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The Last Mountain

In the valleys of Appalachia, a battle is being fought over a mountain. It is a battle with severe consequences that affect every American, regardless of their social status, economic background or where they live. It is a battle that has taken many lives and continues to do so the longer it is waged. It is a battle over protecting our health and environment from the destructive power of Big Coal.

The mining and burning of coal is at the epicenter of America’s struggle to balance its energy needs with environmental concerns. Nowhere is that concern greater than in Coal River Valley, West Virginia, where a small but passionate group of ordinary citizens are trying to stop Big Coal corporations, like Massey Energy, from continuing the devastating practice of Mountain Top Removal.

A passionate and personal tale that honors the extraordinary power of ordinary Americans when they fight for what they believe in, THE LAST MOUNTAIN shines a light on America’s energy needs and how those needs are being supplied. It is a fight for our future that affects us all.

From Eureka Mill (The Bench Press)

Brown Lung
Ron Rash

Sometimes I’d spend the whole night coughing up
what I’d been breathing in all day at work.
I’d sleep in a chair or take a good stiff drink,
anything to get a few hours rest.

The doctor called it asthma and suggested
I find a different line of work as if
a man who had no land or education
could find himself another way to live.

For that advice I paid a half-day’s wage.
Who said advice is cheap? It got so bad
each time I got a break at work I’d find
the closest window, try to catch a breath.

My foreman was a decent man who knew
I would not last much longer on that job.
He got me transferred out of the card room,
let me load the boxcars in the yard.

But even though I slept more I’d still wake
gasping for air at least one time a night,
and when I dreamed I dreamed of bumper crops
of Carolina cotton in my chest.

Did Wendell Just Say, 'Radical Roots Project?'

Well, no (though see the highlights below), but here is a transcript of his remarks from the Future of Food Conference, held May 4 at Georgetown University. You can see a video of his speech HERE.
 
Our fundamental problem is world destruction, caused by an irreconcilable contradiction between the natural world and the engineered world of industrialism. This conflict between nature and human interest may have begun with the first tools and weapons, but only with the triumph of industrialism has it become absolute. By now the creaturely world is absolutely at the mercy of industrial processes, which are doing massive ecological damage. How much of this damage may be repairable by economic and cultural changes remains to be seen.

Industrial destructiveness, anyhow, is our disease. Most of our most popular worries — climate change, fossil fuel addiction, pollution, poverty, hunger and the various forms of legitimated violence — are symptoms. If, for example, we were somehow granted a limitless supply of cheap, clean energy, we would continue and even accelerate our destruction of the world by agricultural erosion, chemical poisoning, industrial war, industrial recreation and various forms of “development.”

And there is no use in saying that if we can invent the nuclear bomb and fly to the moon, we can solve hunger and related problems of land use. Epic feats of engineering require only a few brilliant technicians and a lot of money. But feeding a world of people year to year for a long time requires cultures of husbandry fitted to the nature of millions of unique small places — precisely the kind of cultures that industrialism has purposely disvalued, uprooted and destroyed.

Hard as it may be for a dislocated, miseducated, consumptive society to accept and for its pet economists to believe, the future of food is not distinguishable from the future of the land, which is indistinguishable, in turn, from the future of human care. It depends ultimately on the health not of the financial system, but of the ecosphere. In the interest of that health, we will have to bring all the disciplines, all the arts and sciences, into conformity with the nature of places.

Like other species, we will have to submit to the necessity of local adaptation. I am sure that somebody will wish to remind me of the migrations of birds, animals and insects, and also of migrations by humans from earliest times. Did these involve local adaptation? Yes; except for those of industrial humans using fossil fuel, all of these migrations have been made under the rule of local adaptation. The hummingbird successfully crossing the Gulf of Mexico is adapted, mile by mile, to the distance; it does not exceed its own mental and physical capacities, and it makes the trip, exactly like pre-industrial human migrants, on contemporary energy.

For humans, local adaptation is not work for a few financiers and a few intellectual and political hotshots. This is work for everybody, requiring everybody’s intelligence. It is work inherently democratic.

