UACC Blog
Sara Moore Wagner’s Hillbilly Madonna and the Poetry of Contemporary Urban Appalachian Experience
by Mike Templeton Urban Appalachians, by definition, exist in two worlds. We are of the urban world, and we are of the mountain regions that have historically defined Appalachian people. Our poets and...
Re-run: Aw, Shucks: A Brief Discourse on Shucky Beans
by Mike Templeton Fall is in full swing, and for many Appalachians this season is a time for harvesting and processing garden provisions. Drying and canning produce is a sustainable way to enjoy home-...
Luke Bauserman and American Mythology
by Mike Templeton An important part of research in Appalachian studies is in the areas of folklore and folk history. Appalachian State University, for instance, has an entire folklore section as part ...
Tailypo, Tailypo, Who or What is Tailypo
by Mike Templeton Cover illustration by Katherine Coville It is October—spooky season—and it seems appropriate to bring you one of the spookier tales from Appalachian folklore. Appalachian folklor...
Roy Silver and the Appalnet Listserv
by Mike Templeton There are many resources for people involved in Appalachian research, advocacy, and study, and a primary one has been, and still is, the Appalnet listserv moderated by Roy Silver.&nb...
The John Roger Simon Sorghum Festival
by Mike Templeton As part of the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition’s focus on Appalachian foodways, some months ago we featured an article on the sweet staple of Appalachian food and culture, sw...
Kendra Winchester and Read Appalachia
by Mike Templeton Having so many writers and poets involved with the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition offers us an embarrassment of riches when it comes to Appalachian literary voices. That said,...
Cameron Snowden and the Harvard College Appalachian Student Association
by Mike Templeton Most of us know the familiar story behind the phenomenon of urban Appalachians. People left the mountains for opportunities in the urban areas like Cincinnati, and we came to make ou...
The Eastern Kentucky Recovery Benefit will be at WordPlay Cincy
By Mike Templeton The Urban Appalachian Community Coalition has partnered with WordPlay Cincy and local activists Kelly Cornett and Corinne Aquino for a benefit for the Hindman Settlement School in Ea...
A Conversation with Nick Swartsell about The Cincinnati Neighborhood Guidebook
by Mike Templeton In December, Belt Publishing will release The Cincinnati Neighborhood Guidebook, a collection of essays written by people who live in the urban neighborhoods that give Cincinnati its...
Benefit for Flood Recovery in Eastern Kentucky Organized by Perry County Native Kelly Cornett
by Mike Templeton Cincinnatian Kelly Cornett is from Perry County in Eastern Kentucky. She knows this place and she still has family in Perry County who are devastated by the July 28 floods. Kelly Cor...
John Burroughs: Urban Appalachian and National Beat Poet Laureate
By Mike Templeton There are two crucial moments that defined my interests in literature. The first was reading Thoreau and Emerson as a teenager. The next was stumbling onto the Beats. I was never the...
Worse than folks can imagine: how to help flood-ravaged southeastern Kentucky
by Pauletta Hansel I awoke Thursday morning, July 28, 2022, in my safe and comfortable house and, as I am wont to do, opened up my Facebook app. That week I was living vicariously through my writer fr...
Ginseng: Appalachia’s Panacea by Mike Templeton
The Urban Appalachian Community Coalition’s focus on Appalachian culture leads us to shine a light on things that are not so obvious to people outside the Appalachian communities. This includes feat...
An Urban Appalachian Poetics of Relation by Mike Templeton
In a 1990 interview with Phillip Obermiller, Ernie Mynatt discussed some of the founding activities of the Urban Appalachian Council in Over-the-Rhine. Over the course of their conversation, Mynatt of...
An Evening of Appalachian Reminiscence with Christine Harper McKinney by Matthew Smith
Early last week, Matthew Smith, Public Programs Director at Miami University Regionals, attended a discussion at Reading Public Library featuring Christine Harper McKinney. McKinney is the 96-year-old...
An Appalachian Tribute to Louise Spiegel
Pioneer of Appalachian AdvocacyLouise Spiegel’s advocacy for Urban Appalachians goes back to the early 1950s. This was several years before our first indigenous leader, Ernie Myatt, migrated to Cinc...
Melinda Grisco: An Urban Appalachian Storyteller and Strawberries of the Road: From the Hills of West Virginia by Mike Templeton
Everyone has a story tell, the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition’s Story Gathering Project would like to hear that story and document it. Melinda Grisco is an urban Appalachian who has quite a f...