The COVERSTORY for our March 2021 edition is a twofer: Watch the debut of an original WestVirginiaVille music video of "Be the Change" — and hear songwriters Ron Sowell and Jon Wikstrom talk about the roots of their song and their long songwriting comradeship.
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SOCIAL/MEDIA: ‘Wait. Doug Reynolds said what about what on Twitter?!?’
The word 'gobsmacked' should be used sparingly. It derives from the Irish/Scottish word for mouth — 'gob' — so might be transliterated as 'smacked in the mouth.' But in slang usage it means to be flabbergasted, astounded or made speechless. I am sure I wasn't the only West Virginian gobsmacked by a tweet posted by HD Media headman, Doug Reynolds
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SUPPORTERS/SPONSORS: WVPure: Organic, Extra-strength CBD Hemp Oil from the WV Hills
SUPPORTER/SPONSOR CONTENT: With the issue of WestVirginiaVille.com, we welcome Video Production Support by WVPure, extra-strength CBD hemp oil, organically grown deep in the West Virginia hills.
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Seeking ‘clarity,’ West Virginia lawmakers push to turn more employees into independent contractors
The effect of a bill moving through the WV Legislature would be "a dramatic increase" in people working as independent contractors, without unemployment coverage, workers compensation, and other protections, says a West Virginia employment lawyer.
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GUEST COLUMN: How to Draw People Back to Appalachia
What will it take to attract more people to settle in West Virginia and Appalachia. Why not ask someone who has already made the move with his wife and their three kids — he's an analyst, she's an employee counselor and in 2016 they moved to New Cumberland, WV from the Philadelphia suburbs
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PHOTOSHOW: A warehouse after the workers have gone
What is it about abandoned industrial spaces that make them so compelling to the inquiring eye? Maybe it's the forlorn, yet intriguing glimpse of past workaday lives — the lunches, the labors, the left-behind tools and flotsam of work — in a place now emptied of human activity.
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ARTSHOW: ‘How Do You Serve the Ice?’
How do you properly shoot, process, and filter photographs of an ice storm for the ages? How about artifying them? But how much is too much? Here are some humble attempts to portray the Great Winter Ice Storm of 2021.
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PARADIGM SHIFTING: Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s Life in the Trenches of Poetry
Lawrence Ferlinghetti's storied life came to a close this Monday, Feb. 22, 2021, at the remarkable age of 101. I was blessed to interview him in 1995. What this "ageless radical and true bard" had to say — not to mention his poetry — remains timely and pertinent.
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POEM: “Haymaking”
We cut, rake, and bale / till the sun goes down and the dew settles on the fields, / then start again next morning once the dew burns off ...
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MUSICVIDEO: “Winter Walking,” when it’s not such a wonderland
A long winter grips the land. Add in cabin-fever weariness from a year-long COVID quarantine—and you can be forgiven if it seems like we are living through "a winter that never dies." Here's a music video about that.
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CDC says Kanawha County WV HIV outbreak is the most concerning in America
A top U.S. government health official says the rise in HIV cases in Kanawha County WV linked to injection drug use is currently the “most concerning [outbreak] in the United States," rivaling all the cases in New York City in 2019.
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VIDEO: Other ways of looking at a Mail Pouch barn
Mail Pouch barn signs became such an iconic, familiar image, showcased in tens of thousands of similarly framed snapshots, postcards, and saturated photographs that they are almost impossible to see afresh. We give it a go in "Chew This Way."
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ONE WORK: “Misconceptions” and Angry Black Mothers
Lady D: "I decided on “Misconceptions” because that’s how most black women are viewed. It is a misconception that seems to have been perpetrated by a society that not only de-values us, but also fears our male children."
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EDITORIAL: An Open Letter to Shelley Moore Capito
Which will it be. Either: Shelley Moore Capito stood for a president willing to launch a vicious attack mob at the heart of the U.S. Capitol. Or: Shelley Moore Capito did the right thing in the final pinch and voted to impeach such a man.
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PHOTOPOEM: “When Hay Bales Speak to You”
Let’s talk hay bales. I have, perhaps like you, been spying hay bales most all my life. Yet, in all that time haven’t met a hay bale. Up close. The other day, I had my chance.
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VIDEO: “Chasing Birds in Snow”
Take a 2-minute excursion into the heart of the heart of Nature, as a bunch of birds play leapfrog in the midst of a West Virginia snow squall.
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VIDEO: “The Edge of Day”
Thoughts on high while at the edge of day. An original short video production featuring imagery and music by Bobby Lee Messer and words by Kim Wilkinson.
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BLACK HISTORY 1: ‘I was first-class in my own mind’
As part of our Black History Month coverage, here is the tale of Mountain State native Joe Turner, part of a pioneering officer class of Black West Virginians who served with distinction in Vietnam and beyond.
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BLACK HISTORY 2: ‘Rosa Parks’ feet did not hurt’
The actual story of the stalwart moment Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of an Alabama bus in 1955 was far more powerful than a supposed frail, tired old Black lady sitting where she shouldn't.
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BLACK HISTORY 3: Name Change
When the school board stripped the name of a Confederate general off a middle school in a predominantly Black community West Virginia's capital city in 2020, the name change revealed the long and troubled history of institutional racism in America.