What must we do?

First, we must not work or think on a heroic scale. In our age of global industrialism, heroes too lightly risk the lives of people, places and things they do not see. We must work on a scale proper to our limited abilities. We must not break things we cannot fix. There is no justification, ever, for permanent ecological damage. If this imposes the verdict of guilt upon us all, so be it.

Second, we must abandon the homeopathic delusion that the damages done by industrialization can be corrected by more industrialization.

Third, we must quit solving our problems by “moving on.” We must try to stay put and to learn where we are geographically, historically and ecologically.

Fourth, we must learn, if we can, the sources and costs of our own economic lives.

Fifth, we must give up the notion that we are too good to do our own work and clean up our own messes. It is not acceptable for this work to be done for us by wage slavery or by enslaving nature.

Sixth, by way of correction, we must make local, locally adapted economies, based on local nature, local sunlight, local intelligence and local work.

Seventh, we must understand that these measures are radical. They go to the root of our problem. They cannot be performed for us by any expert, political leader or corporation.

This is an agenda that may be undertaken by ordinary citizens at any time, on their own initiative. In fact, it describes an effort already undertaken all over the world by many people. It defines also the expectation that citizens who, by their gifts, are exceptional will not shirk the most humble service.

(via www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food)

Egypt, Fried Chicken, And A Little Kentucky History

In the early days of Egypt's anti-government uprising this winter, some journalists attempted to label it the "Koshary Revolution" after Egypt's traditional dish of rice, lentils, macaroni, and fried onions. But Hosni Mubarak's embattled regime was hoping to tie the protesters to a more sinister foodstuff: Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Reports on state television described protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square munching on free buckets of KFC, seeing them as proof of subversive foreign influence, though independent journalists at the scene couldn't find a particularly high number of KFC eaters. The U.S. chain has about 100 restaurants in Egypt, compared with fewer than 60 for McDonald's, but the price of a meal, which can be up to three days' wages, makes it a rare delicacy for most Egyptians. There were also reports of the government paying its thugs with chicken dinners, and street vendors jokingly began shouting "Kentucky" to hawk everything from popcorn to falafel.

Surprisingly, this wasn't the first time that KFC has been cast as the enemy in the Muslim world. In 2006, Pakistani rioters burned down a KFC in response to the Danish Mohammed cartoons controversy. This followed another -- and seemingly even more random -- burning of a KFC one year earlier by a mob angered by a suicide bombing at a mosque in Karachi.

What's so Kentuckian about KFC, anyway? They're headquartered in Louisville, if that means anything, but then so is Papa's Johns Pizza and Texas Roadhouse (yes, Texas Roadhouse). So here's more. The company was founded by the jovial Colonel Harland Sanders in 1952, though he first served his fried chicken in 1930 in the midst of the Great Depression at a gas station he owned in North Corbin, Kentucky. The dining area was named Sanders Court & Café and was so successful that in 1935 Kentucky Governor Ruby Laffoon granted Sanders the title of honorary Kentucky Colonel in recognition of his contribution to the state's cuisine.

The following year Sanders expanded his restaurant to 142 seats, and added a motel he bought across the street. When Sanders prepared his chicken in his original restaurant in North Corbin, he prepared the chicken in an iron skillet, which took about 30 minutes to do, too long for a restaurant operation. In 1939, Sanders altered the cooking process for his fried chicken to use a pressure fryer, resulting in a greatly reduced cooking time comparable to that of deep frying. In 1940 Sanders devised what came to be known as his Original Recipe.

Sanders sold the entire KFC franchising operation in 1964 for $2 million, equal to $14,161,464 today. Since that time, the chain has been sold three more times: to Heublein in 1971, to R.J. Reynolds (the tobacco company) in 1982 and most recently to PepsiCo in 1986.

