Living Social Justice in Appalachia, a brand-new anthology of Lewis’s writings and memories that document her life and work.

What follows is a transcript of the reading, generously sent around by Roy Silver.  For more information on the book, click here.

Helen Matthews Lewis: Living Social Justice in Appalachia

Seedtime on the Cumberland, June 8, 2012

Appalshop Conference Room, 5:00 – 6:00 pm

Helen intro: It is great to be back at Appalshop.  My relationship with this creative organization goes back to its beginning. I was teaching at Clinch Valley College in Wise when Appalshop began, and I started sending students over to get involved.  Ben Ziccafoose did the film Frank Jackson Coalminer as a term paper in my class other students came here to work: Jack Wright, Ron Short and Beth Bingman, who writes in this book about her student experiences.  I later joined the Appalshop, staff to work with Herb E., Elizabeth, Mimi and other filmmakers to develop a film series on the History of Appalachia.

This book, which was developed by Judi Jennings and Pat Beaver, is a combination of a Reader made up of a lot of things I have written throughout the years and interviews giving the context for the writings, a history of social movements and changes which I have been part of from 1950 to today and pieces by others who participated in these events.  Being in Whitesburg I need to admit that I have plagiarized two important Whitesburg writer-activists in my writings.  Both Harry Caudill  in Night Comes to the Cumberland and Tom Gish, editor of the Mountain Eagle,  wrote and talked about the region as a Colony, about the outside exploitation of the wealth and the various programs for amelioration.  Gish saw these regional organizations developing more and more like the Office of Indian Affairs, to control the natives.  He saw this as a latter stage of colonialism in which those who are left over, the land and the people, live as wards of the government on a Paleface Reservation.

I took their writings about Appalachia, and I wrote and talked about how Appalachia was like an internal colony, and I began to look at how exploitation of resources and outside control affected other people and places. I went to the coalfields of Wales and began to write about the similarities between people there and in Appalachia and the impact of extractive industries. Wales is also where I first started learning about the power of video and film to tell stories.  In our reading today, we are going to focus on two sections of the book talking about my work in Wales and Appalshop which are related and still continuing today.  We want to save time for discussion of today’s problems and what happens After Coal.

Pat: While students at Oxford, England, John Gaventa, now an internationally known scholar and activist, and Richard Greatrex did some very rough videotapes in Wales of the 1974 Miners’ Strike. When John returned to Vanderbilt University, where he was completing his studies, Helen invited him over to one of her classes at Clinch Valley College to show the tapes. John recalls that, “As happens with many people Helen meets, I became a friend and colleague on a number of projects thereafter.  I also think of Helen as a mentor in the sense of someone who inspires in others the ability to see their work differently and who helps them see new possibilities to which they can aspire.”

Helen: So [in 1975] I got a postdoctoral fellowship from the National Science Foundation on energy-related research and went to Wales. . . . John Gaventa was over there. His friend Richard Greatrex, a Welsh filmmaker, agreed to do videotapes in the mining communities if I would provide him with room and board. So I piggybacked this whole Welsh videotape production on my fellowship. Most weekends John would come to Wales, and he and Richard and I would videotape Welsh community scenes.

We also used the grant for an exchange; we brought Hazel Dickens, Mike Seeger and that group of musicians—Rich Kirby, John McCutcheon, some of the Brookside mine women, Charis Horton, and people from the River Farm. It was an invasion of the Americans in this mining community where they hadn’t seen Americans since World War II.

Judi: Helen used video and visual anthropology to understand life in Welsh mining valleys. Throughout her career, Helen has been able to build such global links, but always to do so without losing her deep local and regional roots. Her work is a conversation between regional culture and global political economy. For Helen, the sociological world has always been bigger than its academic boundaries. At Clinch Valley College, she and her students engaged in the communities, not just the classroom. In her Welsh project, she used her networking skills to build links among miners, academics, and broader publics in the two regions that last to this day.

Helen: My Old Black Mountain Home” or “Deep in the Heart of Dyfed” or “What I Learned in Wild Wild Wales,” A Poem of Sorts, read at the Rose and Crown, Wales, April 24, 1976

I rented a little cottage

In Upper Brynamman on Bryn,

With Richard and John in the household

And visits from one or two friends.

We made a lot of videotapes

At schools and pubs and clubs and mines,

Of people singing, dancing and shouting a bit,

But mostly speaking their minds.

What have I done in my travels?

What have I learned in my stay?

I’ll tell you a few of the highlights

In my work, which is better called play.

