UACC Blog
Award Novelist Carter Sickels Makes Cincinnati Home by Mike Templeton
When the winner of the 2021 Weatherford Award for Best Appalachian Book settles into our little corner of the world, the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition takes notice. A recent migrant to Cincinn...
The Poet Laureate of Cincinnati Program finds a new home with the Mercantile Library by Mike Templeton
It is not much of a stretch to say that much of the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition is made up of poets and writers. Advocacy on behalf of urban Appalachians seems to go hand in glove with creat...
Appalachian Identity Part II: Individual Experience by Mike Templeton
To follow up with the question of Appalachian identity, I begin with a conversation with Sara Webb-Sunderhaus. A member of the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition Research Committee and Associate Pr...
Exploring the Notion of Appalachian Identity by Mike Templeton
Following on the heels of the launch of Harvesting Our Stories: Urban Appalachian Story Gathering Project, it seems appropriate to take on some ideas that explore the depth and complexity of urban App...
Greater Cincinnati Old Time Music: Keeping Traditional Mountain Music Alive by Mike Templeton
On the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition Cultural Resource Directory, you will find a musical listing that is curious for not being an “act” or a band. Greater Cincinnati Old Time Music is mor...
Appalachian Foodways: The Tradition of Foraged Foods by Mike Templeton
The Urban Appalachian Community Coalition explores Appalachian foodways because these sustain us and sustain the culture of Appalachian people. When we think of Appalachian cuisine and Appalachian foo...
East Price Hill: At the Forefront of 21st Century Cincinnati by Mike Templeton
While many of the historically Appalachian neighborhoods have been transformed by economic and demographic shifts of the past 30 years, the Appalachians who moved to East Price Hill still have a signi...
Eric Kerl: The Politics of Appalachian Identity and Race by Mike Templeton
There is a long history of resistance in Appalachia. Think of something like the Battle of Blair Mountain, and you get at least one powerful example. Perhaps less dramatic, but nonetheless important e...
The Urban Appalachian Community Coalition Story Gathering Project By Mike Templeton
Telling stories has always been central to Appalachian culture. People from the Appalachian regions have a long history of sustaining and maintaining a sense of cultural identity through stories, and ...
David Rhodes Brown: The Godfather of local Rockabilly by Mike Templeton
A while back the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition spotlighted the history of Bluegrass in Cincinnati and Southwest Ohio. Industrial Strength Bluegrass, the book and the recording, situates the ri...
Keeping things Wild and Independent in Camp Washington by Mike Templeton
The urban Appalachian population has become increasingly dispersed throughout Greater Cincinnati. While economic and social conditions once tied groups of people to specific areas, the changing econom...
On the Road Again with Coal Town Photograph by Mike Templeton
This week’s blog is a throwback to January 2020. That year, the Falcon Theatre, greater Cincinnati’s only true storefront theater, celebrated its 30th anniversary with a production of Coal To...
Arc of Appalachia: The Natural Treasures in Appalachian Ohio by Mike Templeton
The focus of the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition is obviously our urban community. But nearly all of us, Appalachian or otherwise, like to escape the city and find some solace in the natural wor...
Matt Farley Talks about his poetry and working on the restoration of the Potter’s Field Cemetery by Mike Templeton
Most everyone involved with the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition is engaged in multiple things. The poets are leaders in advocacy and the organizers are playing music, to offer a couple of exampl...
Poetry of Appalachian Ohio: “I Thought I Heard the Cardinal Sing”: Ohio’s Appalachian Voices by Mike Templeton
The Urban Appalachian Community Coalition is always enthusiastic about literary projects centered on Appalachia. But an upcoming poetry anthology project led by Ohio’s Poet Laureate Kari Gunter-Seym...
Director Larry Smith and Bottom Dog Press: A Crucial Source for Appalachian Literature and Appalachian Studies by Mike Templeton
There is an entire field of literature from and about Appalachia now. One reason for this momentum is the dedication of small presses that devote their energies and resources to publishing Appalachian...
Lower Price Hill: Struggles, Transitions, and Victories in one of Cincinnati’s Key Appalachian Neighborhoods by Mike Templeton
Lower Price Hill has historically occupied a place within the city of Cincinnati as one of the central urban Appalachian neighborhoods. Although not as significant in terms of population as East Price...
Looking Back to See Forward: The Harpers of Pongo Ridge by Nora Stanger
With the passing of each generation, our understanding of the lives our ancestors experienced is diminished. The Harpers of Pongo Ridge is a treasure for the Appalachian people. In her book,...