On Saturday, March 1, 2025, visitors in winter coats and elaborate handmade masks gathered with locals for Helvetia’s community-wide Fasnacht celebration. As part of the event, a rapt crowd filled the pews of the town’s Zion Presbyterian Church to hear Heidi Fahrner Arnett, Eleanor Betler, and Maura Hofer share personal stories about what it was like to grow up in Helvetia and their memories of the festival’s early years.
Category: Guest post
2022-23 Folklife Apprenticeship Feature: Mushroom Foraging with Sharon Briggs & Anthony Murray
Turkey tail. Lion’s mane. Red reishi. Crown tip coral. These are just a few of the countless mushrooms that Sharon Briggs and her apprentice, Anthony Murray, have found together over more than a decade of friendship and professional collaboration…
2022-23 Folklife Apprenticeship Feature: Soul Food Cooking with Xavier Oglesby & Brooklynn Oglesby
Brooklynn Oglesby apprenticed her uncle, Xavier, to learn their family’s tradition of soul food cooking, a creative practice shaped and passed down by over four generations before her…
2022-23 Folklife Apprenticeship Feature: Appalachian Storytelling with Bil Lepp & James Froemel
When Bil Lepp first entered the West Virginia Liars’ Contest in 1990, he was following in his older brother Paul’s footsteps…
2022-23 Folklife Apprenticeship Feature: Clawhammer Banjo with Joe Herrmann & Dakota Karper
The 2022-2023 round of the West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program was not Joe and Dakota’s first rodeo…
2022-23 Folklife Apprenticeship Feature: Old-Time Fiddling with Gerry Milnes & Annick Odom
Gerry Milnes and his apprentice, Annick Odom, dove deep into West Virginia old-time fiddling tunes, techniques, and stories…
2022-23 Folklife Apprenticeship Feature: Fiddle Repair with Chris Haddox & Mary Linscheid
Chris Haddox and Mary Linscheid are both fiddlers—Chris, neck-deep in traditional Appalachian old-time tunes and lore, and Mary, a sponge for all things West Virginia…
Apply for a Legends & Lore Marker Grant
Legends & Lore Marker Grant Program Seeking Applications Application Deadline: April 29, 2024Next window to apply: August 26, 2024 – October 14, 2024 The William G. Pomeroy Foundation is accepting applications for its Legends & Lore Marker Grant Program. The program highlights local folklife and promotes cultural tourism in the participating states in the United…
Textile Artist Susan Feller on the McDonald Sisters of Gilmer County
Words and photos by Susan Feller My upbringing in the 1950s and 60s rural Appalachians, where I earned Girl Scout badges and was taught handwork by generations of women, were the experiences that influenced my craft work and historical research. When I learned how to pull wool fabric loops through a loose weave backing– rug…
Ken Sullivan Remembers Alan Jabbour
A tribute to pioneering folklorist, scholar, and fiddler Alan Jabbour (1942-2017), from West Virginia Humanities Council Executive Director Ken Sullivan
That’s A Grand Story to Tell: Documenting Jim Costa’s Collection
“I should have been a historical archaeologist,” said Jim Costa. “I guess I am in my own way.” Jim and I sat on the porch of his Summers County, West Virginia home, a restored 19th century log cabin built by a local Civil War veteran and saved from decay by Jim himself. It was the end of a humid and flooded summer, and we were doing one last interview before I prepared to go home.
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