February 2012
31 posts
Folklorist’s Global Jukebox Goes Digital →
The vast collection of music, film, videotapes and photographs collected by the folklorist and ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax is being digitized for wider dissemination.
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Prison Valley: A Web Documentary →
Just came across this web documentary and am really impressed with the visual style. Check it out here.
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Watch18 DAYS IN EGYPT: A Collaborative Documentary Project About the Revolution. Learn more about the project here
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The Waiting Room: A Film and Social Media Project... →
Taking advantage of the fact that hundreds of people sit and wait for hours each day in Highland Hospital alone, we will transform the waiting room into a storytelling space and provide the human and technological resources for patients to tell and listen to stories on-site. At the heart of this effort is an interactive story booth to be built – in partnership with the Alameda County Medical...
January 2012
68 posts
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McDowell County Senator Fanning Will Not Seek...
January 27, 2012 CHARLESTON (January 27, 2012) — Senator John Pat Fanning (D-McDowell) announced today that he will not seek reelection to the West Virginia State Senate. Senator Fanning said.: “I have served the residents of my district and the state to the best of my ability for 32 years. I now want to spend more time with my family and take care of some on-going health issues. ” ...
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Old Caretta Tipple
Photo by Alan Johnston. Taken at old mining tipple in Caretta, West Virginia (McDowell County).
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Fire destroys apartment building in downtown Welch →
WELCH — Ten people escaped injury after a fire destroyed a historic building in downtown Welch Tuesday. The fire at the five-story Libby Building on McDowell Street began around 9:45 a.m. At least 10 residents were occupying about half of the 13 apartments in the top three floors of the building when the blaze began, according to Welch Fire Chief Dennie Hale.
Hale said no one was in the two...
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New era begins for a small town in Iowa: 18y/o... →
AREDALE, IA. — A new era of city government began with a simple postcard from Jeremy Minnier to his 73 neighbors.
“As your newly elected mayor,” Minnier wrote, “I would like to encourage your attendance and participation at our meetings.” Aredale’s 18-year-old mayor, who won 24 write-in votes out of 32 ballots in November, also included his phone number — not that his constituents should have...
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'Brain Drain': Put a Stopper in Your Mouth →
A few years ago, at a conference about the woes of rural America, one speaker really caught my attention with a very simple message. “Never say ‘rural brain drain,’” She told us. “Think about it.” She pointed out that to say “brain drain” in a rural community is basically telling everyone present — the people who stayed — that they’re dumb. You’re implying they somehow missed...
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A Black and White World →
If things are, as they say, slower in the South, then integration was no exception. The 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring separate public schools for white and black children unconstitutional, finally incited change in McDowell County schools 11 years later; in some West Virginia counties, like Mercer, which desegregated in 1969, change trickled even slower. Smith had been a teacher and...
Interactive Map: Where Are All Of The Graduates... →
Two projects account for increase in W.Va.... →
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Construction projects in West Virginia totaled $5.3 billion in 2011, up from $1.9 billion the year before, according to a report from McGraw-Hill Construction.
But the bulk of the increase can be attributed to two large projects, not an overall increase in construction projects in West Virginia, according to the Contractors Association of West Virginia.
A $3 billion...
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Community Blog Update 1/23/12 →
See the full post on the community blog
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In a City Fighting Blight, ‘Ghost Signs’ as... →
A demolition reveals two well-preserved ads on the side of a building that allude to a prosperity that is incongruous in today’s Highland Park, Mich.
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Watchshot and edited this, this morning.
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WatchHBO Documentaries: The Loving Story
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Community Blogging →
Starting this week several members of the community will contribute stories and photos about McDowell County on the Hollow blog.
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Journalism professor receives MLK Award for... →
Beeson is a human rights activist and photographer, and he received the award for his work in McDowell County.
Beeson has created an online exhibit for the Kimball World War I Memorial, and students of the Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism contribute to the site each semester.
The project included an exhibit installation to the memorial in Kimball, W.Va., called “Soldiers of the...
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AFL-CIO’s Trumka calls for talk about future of... →
First, what do I mean by unfairness? Half of the electrical power in the United States comes from coal. This has been true for years. People I grew up with dig the coal that lights the lights and heats the buildings all across this country today. The world we know exists because coal miners go down to the mines. But the carbon emissions from that coal, and from oil and natural gas, and...
