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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‘Day 34 of Russia’s Cowardly Invasion of Ukraine’
'The Ukrainian fighting force has bested the Russians in every category. All the big bear can do is cowardly lob cruise missiles from a distance that destroy towns and kill innocent citizens.'
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Buddhist daily life in backwoods West Virginia
A picture show and video of an unexpected place in the West Virginia woods. In the face of often overwhelming challenges of daily life, and horrors like the current attempted mugging of Ukraine, places that strengthen the spirit such as the Bhavana Society Buddhist forest monastery deep in West Virginia's hills are vital.
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Chris Haddox tells stories from the hills, plus unexpected ones, too
On the occasion of the March 2022 release of his CD of high songcraft from the Appalachian hills, here's the world-premiere music video of the Chris Haddox tune "A Soul Can't Rest in Peace Beside the Four Lane — and a chat with the artist about songwriting and life.
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Thich Nhat Hanh in the West Virginia Hills
The great Vietnamese Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh, who died this week, once led a retreat in the West Virginia hills in 1993. I was there with some friends, finding myself at one point serenading the beloved monk. Thirty year later, the retreat continues to resonate in the lives of those of us who went.
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10 Illuminated Thoughts About Life on Manchin Island
The stakes are high in WV senator Joe Manchin's Build Back Better gamesmanship. What happens now that he blew up negotiations — and now it looks like they're coming back together?
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EDITORS/NOTE: December2021
Here's what's up in the December 2021 issue, last one for awhile as we go on hiatus with this edition until March 1, 2022.
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Losing yourself in Lost River
Wandering the byways and backroads of the Lost River environs in eastern West Virginia, while trying to write a sorta memoir. An imagistic journey.
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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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Multifest still a beacon of the need for the Black press
Like many injustices Black newspapers fought head-on, solutions arose only when the Black press first drew attention to them. A look at the West Virginia Beacon Digest and the Charleston Sternwheel Regatta.
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Teach your children well — but not what to think
'Your children are not your property. They belong to the future. You cannot make them duplicates of your opinions, values and habits. And if you did, life would soon break them, teaching them that the ideas and understandings of the last generation do not serve the next.'
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What we are reading — or what is reading us
A survey of paragraphs, images, articles and links that pinged our radar and got us thinking.
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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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How West Virginia’s new vaccine law opens the door wider to politicizing public health
Beginning January 2022, it will be significantly easier for West Virginians to claim exemptions from employer COVID-19 vaccination mandates. That raises all sorts of red flags.
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Storytelling from campfires to computers
Here's a compendium of encouragements, links, quotes, and brain downloads from a lifetime of writing stories. To be continued ...
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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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CHARACTERS, PART 1: A music video about how I never slept with Allen Ginsberg
What do you get when you mix famous poet Allen Ginsberg, a bonfire deep in the West Virginia hills, an interview, and a recording studio. Well, 30 years later you get a music video.
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CHARACTERS, PART 2: Allen Ginsberg speaks up in West Virginia
In Part 2 of our Allen Ginsberg in West Virginia history, we reprint an interview with the poet who was featured at the 1983 WV Writers Inc., conference deep in the West Virginia hills.
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Q&A: “Where Sky Meets Eternity” documents an extraordinary artistic hand-off in the WV hills
The documentary "Where Sky Meets Eternity” profiles an ambitious, offbeat art project from deep in the West Virginia hills, as 12 artists bounced off each other's work in often surprising, unexpected ways.
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PICTURE/SHOW: The Hills & Dales of Al Peery’s West Virginia
When it comes to Autumn in the West Virginia outback, nothing could be finer than Al Peery framing the scene from his wanderings in the West Virginia wilderness.
