"There is the constant question asked every time our brown-skinned family attends a gathering of White West Virginians. "Have you been saved?" Neema Avashia looks back on growing up "a motley crew, this band of Hindus, gathering once a month to pray in southern West Virginia in the mid 1980s."
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5 QUESTIONS: West Virginia native tracks a journey into “Giving Up Whiteness”
West Virginia native Jeff James has written a book with one of 2020's most provocative titles: "GIVING UP WHITENESS." Elizabeth Gaucher takes a deep dive into the genesis and themes of the book in "5 Questions" with the author.
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EDITORIAL | “Pills & Suits,” a Justice Project Video
In an illustrated excerpt from Pulitzer-winner Eric Eyre's "DEATH IN MUD LICK," he describes WV Attorney General's Patrick Morrisey's entanglement with one of the huge pharmaceutical companies that helped spawn the opioid crisis, and the devastation that continues to affect families.
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EDITORIAL | A Shelley Moore Capito Reader
We present for your reading and viewing interest a selection of three items pertinent to the candidacy and further office-holding of the Republican senator from West Virginia, Shelley Moore Capito.
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POEM | “The Greats” by PJ Laska
‘The Great Tower/ The Great Wall/ The Great Power/ Conquering All/ The Great Look/ The Great Weave/ The Great Assets/ Of Make-Believe … ‘ | A Poem by PJ Laska
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EDITORIAL: The Art of the Trumpian Limerick
As Donald Trump's first term limps towards its end, we drop in on a Trumpian chronicler. West Virginia poet and writer Colleen Anderson has been chronicling Trump's misrule for four years now—in limericks.
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EDITORIAL: “The West Virginia Hills” and the Race for WV Attorney General
On the one hand in this year's election contests in West Virginia, you've got state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and his Trump-Adoring, Big Pharma connections, and Affordable Care Act Torpedoing Ways. On the other hand, there's labor lawyer Sam Brown Petsonk. Here's are two minutes about that.
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CHARACTERS | The “Spark-eyed” Vision of WV Poet Bob Snyder
Influential West Virginia-native poet Bob Snyder died in 1995. But a new collection of his poetry exemplifies why, says a fellow poet: "Every West Virginia writer should know Bob. At least know about him. You may not ever get the whole story, but this book will help you understand some of it."
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EDITORIAL: “The Silent Senator Capito,” A Justice Project Video
Waiting on WV Senator Shelley Moore Capito to do the right thing—not just mouth the right thing—you might notice your hair turn another color and not from hair dye. So, WestVirginiaVille points its second Justice Project editorial video her way.
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COVID CHRONICLES | One in Eight Million
We begin our new occasional series 'Covid Chronicles' with a personal report from WestVirginiaVille's Minister of Paragraphs, Connie Kinsey, who was just recently diagnosed with a—we pray it stays that way—mild case of Covd-19.
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EDITORIAL | John Mandt Jr., Uncensored
In the debut of our multimedia editorial feature, The Justice Project, we take a musical walk-through of the chatroom comments that led WV delegate John Mandt Jr., to resign. He has since said he'd serve if elected on Nov. 3.
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Some formerly incarcerated West Virginians can’t vote. Others can, but may not know it.
The hue and cry has gone out—get out there and vote! But in West Virginia, advocates say education about voting rights for people with prison time or records, as well as after they get out, is often unclear—and that changes are needed to keep former inmates from being disenfranchised.
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MINI-DOC | “What’s In a Name?” The Deeper Story Behind a WV Confederate Legacy
The removal of a Confederate general's name from the former Stonewall Jackson Middle School in West Virginia's capital city this Summer was more than just a cosmetic change. In 2020, America confronted the wounds that have haunted the country’s existence. The renaming of the school laid bare that history.
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Frontier’s history of scandals killed a proposal for crucial funding for West Virginia broadband
If you live in West Virginia, you live with constant laments about the state’s lousy broadband and how it hinders investment, rural development and population growth. Here’s a good Mountain State Spotlight explainer as to why that is so.
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READINGS | “One Cup At a Time: A National Coffee Day Memoir”
Coffee has punctuated my life as exclamation points, commas, periods, and missed periods. Coffee has born witness to the great events and the tiny ones, the happy and the sad. The momentous and the mundane.
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As opioid trial looms in West Virginia, the firms being sued get huge COVID-19 contracts from the Trump administration
The "Big Three" prescription drug firms responsible for fueling the devastating toll of West Virginia's opioid crisis are earning praise and contracts from the Trump adminstration as a key trial holding them to task approaches Oct. 19
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How to Create Your Own West Virginia Woodland Paradise
Even if you’re a “Townie” on a small city lot and don’t have acres to play with, you can still create an “island” of forest to enjoy. All you need is a little shade or dappled sunlight.
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“LAY THAT BURDEN DOWN”: A Musical Homage to John Lewis, Sung by Lady D
Check out the world premiere of the music video of the Ron Sowell/Jon Wikstrom song "Lay Down That Burden," sung by Lady D and inspired by the life, courage, and heart of John Lewis, whose example is ever more needed now in America.
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VIDEO/POEM: A Brief Visit to “Magic Mountain” in West Virginia
What happened one night on Folklife Mountain in the West Virginia heartland. Some called it Magic Mountain.
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WV governor ‘tweaked’ a Harvard COVID map. Their experts say the state’s changes are flawed.
The adminstration of WV Gov. Jim Justice has relied on outdated COVID-19 data for determing each county’s risk level and altered the methodology for determining the total number of cases. A Mountain State Spotlight reprinted investigation.