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Martin Luther King Day
Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better
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History through the lens of today: Introduction →
Former coal miner James Weekly refuses to sell his land in Blair, West Virginia, to mining companies, which are seeking to strip mine the mountain he lives on to remove billions of dollars worth of coal.
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Reconnecting McDowell to improve schools,... →
WELCH — Three McDowell County elementary schools have been selected to start new literary and early childhood programs as part of the Reconnecting McDowell project aimed at improving performance and quality of life for county students. McDowell County Superintendent Jim Brown said Welch Elementary, Iaeger Elementary and Bradshaw Elementary schools will be the focus of the non-profit organization...
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Lou Martin: Boone County, Blair march stays with... →
Two million people left Appalachia between 1945 and 1970, and many others were trapped in newly purchased company houses, living on donated flour and beans after their unemployment ran out.
What will we do about coal’s ‘crisis in the... →
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Knight Foundation merging media, minds, and money →
$18.4m in grants are fostering a ‘critical mass’ of Boston-area tech outreach projects
Thanks to its concentration of high-tech activity and educational institutions, the Boston area has reaped a considerable amount of that funding - $18.4 million in grants to 19 projects.
“Because of Knight, we now have a critical mass of community, technology, and media projects,’’ said Eric Gordon, the...
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Zeega Enables Communities to Create Interactive... →
Read the post here
McDowell County PSD making progress →
The McDowell County Public Service District is trying to make a difference in the county one life at a time. With water and sewer projects progressing throughout the county, a Wastewater Coalition engaged in resolving long-standing infrastructure woes and a growing number of families that want change, a flicker of light is starting to appear at the end of a mighty long tunnel. Dorothy Horne is...
W.Va., US psych groups urges doctoral degree as... →
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia has gotten failing grades for behavioral health care from advocates for people with mental illness, but the people who provide that care disagree over whether an upcoming legislative proposal will make that situation better or worse.
West Virginia is the only state that licenses people with master’s degrees as psychologists. A measure slated for the...
W.Va. lawmakers: State citizens must benefit from... →
Though many in rural areas, such as Monroe County, are concerned about their cultural heritage and landscape, DeMarco said drilling is here to stay. “I have been to Monroe County years ago, and I understand there are people there who own mineral rights who want to develop,” he said. “You have a situation where individuals want to develop the minerals and one person in that group takes the...
Dr. Marty Amerikaner: W.Va.'s definition of... →
Consider three important facts about West Virginia. We have one of the oldest populations in the country, we have historically had a high proportion of our citizens serve in the military, and we are an extremely rural state.
Yet, our senior citizens, our veterans, our active duty military personnel and their families, as well as our neighbors who go to federally funded rural health clinics,...
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Temporary Website Launched for Hollow →
While the interactive designer/programmer creates wireframes for the HTML-5 website that will be launched in Spring 2013, I decided to put this website together as a landing page for information about the project. Check out the site here!
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State of Confusion by Jason Headley →
“I’m from West Virginia.”
“Oh really? I have a cousin in Roanoke.”
“That’s in Virginia.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m from West Virginia. It’s a different state.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“It’s frustrating to come from a state that most people don’t even know exists. The only thing worse is when they do. They get that mischievous twinkle in the eye and then, out pour the jokes. The barnyard...
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NPR: Project's Promise Of Jobs Has Appalachia... →
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Dear West Virginia →
I can’t actually think of a time beyond boyhood when I thought I was going to stay. It’s strange. Ungrateful, I suppose. You were the only thing I knew and somehow you weren’t enough. But my interests and ambitions grew beyond any realistic expectations. Far beyond the reach of your panhandles. And I suppose that changes a relationship forever.
Read the full article by West Virginia native...
'Reconnecting McDowell' Advances with Grants,... →
In his Jan. 11 State of the State address, Gov. Tomblin said Save the Children will receive $1 million in state funds for its trainers to work with students and their families in three McDowell schools to implement early childhood and literacy programs. Tomblin also proposed making McDowell a “County Innovation Zone Pilot Project,” to allow teachers, school staff and McDowell school...
Transparency project aims to keep Appalachia... →
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