UACC Blog
Michael Croley: Winner of the 2019 Weatherford Award in Fiction for Any Other Place: Stories by Mike Templeton
When we speak of Appalachia and Appalachian culture, it is crucial that we understand that we are never talking about a single unified idea. Appalachia is an enormous area and is comprised of many dif...
The Facts About Charter Amendment 3 by Mike Templeton
One of three charter amendments on the ballot on May 4 is Issue 3. This charter amendment would put $50 million into an Affordable Housing Trust Fund designed to ensure affordable housing to low-incom...
What is Left of Over-the-Rhine After the Renaissance? by Mike Templeton
I have been interviewing people on the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition’s Cultural Resource Directory and highlighting their work in blog articles. In place of interviewing myself, I thought I ...
Tess Collins: Placing Appalachia at the Heart of Contemporary Fiction by Mike Templeton
One of the primary goals of the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition in assembling the Cultural Resource Directory is to allow all artists and creative folks to find each other, and to help people fr...
Sweet Sorghum: The Appalachian “sweet for lil’ Liza Jane” by Mike Templeton
There are few things more central to a people than their foods and culinary practices. In promoting and furthering Appalachian culture, the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition includes the foodways ...
Industrial Strength Bluegrass: Southwest Ohio’s Musical Legacy: Major Contributions to the Scholarship on Bluegrass and Urban Appalachians by Mike Templeton
The Urban Appalachian Community Coalition has always been committed to promoting both music and scholarship as essential components of culture and history. With the publication of Industrial Strength ...
Chuck Black: Appalachian Music Historian and Radio Broadcaster by Mike Templeton
The study of Appalachian culture and history has fully emerged as an academic discipline. Yet, the field relies in some measure on those who have been immersed in Appalachian culture more as a passion...
Harm Reduction, The Jimmy Heath House, and by the Injury Prevention Research Center at the University of North Carolina Chapel by Mike Templeton
The problems of addiction and homelessness have weighed heavily on the urban and rural Appalachian communities. Even in a year the pandemic has pushed other things out of the public imagination, the o...
Devastating Floods in Eastern Kentucky: Talking to Wallace Caleb Bates of Breathitt County about the Situation and how to Help by Mike Templeton
Heavy rain has again brought severe flooding to Eastern Kentucky. As of the time of this writing, there are 49 local declarations of disaster. This is certain to widen and become worse. With this blog...
Scott Goebel: Urban Appalachian Writer and Academic Nomad by Mike Templeton
The artists, writers, and scholars who appear on the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition’s Cultural Resource Directory span a wide range of fields and comprise a diverse group of people. These peo...
Trey Burnart Hall, The Sound Quilt Project, and Quilting the Old and the New by Mike Templeton
The 21st Century has given artists, writers, and musicians an expanded palette from which to express their ideas. Technology, particularly sound technology, along with new ideas about how sound fits t...
Reflecting on the Cultural Resource Directory by Mike Templeton
Over the last several months I have had the opportunity to interview local urban Appalachian writers, scholars, artists, and other creative people who have registered in the Urban Appalachian Communit...
Moneeca “MoPoetry” Phillips: Poet, Spoken Word Artist, and Educator By Mike Templeton
It is not a stretch to say that poetry and poets are among those at the core of the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition. With advocacy and activism, there are the writers who render the experiences ...
Miami University’s Appalachian Studies Program and Director Matthew Smith by Mike Templeton
The reach and influence of Appalachian culture in Southwest Ohio is indelible. Throughout the region Appalachian people have woven themselves into the fabric of life, and this is at the core of the wo...
Malcolm Wilson: Making Photographs and Telling the Stories of Appalachia by Mike Templeton
Malcolm Wilson is a photographer, web designer, journalist, artist and all-around Renaissance man who makes it his business to put the humanity of Appalachia at the center of his work. He now lives in...
Bob Snyder: Poet, Teacher, Activist and the Appalachian Renaissance by Mike Templeton
There are a few people who occupy a place in the history of Appalachian literature and activism that is foundational. From his childhood in West Virginia and absorbing everything around him in the sur...
The Red Idle Rejects Keep the Tradition Alive and Loud by Mike Templeton
Appalachian culture remains vibrant and alive because it is continuously remade in the present. A central focus of the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition is to advance Appalachian culture as a dyna...
Talking to Russ and Barb Childers about Ringin’ In an Appalachian New Year by Mike Templeton
The past year has certainly been momentous. It is easy to get lost in the sweep of grand events and lose sight of what has been happening in our community. But great things continue to happen within t...