Here's a new dispatch from our "Play That Funky Music Bureau"—a touching memoir of the ties between a young West Virginia-born writer and her Dad woven by the music of David Bowie—who have been 74 on January 8.
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COVID FAMILY PROJECT 1: Remain Vigilant, Plus a Recovery Tale
We launch WestVirginiaVille's year-long COVID Family Project 2021, featuring articles, videos, and audio stories from the pandemic frontlines—stories of family loss and recovery, plus people working hard to stop the rising tide of infections and death.
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BREAKING: We Interrupt this Insurrection for David Bowie News
WestVirginiaVille marks David Bowie's 74th birthday today with news from our "Play That Funky Music" News Department. Wait—what does Bowie have to do with West Virginia?! Read and watch on.
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ARCHIVES: Revisiting West Virginia’s Connection to “Gilligan’s Island”
The death from COVID of the actress who played Mary Ann on "Gilligan's Island" is another sad pandemic casualty. Her passing is an occasion to recall the connection West Virginia has to the iconic television show from the 1960s.
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VIDEO: 9 Ways of Looking at ‘Hallelujah”
We dip into the archives of West Virginia cultural multimedia with a 2010 video appreciation of Albert Paley's striking 198,000 monumental sculpture, "Hallelujah," in Charleston WV. Get up close-and personal with a great work of art.
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VIDEO: The debut of “Animals in Appalachia” with “Deer Me”
In the start of a new short video series, "Animals in Appalachia" by WestVirginiaVille.com, a mother deer puts her foot down as she momentarily loses track of her two fawns.
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VIDEO: The Artist’s Work Considered As a Moving Picture Show
Sharon Lyn Stackpole's art considered as a video: "I always had a female character in my drawings either in illustration form or comic and I'd have her acting out whatever I was also living in my drawings. For some reason, this was reassuring and helped me to feel less alone."
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What happened when WV Gov. Jim Justice charged ‘broadband’ expenses to the CARES Act
What happened when Gov. Jim Justice promised this Fall to expand broadband and hook more families, schools, and industries to the Internet in rural West Virginia, using COVID relief funding? Not much, reports Mountain State Spotlight.
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CHARACTERS: The West Virginia brain drain made one of the world’s greatest popstars
In a new edition of our 'Characters' series, we reprint a John W. Miller piece on Lady Gaga's West Virginia roots—and how her Northern Panhandle grandma lifted her up at a low moment, sending her packing back to New York with instructions to "kick some ass."
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PHOTO|ESSAY: 10 ways of coping with a dreary West Virginia winter’s day
On a winter day of all-day rain and bone-chilling cold, I give up trying to Figure It All Out. Instead, I sift through my photos, crop and lightly filter them. Maybe I can find order and meaning there. Or an aesthetic distraction, which may be just as good.
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5 QUESTIONS: John W. Miller on taking a deep dive into a small West Virginia town
Once a thriving West Virginia town whose region produced everything from cigars to classic toys like Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, Moundsville—population 8,400 souls—looks to figure out where it goes from here. The new 2020 documentary "Moundsville" considers the town's past and present—and its future possibilities.
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BOOKS: A Hybrid Press for West Virginia and Beyond
A new publishing outlet and writing resource has opened in West Virginia. The brainchild of writer and educator Andréa Fekete, Guest Room Press is a hybrid press—a breed that lies somewhere between the worlds of traditional publishing and self-publication.
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West Virginia’s minor league baseball teams suffer major league disappointment
West Virginia has a rich baseball past, with affiliated pro teams going back over a century, but Major League Baseball just cut its ties to the state's four minor league teams.
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With deadline looming, critics question WV governor’s CARES Act priorities, unspent funds
Mountain State Spotlight takes a deep dive into WV Gov. Jim Justice's confounding inaction in allotting $1.25 million in CARES Act Covid relief funding to businesses and families in need in West Virginia, as a deadline looms for disbursing the funds.
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5 QUESTIONS: Kyle Vass on street-level addiction reporting & telling audio stories
Multimedia journalist Kyle Vass on hitting the streets of Charleston WV to report on the addiction crisis and the art of audio storytelling.
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AUDIO: When Clean Needles Disappeared, People Turned To Used Ones
The City of Charleston WV's attempts to quash the distribution of clean needles to users on the streets—which has constrained efforts undertaken by a group called SOAR—has had the consequence of increasing the dangers and hazards of addiction, reports WVPB.
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EDITORIAL: Shelley Moore Capito Remains Missing-In-Action
It is Dec. 4—28 days after the 2020 U.S. presidential election was called for Biden/Harris. Yet WV Sen. Shelley Moore Capito has yet to formally recognize Biden as President-Elect or repudiated Donald Trump's dangerous lies about election fraud lies.
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ATTENTION, TEACHERS: And students at home—A chance to learn more about racism
Our documentary, “WHAT’S IN A NAME: A West Virginia Community Confronts a Confederate Legacy,” will screen 7 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 13, 2020 on WVPB. The documentary and resources we've gathered lay the groundwork for a better understanding and even more thoughtful discussion of the history of racism in America, and how institutional racism continues to affect our daily life.
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PHOTO-ESSAY: Five WV Variations on the Art of Thankfulness
From horses on porches to possible sightings of Jerry Garcia in a rural marsh, here are five images from around West Virginia that spark our thankfulness. Happy Thanksgiving.
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‘Hillsploitation’: Things to know before you watch “Hillbilly Elegy”
A consideration of the long history of "hillbillies' in West Virginian and American culture on the occasion of a movie based on "Hillbilly Elegy," whose author can at best claim status as "a hillbilly twice-removed."
