'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.
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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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POEM: “Almost” by Marc Harshman
'The world will go on without me but for these few moments I am/ sitting on top of the world, a simple summer's day, away/ from the busy rush of roads, the scrolling of screens,/ almost off the map, almost heaven, almost where/ sky meets eternity ...'
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DOGGEREL: The Ballad of Bobby and Joe
Yes, we are not too proud to resort to doggerel to compare the legacies of West Virginia senators Robert C. Byrd and current Sen. Joe Manchin. The legacy match-up is not looking good for Joe, right now.
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SPOKEN/WORD: “The Cold Visitor” by Bobby Lee Messer
The autumn leaves brighten the rolling hills with a kaleidoscope of colors. Yet in the wings of all such beauty awaits The Cold Visitor. Watching. Waiting. Always present. | A Spoken Word multimedia performance of an original work by Bobby Lee Messer.
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CARTOON: A funny thing happened to Joe Manchin on his way to Heaven …
Here's what happened when West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin showed up at the Pearly Gates of Heaven, briefcase in hand ...
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CLIMATE/CRISIS: Taking the measure of climate change in three short videos
In three short videos, take the measure of climate change. The climate crisis deepens every day, yet more and more people planet-wide awaken daily to the reality of what must be done to turn down the fever threatening the planet.
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MEMOIR: ‘Memory of a Waitress’
One night in West Texas, taking refuge from a motorcycle ride through buckets of rain, fleeing a broken heart, an empty diner ahead. A beaten-down waitress finally appears ...
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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: Charly Jupiter Hamilton, in his own words
Charly Jupiter Hamilton reviews himself: "A lot of my feelings about my art — it's Catholic. You know? It has sin. Redemption. It has lust. It has love. It has hell. It has heaven in it. And I think that appeals to people ..."
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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.
