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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ORIGINALS |Sassa Wilkes’ “100 Days of Badass Women”
The recent passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg inspired West Virginia artist Sassa Wilkes to paint a portrait of one badass woman. Wilkes didn't stop there. Here's a preview of 99 more to come.
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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 exampe 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.
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8 DAYS AFTER 9-11: At a Buddhist Retreat in the West Virginia Hills
"First, I'd like to answer this question. What should we do? We should send some kind of force and capture these people. And put them in jail for life — never release them! That is a very compassionate act! Compassionate toward all other beings and for themselves.” He pauses.“That is not an unkind thing to do."
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VIDEO: “Say Their Names”
There are a lot of names of black people, killed by police officers on this list. Below are all the names on the list. Some famous, a few historic. All of them individuals who were loved, who had dreams. Who, like you and I—had issues and challenges, joys and loves. Trying to figure out life, in all its messiness and pain.
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ORIGINALS | “THE BALLAD of KYLE T. MaGATT: About a Deplorable Fellow in a Little Red Hat”
"My emotional core for the entire cartoon is that no matter how frustrated, angry, and exhausted I am by the Kyle MaGatts (and Karens) of this country, I don't want them to die. Especially not because of a preventable virus. Not alone. For nothing."
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ILLUSTRATIONS | The Wonderful Friend
"When I finally got to art school, a professor asked me why I ever became an artist in the first place. I told him the truth ..."
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CHARACTERS: A Portrait of the Artist in Her Garden
Sassa Wilkes paints every day. Now, she is painting in a different fashion, using the Earth as a palette. A portrait of a West Virginia artist growing things in a big way for the first time, thanks to Covid-19.
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READINGS | “Nous Celeron”
'Don’t you, Nous Céleron, wish to lay down your arms? Enter the Ohio’s cool darkness, or the Chinodahichetha! Sounding out each syllable as a Wyandotte might utter them ...
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GUEST POST: The Not-So-Natural Gas Boom
Natural gas and the fracking boom have changed the landscape, politics and economics of West Virginia. Sean O'Leary of the Ohio River Valley Institute addresses the claims of "a veritable rock star proponent of 'the natural gas economy.' And finds all nine of his "irrefutable energy truths,” in fact, quite refutable.
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READINGS | Two by Kiley Lee
Twitter can be a whirlwind of woe. It can also be a place of discovery, of encountering creatives working in West Virginia whose work is worth checking out and lifting up. Here are two poems and two photographs by Kiley Lee, of Paden City WV.
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READINGS |’The Question That Stripped My Daddy of His Manhood’
"I felt his shame and embarrassment. It was not my intent to shame or embarrass my daddy. But he heard the anger and reprimand in my voice. You know. Don’t-let-anyone-take-advantage-of-you kind of reprimand ..."
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A WestVirginiaVille.com Reader | aug3.2020
If you have not yet subscribed to WestVirginiaVille's free e-mail newsletter, please do so at this link: westvirginiaville.substack.com. Here is our most recent newsletter of aug3.2020.
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5 THINGS | 1 Root Beer; 1 Comet; 1 Peach Porn; 1 Kitty; 1 Nixon
In a new installment of '5 Things,' we eyeball the return of revolving root beer; the New River Gorge Bridge posing with a comet; some fresh produce peach porn; a kombucha-kitty watercolor; and where you can find Richard Nixon in West Virginia.
