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STATEMENT ON COVID-19 FROM THE WEST VIRGINIA HUMANITIES COUNCIL

Month: January 2019

West Virginia Folklife 2018 Activities Report

What has the West Virginia Folklife Program done lately? Learn about our 2018 fieldwork, programs, and activities.

2018 Master Artist & Apprentice Feature: Doug Van Gundy & Annie Stroud, Old-Time Fiddling of the Greenbrier Valley

Doug Van Gundy, of Elkins led an appenticeship in old-time fiddle of the Greenbrier Valley with Annie Stroud, of Charleston.

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Please see our last post for the West Virginia Humanities Council’s official statement on #COVID19. We hope you and yours are staying safe. In the midst of it all, we'd love to collect & share West Virginians’ songs, videos, memes, stories, writing, craft, art, and other forms of creative expression related to your experiences during this public health crisis. You can share them (with proper crediting info) by DMing us, leaving a voicemail on our toll free #WVFolklifeHotline 1(844)618-3747, or by emailing hilliard@wvhumanities.org. Thank you! Please share widely, take good care, and as Mothman says, wash your hands! Thank you to @city_lore for the inspiration. #wv #wvfolklife #westvirginia

Via @wvhumanities: A STATEMENT ON COVID-19 FROM THE WEST VIRGINIA HUMANITIES COUNCIL The West Virginia Humanities Council, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, considers public health and safety top priorities for its staff, board, program partners and participants, and grantees, as well as all humanity. As we continue to monitor updates regarding COVID-19’s health and infrastructural impact in West Virginia, the Council is following both federal and state guidance in our attempt to help minimize exposure to and spread of the virus. This situation, like all public health crises, will have an endpoint. In the meantime, we at the Council are determined to do our part for the public good. Council offices are open as of today, Monday March 16, and will remain so until further notice. At this time we anticipate no interruption in regular office operations. We do ask patience in communications response time, as some staff may be working remotely. For now, we ask Council partners and grantees who are hosting scheduled public events in their venues throughout March and April to monitor the situation in their home communities, and to follow the public health recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources as they determine whether scheduled events should be postponed or cancelled. Wherever possible, we encourage our partners and grantees to postpone scheduled events, rather than cancelling. We ask our partners and grantees to communicate information regarding any event postponements or cancellations to the public directly, as well as to the Council. We encourage members of the public to direct any inquiries regarding the status of Council-supported event programming in their home communities to the sponsoring organization directly, or to the event venue as a secondary option.

The West Virginia Humanities Council is seeking proposals from nonprofit organizations for its upcoming April 1 minigrant deadline. @wvhumanities minigrants support projects that request $1,500 or less, including small projects, single events, lectures, small museum exhibits, brochures, consultation needs, and planning for more complex projects. The Humanities Council offers minigrants 4 times per year to support educational programming in the humanities. For more information about the #WestVirginia Humanities Council grants program contact grants administrator Erin Riebe at (304) 346-8500 or via email at riebe@wvhumanities.org. Grant guidelines and applications are available on the Humanities Council website, www.wvhumanities.org. The West Virginia Humanities Council, an independent nonpartisan nonprofit, is the state affiliate of @nehgov.

Blues musician Nathaniel H. ‘‘Nat’’ Reese (March 4, 1924-June 8, 2012) was born in Salem, VA. When he was 4, Reese’s family moved to Itmann in Wyoming County and then to Princeton where Reese heard a rich musical mix from big-name jazz musicians, local black musicians, and performers on such radio broadcasts as the Grand Ole Opry. He learned to play instruments, including guitar, piano, organ, bass, and string harp. Reese worked in the coal mines after classes at Genoa High School and played jazz and blues on Bill Farmer’s Saturday night show on radio station WHIS Bluefield. After attending Bluefield State College for 2 years, he left to serve in the U.S. Army during World War II. During and after his college years, he was part of a dance band that played jazz, polkas, and blues throughout the southern coalfields. In the early 1950s, Reese moved to Michigan and worked in construction, returning to Princeton, WV in 1959 to work for the State Road Commission. Reese played and taught at @augustaheritage at @davisandelkins, and performed regularly. His recordings included ‘‘Just a Dream’’ and ‘‘West Virginia Blues by the West Virginia Blues Man.’’ Among his honors were the 1988 John Henry Award and the 1995 Vandalia Award. He was inducted into the @wvmusichalloffame in 2009. #wvfolklife #wv #westvirginia

