In partnership with the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, West Virginia Folklife is excited to launch the new Homegrown Foodways in West Virginia film series, presenting four short films that explore a range of food traditions in the state. The series will be produced by West Virginia farmers, chefs, and foodways storytellers Mike Costello and Amy Dawson of Lost Creek Farm in Harrison County.
2021 Folklife Apprenticeship Feature: Angelita Nixon and Christine Weirick, Home Birth Midwifery
Angelita Nixon of Scott Depot in Putnam County is leading an apprenticeship in home birth midwifery with Christine Weirick of Fayetteville.
West Virginians’ Creative Responses to COVID-19: A Digital Exhibit
In April 2020, in the midst of West Virginia’s Stay at Home Order, the West Virginia Folklife Program issued a call for West Virginians to share documentation of how they were creatively responding to the COVID-19 crisis, through music, stories, writing, craft, art, memes, mask making, and more.
Over the next year, we received documents, photos, and videos featuring homemade masks, quilts, doll clothes, and hooked rugs, original poems and compositions, parody songs, paintings, home herbal apothecaries, and even the Mothman statue. These submissions demonstrated the various ways Mountain State residents were processing, documenting, and occupying their time during the COVID-19 pandemic.
West Virginia Folklife Presents Virtual Apprenticeship Showcase: “Sheep-to-Shawl”- The Art of Raising Sheep & Creating Fiber Arts
Please join us on Thursday, June 17th at noon, for a virtual apprenticeship showcase featuring sheep farmer and textile artist Kathy Evans of Preston County and apprentice Margaret Bruning of Randolph County. The pair, who recently completed their 2020-2021 West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship year, will screen a video about their apprenticeship in sheep husbandry and fiber arts and hold a Q&A.
West Virginia Folklife Presents Virtual Apprenticeship Showcase: Traditional Appalachian Herbalism
Please join us on Wednesday, June 9th at noon, for a virtual apprenticeship showcase featuring herbalist Leenie Hobbie of Hampshire County and apprentice Jon Falcone of Hardy County. The pair, who recently completed their 2020-2021 West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship year, will screen their slideshow “Traditional Appalachian Herbalism in the Time of COVID,” lead a guided indoor wild herb walk, and hold a Q&A.
West Virginia Folklife 2020 Activities Report
What has the West Virginia Folklife Program done lately? Learn about our 2020 fieldwork, programs, and activities.
2020 Folklife Apprenticeship Feature: Joe Herrmann & Dakota Karper, Old-time Fiddle
Joe Herrman of Hampshire County is leading an apprenticeship in old-time fiddle with Dakota Karper of Capon Bridge. Herrmann is a founding member of the Critton Hollow String Band and has taught old-time fiddle to many private students and at the Augusta Heritage Center.
2020 Folklife Apprenticeship Feature: Kathy Evans & Margaret Bruning, “Sheep to Shawl”
Kathy Evans of Bruceton Mills is leading an apprenticeship titled “Sheep to Shawl: The Art of Raising Sheep and Creating Fiber Arts,” with apprentice Margaret Bruning of Elkins.
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.
2020 Folklife Apprenticeship Feature: Leenie Hobbie & Jon Falcone, Traditional Appalachian Herbalism
Leenie Hobbie of Rio in Hampshire County is leading an apprenticeship in traditional Appalachian herbalism with Jon Falcone of Lost River in Hardy County.
2020 Folklife Apprenticeship Feature: Ed Daniels & Clara Haizlett, Agroforestry/ Forest Farming
Ed Daniels of Mill Creek is leading an apprenticeship in agroforestry/forest farming with Clara Haizlett of Wellsburg. A ginseng digger and cultivator since he was young, Daniels and his wife Carole own and operate Shady Grove Farm in Randolph County where they grow ginseng, goldenseal, ramps, cohosh, and industrial hemp, among other plants. Haizlett, who was an intern in The Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage’s “American Ginseng: Local Knowledge, Global Roots” project, plans to start a forest farm on her family’s land in Brooke County.
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.
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