UACC Blog
Resilience in Dystopia: Women of the Hunger Games Series Defending Appalachia
By Erinn Sweet November has proven to be an exciting month for me. I recently submitted my master’s thesis, a comprehensive exploration of the identity of urban Appalachian women (that you can r...
Mike Ousley: Contemporary Artist from Eastern Kentucky
by Mike Templeton ***UACC is incredibly glad to have Mike Templeton, author of Chief of Birds, back for another blog post! Dive into the mesmerizing blend of folk-art tradition and contemporary commen...
Rerun: Appalachian Foodways: Essential Fermented Foods
By Erinn SweetOriginally published August 16, 2020 Fermented foods have been around since ancient times and act as staple foods throughout many cultures and nations. The process of fermentation preser...
On Neema Avashia’s Essay, “Fight From Away”
By Pauletta Hansel “Appalachians leave home for many reasons. But no matter where they go, mountain folks defend their people and culture,” says urban Appalachian writer Neema Avashia in her recen...
Rerun: Eastern Kentucky Mutual Aid
By Mike TempletonOriginally Published April 8, 2023 **** Folks, it’s getting cold out there and we need to ensure everyone has a warm place to stay and basic needs are met. The good folks at Eas...
Rerun: Tailypo, Tailypo, Who or What is Tailypo?
By Mike TempletonOriginally published October 9, 2022 Cover illustration by Katherine Coville **** October has arrived, and it’s time to embrace the spookier side of life, just in time for Hallo...
(Rerun of) Adam Payne and the online magazine YNST: New Voices and Ideas from the Appalachian Region
By Mike TempletonOriginally posted June 2, 2023 **** When we published this blog post back in the summer, this Appalachian art and fashion magazine was just getting started. We’re revisiting thi...
Rerun: WordPlay Cincinnati Hosts the Cincinnati Youth Poet Laureate Program
By Mike TempletonOriginally posted February 5, 2022 **** The good folks at WordPlay Cincy are excited to announce the 2023-2024 Cincinnati Youth Poet Laureate, Gabrielle Walker! She hit the ground run...
Rerun: The John Roger Simon Sorghum Festival
by Mike Templeton **** In honor of the 2023 John Roger Simon Sorghum Festival, we are revisiting this article about last year’s festival, which was the first festival after a four-year hiatus! T...
The Chief of Birds: A new book by Mike Templeton
By Pauletta Hansel Readers of our Urban Appalachian Community Coalition blog are used to seeing posts BY Mike Templeton, rather than about him. Therefore, I am especially honored to be writing this po...
A Review of King Coal: An Appalachian film that untangles the pain from the beauty, illuminating the innately human capacity for change
By Erinn Sweet As an organization that celebrates, studies, documents and advocates for Appalachian people and their ways of life, the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition (UACC) recognizes the many ...
The Harlan Renaissance: A Visit from Dr. Bill Turner by Pauletta Hansel
It’s not too often that the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition says we are welcoming Appalachian royalty to Cincinnati, but with Dr. William Turner’s visit on September 21, that phrase seems to...
Swept into the Appalachian Flow – A Reflection from UACC Place Keepers Apprentice Rose Gibson
By Rose Gibson I grew up knowing my family had strong Appalachian ties. My grandpa turned a leathery tan in the summer thanks to his Melungeon roots. My Aunt Jo Jo taught me about snake handling servi...
Stephen H. Laird Found—and Shared—Silver Linings December 9, 1943 to June 20, 2023
By Nancy Laird This summer, the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition lost a longtime member, supporter and friend in Stephen H. Laird of Price Hill. Steve’s wife Nancy is a UACC Core member as well...
Folkways & Fandoms: Tyler Childers’ Music Video Sparks Discourse on Appalachian Identity, Country Music, Storytelling & Representation
By Erinn Sweet The Urban Appalachian Community Coalition (UACC) has a decades-long history of supporting Appalachian culture, art and advocacy in the Greater Cincinnati area, and beyond. Whether it is...
Try Love in a Small Town
By Elissa Yancey In a hot, hot summer when the stereotypically brutal movie “Deliverance” turns 50 and a Jason Aldean hymn to small town violence tops the charts, we at the Urban Appalachian Commu...
Re-run: Core Member Pauletta Hansel takes on her New Role as Writer-in-Residence at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County
By Mike Templeton Originally published January 16, 2022 **** UACC Core Member and urban Appalachian poet Pauletta Hansel was selected by the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County (CHPL) as ...
Demon Copperhead: A Moving and Inspiring Story of Our Time
By Jeff Dey This week, I finished Demon Copperhead, the celebrated latest novel by Barbara Kingsolver. It has won both the Pulitzer Prize and (in my opinion, even better) the Weatherford Award g...