What about that secret recipe? They now keep a handwritten copy of spice mix in a vault in corporate headquarters, though there have been some leaks in the past. Following the buyout of the company in 1964, Colonel Sanders himself expressed anger a new owner, saying:

"That friggin'...outfit...they prostituted every goddamn thing I had. I had the greatest gravy in the world and those sons of bitches--they dragged it out and extended it and watered it down that I'm so goddamn mad!"

(via foreignpolicy.org, wikipedia.org, and The McDondaldization of Society)

Murphy, North Carolina

Maria Gunnoe Featured Speaker at 2011 Mountainfilm Festival

Boone County, WV native Maria Gunnoe will be a featured speaker at this years Mountainfilm Festival in Teluride, CO. Mountainfilm is dedicated to educating and inspiring audiences about issues that matter, cultures worth exploring, environments worth preserving and conversations worth sustaining. In addition to screening leading independent documentary films from around the world, the festival includes a full-day symposium on a pressing contemporary issue such as energy (2007), water (2008), food (2009) and the extinction crisis (2010). In addition to films and speakers, the festival includes art exhibits, book signings, student workshops and a forum for other non-profit organizations aligned with Mountainfilm’s mission and programming.

Maria has been fighting against mountaintop removal mining and valley fill operations in the Coal River Valley for quite some time. She was a recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2009--one of the most prestigious and longest running awards of its type--and has fought and won many battles both in her local Boone County and farther afield. How exciting to have her representing Appalachia and the issues with coal and mountaintop removal to such a diverse, global audience!

New Take On An Old Standby

This great lyric was passed to me by writer/artist/activist Cesco di Santis of the Portrait Story Project. It's his reworking of Guthrie's classic "This Land is Your Land." For more on Cesco and his work, see the links below. Folk musicians, pick up your guitars...

This Appalachian Land (Ain’t) Your Land

As I went walkin', that wooded holler

I felt a blast shake, from way down yonder

Pickin' persimmons at Rock Creek, had a gun pulled up ta mah cheek

'Cuz I thought this land belonged to you and me

This land is Massey land, It is not your land

from the tumblin' flyrock, right to the pow'r plant

from the deep dark coal seam, to the billowin' smoke stack

This land reeks of "coal country"

As I went walkin' out on that flat land

I so did wonder, where my holler went

Well, the company man said, he reclaimed it

Well, this "reclaiming" ain't for you and me

I've seen this green land, turned to wasteland

From the ridgeline draglined into the valley fill

From the first core sample, right to the railroad tracks

This land's exported from you and me

Well, the public hearing turned out to be . . .

. . . just another coal rally

The drunken mob went there just to tell me

This land's just for the company

This land ain't my land, nor is it your land

From the Cumberlands to the Allegenies

From the fields of Bluegrass to the Smoky mountains

These coalfields're fer electricity

Call Mister King Coal, at his office,

And say "Sir, How could you do this?"

He'll say, "You dumb treehuggin' commie . . .

. . . This land was made just for me!"

"This land is my Land! It is not your Land!

From the overworked miners, all my minions

from the Oxycontin, to the slurry injections

Yer all awash in my wastestream!"

From Bloody Harlan to Blair Mountain,

From the Wall Street Meltdown to the corporate bailouts

From the greenwashers to the bloody war machine

Was this land ever for you and me?

From the mesas, to the valleys

From the Everglades to the Rocky mountains

Everywhere I go, I ask my people,

Could land land survive for you and me?

Could this be your Land? Could it be my Land?

All throughout Turtle Island

From the clearcut Redwoods to the Gulf Stream oil slick,

Could this land heal with you and me?

Read more about Cesco and his projects here:

http://portraitstoryproject.org

http://voicesforappalachia.org

http://www.mountainjustice.org/portrait_story_project/index.php

http://www.unitedmountaindefense.org/outreach_and_education.html

Radical Roots Project Wins e-Appalachia Website of the Year

 

The Radical Roots Project is excited to have been honored with this years e-Appalachia Award for Outstanding Website by the Appalachian Studies Association (ASA). The award, which was first issued in 2002, is based on the content, design and mission statement of websites dealing with Appalachia and its people. We are thrilled to join such a prestigious group of sites, which in previous years have been Journey Up Coal River, I Love Mountains, and the Kentucky Artisan Heritage Trails. Radical Roots founder Taylor Kirkland, and website designer David Lezette accepted the award on March 12th in Richmond, KY at ASA's 34th Annual Conference. 

