Why WestVirginiaVille is holding up its small megaphone with a big message: West Virginia is in sore need of systemic change. And Stephen Smith and his campaign are the only ones who seems to have thought deeply about how to get that ball rolling.
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DON WEST | Part 2: “May It Be So”
Long before it became fashionable, Don West fought the passive hillbilly stereotype by pointing to mountain labor’s traditions of struggle and solidarity.
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DON WEST | Part 1: Not An Easy Path
Don West was not a warm and fuzzy person or "a creator of comfort. He was a ceator of action." It could be uncomfortable, but the labor activist and poet left a legacy to be explored in a WVPB documentary that debuts Sunday, June 7, 2020
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HAPPY MOONSHINE DAY |Part 2: “The Plum”
We call it The Plum. It’s the prettiest moonshine we make. The shine is made from my PawPaw’s PawPaw’s recipe in a copper still just like it was a hundred years ago. In each jar, we put 13 sweet plums from the trees my great-aunt planted after the ’37 flood...
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HAPPY MOONSHINE DAY | Part 1: Moonshine Lore
It's National Moonshine Day. No, really. We have a 2-part, full report: 'Fun Facts to Know & Share.' And plum moonshine fiction.
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The Glickster’s Pix:
A Sea of GoldAs WestVirginiaVille grows its roster of things we cover as a Mountain State feature magazine, we also need to cover growing things. Enter our new occasional column: '"Glickster's Pix."
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VIDEO: ‘They Know Who the Thugs Are”
Within the police department itself, there are some thugs and gangsters, says Rev. Matthew Watts. "And the police have to police themselves. They know who the thugs are! They know who the gangsters are!"
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VIDEO: A Saturday of Protests in Huntington WV
What it's like to be a black man in Trump's America. Why communal effort is needed. How racism is woven into "the American quilt." PART 2 of our coverage of a Huntington WV rally protesting the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers.
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WATCH THIS: What Needs To Be Said About George Floyd’s Murder
We were looking for a quote at a Huntington, West Virginia rally in protest of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis policemen. We got far more than a quote.
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EDITOR’S NOTEPAD may31.2020: Introductions
Westvirginiaville is intended to fill a chasm in the current denuded state of West Virginia media. THE AIM OF WESTVIRGINIAVILLE is to feature work on "life & other stuff" with some connection to the state.
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READINGS | COVID-19, Day 77: Yes, I’m Waiting.
"We are front porch people, but I have to make do with a flat section of mulch and an oversized Adirondack chair the ex-husband made me when he was still a husband."
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The West Virginia Musician Who Helped Draw Bob Dylan to Nashville
West Virginia may not immediately come to mind when you think of Bob Dylan's influential 1965 record "Highway 61 Revisited," which one writer says that in an important sense "started" the 1960s. Think again.
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5 QUESTIONS: Colleen Anderson on the Art of the Op-Ed Limerick
Colleen Anderson is a leading light in the Op-Ed Limerick Movement of the Trump Era. We're actually unsure whether anyone else writes Molotov limericks in response to the daily depredations of Trump and his minions and toadies. We had '5 Questions' for her.
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A video visit to Covid-19 testing in an African-American community
We need far more testing to size up Covid-19, and also why it disproportionally affects low-income and minority communities. Here's a video drop-in on a recent drive-up testing site in Huntington WV.
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PRESS RELEASE: Our ‘Office of Paragraphs’ Ministers Up
Connie Kinsey of Ona, W.Va., will be joining the WestVirginiaVille Office of Paragraphs. She will offer advice and consultation on the best paragraphs of non-fiction and fiction prose to include on the site.
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Where in the World is WestVirginiaVille?
WESTVIRGINIAVILLE is a selective & opinionated 'many/media' guide to some of the best writing, photography, video, and news on the life and times of West Virginia. We create our own multimedia features and also curate from other sources and take suggestions, too. (We’re highly suggestible.)
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Bringing Covid-19 Testing Home to a Huntington WV Community
As America passes the shocking number of 100,000 people dead from Covid-19, free testing has been rolled out across West Virginia. Part of the aim last week was to get the measure of the impact of the virus on African-American communities in the state.
