On the evening of Saturday, July 8, McArts, a McDowell County Fine Arts Organization, and The West Virginia Folklife Program, a project of the West Virginia Humanities Council, will present a concert with West Virginia activist songwriter and musician Elaine Purkey. The 7:00 p.m. event will be held at Ya’sou Greek Restaurant at 138 Main St. in Kimball and is free and open to the public.

Elaine Purkey is from Harts Creek in Lincoln County. She wrote songs for the 1989 Pittston Coal Strike and the Ravenswood Aluminum Lockout (1990-92). She has performed at concerts and festivals across the United States including the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. Her song “One Day More,” written for the Ravenswood Lockout, is featured on the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings compilation Classic Labor Songs. Purkey is portrayed in the 2014 film Moving Mountains, based on a book by Penny Loeb. A proud mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, Purkey teaches singing classes to children at the Big Ugly Community Center.

The West Virginia Folklife Program is a project of the West Virginia Humanities Council and is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Folk & Traditional Arts Program. West Virginia Folklife is dedicated to the documentation, preservation, presentation, and support of West Virginia’s vibrant cultural heritage and living traditions.

For more information on the concert and West Virginia Folklife Program, visit http://wvhumanities.org/programs/west-virginia-folklife-program/ and wvfolklife.org or contact Emily Hilliard at hilliard@wvhumanities.org or (304)346-8500.