"The Wake Up Call," a documentary about the remarkable and heroic international life of West Virginia native Dave Evans, will be screened Thursday, June 23, 2022, in West Virginia's capital city as part of the citywide FestivALL Charleston 2022.
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Many Fights, One Big Fight
A new history of Local 1199 chronicles the history of a small, respected union that represents the overlooked and previously unrepresented workers of Local 1199. The book conveys the human longing for fairness within an often heartless industry.
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‘A Tragedy Full of Joy’
West Virginia-born NBA legend Jerry West’s life shows the painful complexity of America’s myths. A man can come from the holler, with little money and a dad who beat him, and end up in Los Angeles, hooping for the Lakers and partying with Jack Nichols.
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The sink as a refuge of sanctuary & solidarity
'I am at one with a long line of the faithful, monks of Ireland, or Tibet, or France, silently preparing or cleaning up from the day’s meals, mindfully caring for community, or in readiness to offer hospitality.
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‘Desperate’ highlights fight for clean water in West Virginia coalfields
The fight for clean water is central to "Desperate," which tells the story of coal mining communities in southern West Virginia battling Massey Energy and Don Blankenship, for clean water.
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EDITORS/NOTE: Allen Ginsberg & Bonfires | The Sky & Eternity | Manchin & Byrd and more
If this November 2021 issue were a bag of Tootsie Pops, we’d have all the different flavors, including that rare blue-raspberry-flavored purple one. Dive deep into this month’s magazine and you’ll find lots of flavors.
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POEM: “A Year of Few Apples” by Kirk Judd
'Pantry shelves and freezer bins/ Scavenged for this season’s solitary pies/ Settled atop cooling racks/ On cinnamon evenings/ In oven-warmed kitchens.'
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EDITORS/NOTE: It’s a Character Thing
Charly Jupiter Hamilton speaks for himself in a three-part farewell to the beloved West Virginia artist that involves hippos and painted coffins. Plus, Michael and Carrie Nobel Kline on the tricky art of listening. And two famous character studies, imprisoned separately by booze and prison bars.
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THE/ARTS: A public art boss on Charly Jupiter Hamilton’s bravura mural, an ArtBus & his artful coffin
The wonder of the 'Wonder Mural' in Charleston WV, the art and significance of public art according to West Virginia's capital city Public Arts director, and sending an artist off in artistic style.
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When Socialist presidential candidate Eugene Debs was sent to Moundsville Prison for making a speech
The story of how Socialist firebrand Eugene Debs once landed in the state penitentiary in Moundsville WV illustrates "how easy it is for Americans to vilify their own citizens and, when seized by fear or fashion, step on each other’s rights," says John W. Miller in this reprint from the Moundsville Blog.
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HERO OF THE OPEN HEART: The Long, Strange Trip of Dave Evans’ Notable Life
He was a West Virginia coal miner’s son who lost his legs below the knees in a deadly ambush in Vietnam at age 18. What happened next sounds like a movie script. Dave Evans went on to work across the planet, building and fitting prosthetic legs, hands, and arm for thousands of adults and children in conflict zones worldwide. A look back at a remarkable life.
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POETICS: The Art of Being West Virginia’s Poet Laureate
We sit down — digitally — with longtime West Virginia poet laureate Marc Harshman and quiz him about his "Dispatch From the Mountain State" in the NYTimes and the obligation of a poetry to be the sort of "political being" described by W.H. Auden.
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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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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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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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THE FEMALE GAZE: How a West Virginia Artist Captured 100 Badass Women
Overwhelmed by the headlines, by Donald Trump, a pandemic and winter coming, West Virginia artist Sassa Wilkes couldn't get herself to her easel. Then, RBG died and Sassa found she wished to get to know the legal legend by painting her portrait. She kept on going with 99 more portraits of badass women.
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BOOK REVIEW: The True Story of West Virginia’s (Bourgeois) Revolution and Birth
The birth of West Virginia was more complex than the usual telling that it was born as a result of the Civil War. Industrial and labor forces were in play well before the war that would lead to a breakaway state carved out of western Virginia—with key support from Abe Lincoln, write the authors of the new book "Seceding from Secession."
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ESSAYS: The Rise and Fall of an American Con Man
A look back at a false prophet who was in fact a manipulative, sadistic, misogynistic, cunning con man who many people adored. We mean, of course, Robert Mitchum in "Night of the Hunter," shot in Moundsville WV. A timely essay.
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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.