Continue reading Full Transcript of the Seedtime 2012 Helen Lewis Reading

Happy Thursday Morning to all of you folks out there, and Happy Seedtime!  The festival starts TONIGHT, June 7, with a very special edition of WMMT’s long-running live performance bluegrass series (the best live performance radio this side of WSM, if you must know), Bluegrass Express Live!

Some info about tonight’s bands will follow, but first–if you’re on your way here, Welcome to Whitesburg!  Here’s a history of our fair festival.  Here also are some local lodging options (if you’re planning to camp, do not forget that Wiley’s Last Resort is the official campground of Seedtime 2012), as well as driving directions from various localities nearby.  Here are some local things-to-do.

We also are still in need of volunteers to help make the weekend go, so here’s some info on what we need help with.  If you are interested in helping make this festival go this weekend, we would appreciate it so very much!  For questions or information of any sort, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.  Our phone number at WMMT is (606) 633-0108, and our email is [email protected]

Now, some info about tonight’s bands:

Normally at BGX, if we have an opening band in addition to our headliner, the opening band gets a short set while the headliner plays a longer, two-set show.  We’re so excited about both of our groups on Thursday, however, that both The Tommy Webb Band and Heather Berry & Tony Mabe will receive equal time and equal billing!

Some information on the two artists that will kick off Seedtime 2012:

The Tommy Webb Band

The Tommy Webb Band is an Eastern Kentucky-based bluegrass band that has been winning fans both here at home and across the country since their founding in 2005.  They have released four full-length albums, including the 2011 release From Rock n’ Roll to Bill Monroe.  The album, and its title track especially, became a favorite here at WMMT quickly after its release, and has spent a great deal of time charting among the top 35 bluegrass albums nationwide.  Webb is a Floyd County (Ky.) native, and we’re thrilled to bring him and his band back to the Appalshop stage for a performance close to home.

Heather Berry & Tony Mabe

Heather Berry is a Virginia native who combines lovely, affected, “song-bird” vocal work with Mother Maybelle-style arch-top guitar accompaniment to create a captivating mixture of bluegrass and folk.  She is accompanied by the versatile Tony Mabe, who plays everything from the autoharp to the mandolin to the guitar to both Scruggs and clawhammer-style banjo.  The couple have recently signed with Mountain Fever records and have just put out a brand new record, the self-titled Heather Berry & Tony Mabe Show, as well as a single, “Walk Slow,” which quickly became a hit here at WMMT.

We couldn’t be more excited to be able to have both The Tommy Webb Band and Heather Berry & Tony Mabe kick off the 2012 Seedtime festival.  Just as with every BGX Live!, the show begins at 7:30!  For more information, call WMMT today at (606) 633-0108 or email us at [email protected]  As always, tickets are $15 / $5 for students and kids.  See you tonight!

Dr. Ron Pen of the University of Kentucky

Appalshop Theater

Saturday, June 9th, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Dr. Pen, a founding member of the Appalachian Association of Sacred Harp Singers, will be teaching Seedtime participants the American singing tradition known as “shape note singing.” This musical style, often called “Sacred Harp” singing, is a type of sight-reading harmonization that is a rich part of American heritage. Dr. Pen’s workshop will be open to everyone willing to participate and will include some background history and social context for the music. No musical experience necessary.

Appalshop Grounds

Saturday, June 9th at 9 PM

Admission: Free

Experience Kentucky’s longest continuing community square dance at Seedtime on the Cumberland! The Carcassonne Community Square Dance will hold it’s June dance under the main stage tent on the Appalshop Grounds during this year’s festival.

The Carcassonne Community Center was built as the Carcassonne School in 1924. After a fire destroyed the original structure, it was rebuilt in it’s current form in 1931. It functioned as a school for the students of Letcher County, Kentucky until the 1960′s and on a limited basis into the seventies. It is famous for it’s quilting club and The Carcassonne Square Dance, the longest continuous community square dance in Kentucky. Set somewhat in-between Hazard and Whitesburg, the old school building that houses the center lies in a secluded area amid hills and trees in Letcher County. It features the best old-time musicians Kentucky has to offer as well as food and hospitality for attendees learning and performing traditional square dance.

People from the community of Carcassonne have danced at several Kentucky Folklife Festivals and were featured on the Mall in Washington, D.C. at the 2003 Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

Enjoy this film produced by local students Matthew Baily, T.J. Boggs, and Chasity Watts for Appalshop’s Appalachian Media Institute.

Castle of the Mountains: The Carcassonne Community Center

…and this original music video by Appalshop filmmaker Herb E. Smith, filmed at the Carcassonne Community Center.

Whoa Mule