Appalachian Homecoming

Appalachian Homecoming

Appalachia
History
Social Life and Customs
Folkways
Activism

Appalachian Homecoming was conceived as a series of programs all taking place at the Washington County (Va.) Public Library highlighting positive aspects of Appalachian life and culture. While planning the program we talked to people like Randy Sanders, Managing Editor, Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine and Public Relations officer at the Center for Appalachian Services and Studies at East Tennessee State University, and Steve Fisher, Political Science Professor at Emory and Henry College and founder of the Appalachian Center for Community Service at E&H. Steve is also a long-time associate of the Highlander Center in New Market, TN.

Participants included Helen Matthews Lewis, noted author and activist, who was on the staff at Highlander in the 70's; Monica Appleby, co-author with Helen M. Lewis of Mountain Sisters*; Amy Clark, professor of English and co-director of the Center for Appalachian Studies at the University of Virginia's College at Wise*; Fred Sauceman, Associate Professor of Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State University, and author of numerous books describing Appalachian foodways (Fred's wife Jill contributed a fabulous stack cake to the program)*; and Wendy Welch, story-teller, author, and cat-rescuer, with a PhD in Ethnography*.
*see Contributors below

The Library filmed at least one program, a panel discussion featuring Helen M. Lewis, Steve Fisher, Dr. Patricia Beaver (Prof. Emeritus at Appalachian State University, whose research focused on cultural and ethnic diversity in Appalachia), and Monica Appleby.
A link to the program can be found below (Identifier).

William Stein
David Radford

Washington County Public Library

Washington County Public Library
Premier Productions

June 17, 2012

UNC Press
Milliarium Zero Cinematheque
Washington County Public Library

Mountain Feminist: Helen Matthews Lewis, Appalachian Studies, and the Long Women's Movement Southern Cultures, a publication of the American Center for the Study of the South, University of North Carolina, UNC Press
Southern Cultures 17:3, The Memory Issue

You Got to Move: Stories of Change in the South, a film by Lucy Massie Phenix
The Highlander Research and Education Center, established in 1932 as the Highlander Folk School, serves to encourage those who struggle for justice by teaching them to become leaders of social movements. It educated some of the most monumental leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, leaders of change for labor laws, and citizens who fought to protect their communities against environmental destruction. Though outlawed in 1961 by the Tennessee Supreme Court for being accused of Communist behavior, the school reopened in Knoxville, Tennessee under the name it carries today. Today, the group continues to educate, inspire, and encourage community leaders in current fights for justice.
The Milliarium Zero Cinematheque

Appalachian Journal Honors Steve Fisher, "A Special Issue on Appalachian Activism" Volume-34-no-3-4

What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia
by Elizabeth Catte, 2018

Left Behind, Nancy Isenberg
N.Y.Times Review of Books, 6/28/2018
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/06/28/left-behind-hillbilly-elegy-appalachia/

Hillbilly Elitism, by Bob Hutton. "The American hillbilly isn't suffering from a deficient culture. He's just poor.
Jacobin Magazine, 10/1/2016
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/10/hillbilly-elegy-review-jd-vance-national-review-white-working-class-appalachia/

Multi-Media

Event
Moving Image
Oral History