We are very excited to announce our 2020-2021 class of master artist and apprentice pairs in the West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program! In this 2nd year of the Program, 7 apprentice pairs from across the Mountain State will study traditions including old-time banjo of central West Virginia, seedsaving, and midwifery. The Program is supported in part by @neaarts. The 2020-2021 West Virginia Folklife master artists & apprentices: Ed Daniels & Clara Haizlett, agroforestry/forest farming Kathy Evans & Margaret Bruning, “Sheep to Shawl: The Art of Raising Sheep and Creating Fiber Arts” Joe Herrman & Dakota Karper, old-time fiddle Leenie Hobbie & Jon Falcone, traditional Appalachian herbalism Kim Johnson & Cody Jordan, old-time banjo of Central West Virginia Angelita Nixon & Christine Weirick, home birth midwifery Mehmet Oztan & Lafayette Dexter, seedsaving and related storytelling Learn more about the 2020-2021 Folklife Apprenticeship class on our blog wvfolklife.org. 📷: Ed & Carole Daniels of Shady Grove Farm in Randolph County, old-time banjo player Kim Johnson of Dunbar #wvfolklife #westvirginia #wv #wvfolklifeapprenticeships

Join @wvupress for a book launch & panel discussion featuring author Rosemary Hathaway (WVU English Department) in conversation with Emily Hilliard (state folklorist and founding director of the West Virginia Folklife Program) and Travis Stimeling (WVU School of Music). TODAY at 4PM at the WVU College of Law in Morgantown. Sponsored by WVU Press, the Appalachian Justice Initiative, and the WVU Humanities Center.

West Virginians Clara Haizlett and @rosaliehaizlett created this beautiful video (one of three) as part of their virtual internship with @smithsonianfolklife, for which they spent the last year researching the history, culture, ecology & economy of American ginseng. The research project will become part of the American Ginseng: Local Knowledge, Global Roots program at the 2020 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Informed by archival research and interviews, they produced a creative multimedia storytelling series to demonstrate the cultural and environmental relevance of the root which grows across the Ozarks and the Appalachian region. Watch the full video and find more of their work on the Smithsonian Folklife blog at https://festival.si.edu/blog/ginseng-manroot-shaped-mankind

Our latest Legends & Lore roadside marker, recognizing African American jazz singer Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia “Bricktop” Smith (August 14, 1894-January 31, 1984), was dedicated this weekend in her hometown of Alderson, WV. The Legends & Lore Roadside Marker Program is a partnership with the William G. Pomeroy Foundation and the West Virginia Folklife Program at @wvhumanities. Alderson is also home to a Legends & Lore roadside marker commemorating "French" the Alderson Lion. Read about "Bricktop" in the West Virginia Encyclopedia: https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/461 and learn more about our Legends & Lore Roadside Marker Program on our website wvfolklife.org.

"Well, we do nutrition programs in the classrooms and gardening in the classrooms, windowsill gardens, which we take out through our outside community—well, school-based—garden, where the kids plant and grow vegetables. My name is Dural Miller. We’re on the West Side of Charleston. I’m a member of Keep Your Faith Corporation, which is a community outreach group as well as a literacy organization. I’m from here, so a lot of these kids, I know their parents, so it’s funny when I can be like, “Oh, you’re showing off. I know your daddy.” And they laugh, like, “No, you don’t! What’s his name?” And when I say their name, they’ll be like, “Uhhh…” So, that’s fun and dealing with kids and gardening because, you know, when they get home with the vegetables, they have table talk. They have something to talk about, they’ll be so excited and then I’ll see a parent in the store and they’ll be like, “Well, now we’re buying vegetables when we come to store. Thank you.” And it be like a laugh but it’s beautiful because now just introducing fresh fruits and vegetables gives them a topic to talk about at the table instead of them being on them phones, you know? It's been a blessing to be allowed to come in this school and to be able to share my story with kids and them talk to me about some of their issues, and then get with their parents. We’ve got a basic needs program where we help with identification, social security cards, filling out job applications, housing papers, and this year, we just started a work-force development program. For me, being here is… I think it’s where I’m supposed to be right now, you know? Like, my work has really just started." -Dural Miller of Keep Your Faith Corporation at Mary C Snow Westside Elementary As heard in Out of the Blocks Podcast: Charleston West Side, Part 2: We May See a Harvest. Listen via the link 🔝 and join us at our @outoftheblocks1 : Charleston West Side Podcast Listening Party TOMORROW February 12. More info at wvfolklife.org 📷 by Wendel Patrick

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A STATEMENT ON COVID-19 FROM THE WEST VIRGINIA HUMANITIES COUNCIL

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