The anniversary issue of Black By God – WV Pride: From Juneteenth to Father’s Day and West Virginia Day is now available! This latest issue features a photo of the Mollett Family taken on Memorial Day 2022. Multiple generations of the family gathered to clean and decorate gravesites, tell stories, and honor their ancestors and…
Category: Field Notes
Field Notes: An Interview with the Mothman Museum & Festival’s Ashley Wamsley Morrison
Ashley Wamsley Morrison’s father Jeff Wamsley founded the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant and Ashley manages the museum’s marketing and is one of the organizers of the Mothman Festival. In this interview she speaks about the legend of Mothman, and how the narrative and town’s promotion of the creature has evolved in Point Pleasant.
Field Notes: An Interview with Rev. Ronald English
Rev. Ronald English of Charleston, West Virginia was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1944. He grew up in the community surrounding the Ebenezer Baptist Church of Atlanta and his family was close with the family of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. English is a graduate of Morehouse College and served as ministerial assistant to Drs. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sr. He delivered a prayer at the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Field Notes: An Interview with W.I. “Bill” Hairston
W.I. “Bill” Hairston, 71, is a storyteller, old-time musician, and pastor living in Charleston, West Virginia. He was born in Phenix City, Alabama, and his family moved to Saint Albans, West Virginia, in 1960.
Field Notes: Doris Fields aka “Lady D”
Doris A. Fields, aka Lady D, known as “West Virginia’s First Lady of Soul” is an R&B, soul, and blues musician and songwriter living in Beckley. She is the founder and organizer of West Virginia’s Simply Jazz and Blues Festival and previously hosted the weekly Simply Jazz and Blues radio show on Groovy94 in Beckley. In 2008, Fields’ original song “Go Higher” won an online contest sponsored by the Obama Music Arts and Entertainment Group. She performed the song as a headliner at the Obama for Change Inauguration Ball with President Obama and the First Lady Michelle Obama in attendance.
Field Notes: Carol Dougherty
Carol Dougherty is an elder in Wheeling’s Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Church. She was born in Wheeling, WV in 1938 and was raised by her grandparents, who were immigrants from Lebanon. She is a traditional Lebanese home cook, a member of Our Lady of Lebanon Women’s Society, and will be teaching a folk dance and dubke class for children at Our Lady of Lebanon’s 84th annual Mahrajan Festival in August 2017.
Field Notes: Sam Rizzetta
Sam Rizzetta is a dulcimer designer, builder, and musician who moved to West Virginia in the early 1970s. He was a member of the string band Trapezoid and founded the hammer dulcimer playing classes at the Augusta Heritage Center at Davis & Elkins College. He has built dulcimers for musicians including John McCutcheon, Guy Carawan, and Sam Herrmann (read our Field Notes with her). Rizzetta now collaborates with the Dusty Strings Company who build hammer dulcimers based on his designs. He lives with his wife Carrie Rizzetta in Berkeley County, WV.
Field Notes: Cora Hairston
Cora Hairston is a musician and writer from Logan County, West Virginia. Hairston is the author of two novels, Faces Behind the Dust and Hello World Here Comes Claraby Rose, both fictionalized accounts based on her childhood growing up in a black coal camp. Here are some excerpts from our interview.
Field Notes: Accordionist Tom Zielinsky
Tom Zielinsky is an accordionist and member of Weirton, West Virginia’s Sacred Heart of Mary Polish Parish. Zielinksy was born in Steubenville, Ohio and raised in New Cumberland, West Virginia, where he attended a one-room Polish Catholic church. He plays regularly at the Sacred Heart of Mary Polish Festival, their bi-annual polka mass, and other…
Field Notes: Sam and Joe Herrmann
On July 19, we visited traditional musicians Sam and Joe Herrmann at their home in Hampshire County, WV. Both born in Maryland, the Herrmanns moved to West Virginia in the 1970s, seeking to build a life outside the city. They soon discovered old-time music on a trip to the Galax Old Time Fiddler’s Convention and have since…
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