So what's next? I still have several interviews going out to publishers. A photo essay is on the burners. More interviews are on their way in the following months. We're getting wild amounts of traffic here on the blog so keeping it up to date keeps these fingers busy. I'm also seeking funds to develop Radical Roots into an organization that will work with youth on cultural preservation and documentary skills here in the mountains of North Carolina. The roots of this project are really starting to develop--and I need help. If you'd like to help nourish us you can make a tax deductible donation by contacting Taylor at radicalrootsproject@gmail.com. 

Thanks so much for all who made this award possible!

http://radicalrootsproject.org

Komos Ison's Molasses Stir Off, September 2010

Annual event takes place on Kingdom Come Creek, Letcher County, KY.

"Coal" Comes to Spike TV

"Spike TV and reality powerhouse-producer Thom Beers have excavated 10, one-hour episodes of an all-new original series entitled Coal. The unscripted program will explore the world of coal mining through the eyes of Mike Crowder and Tom Roberts, co-owners of Cobalt Mine in Westchester, West Virginia. Giving an unprecedented look at one of the world's most dangerous and valuable professions, Coal will premiere on Spike in March 2011.

Striking up a partnership while watching their sons practice football, Crowder and Roberts will lead their more than 40 machine operators, foremen, electricians, and drivers into one of the most dangerous workplaces on the planet.  Every aspect of the job will be covered, from the dangers behind the super-charged explosions needed to open surface mines, to the well-publicized daily dangers of working in the dark recesses of the earth's crust in a traditional shaft mine.  As they face the daily pressure to keep the mine up and running and their workers safe, family men Crowder and Roberts will rely on the support of their loved ones to tackle the mine's daily demands."

(via www.spike.com)

The 2010 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal Ceremony

Some of the nation's finest artists, scholars, and entertainers were at the White House this week where President Obama awarded the National Medal of Arts and the National Humanities Medal. Our good friend Wendell Berry was among those honored. (Fast-forward to 19:35 to see Berry's acceptance).

Music For Change

Want to help Tom Neilson win an independent music award in the social action category? Check out The Independent Music Awards website for how you can vote this song in. The more widely circulated the more people learn about the issues of mining and coal ash in the region. Pass it along!

Soltice Morning
Tom Neilson

Over a billion gallons of sludge and coal ash
Where Kingston Fossil been keeping their stash.
Those coal ash ponds are a ticking time bomb
Of chromium, cadmium, and barium.

Clean coal's a fairy tale we don't need
Just a corporate sale of pollution and greed
Arsenic, mercury, nickel, and lead
All lining the banks of the river bed.

Don't eat the fish, don't swim in the river
Water birds die just from eating their dinner
Don't drink the water, breathe the air bouquet
Cause you're suckin coal ash from the TVA

See also:
Coal Country Music
Music of Coal
Music Saves Mountains
Independent Music Awards
Appalshop

Rep. Yarmuth Defends Kentucky Mountains on House Floor

Political Winter Storms in the West Virginia Coalfields

In the old days, in the coal towns of West Virginia, winter was a time when folks hunkered around the pot-bellied stove and whiled away time spinning stories. At times, someone would fiddle with the draft, poke the coal embers, and release an extra dollop of acrid coal smell. Houses were drafty. Your front side facing the stove could be burning up, your backside shivering cold.

This winter, the politics of coal is burning red-hot. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) vetoed an earlier permit granted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that would expand Arch Coal’s Spruce Number 1 mountaintop removal mine. Without the veto, surface mining would claim 2,200 mountainous acres and bury 7 miles of stream. Environmentalists who had fought the proposal for ten years celebrated. The coal industry steamed.

The EPA has jurisdiction through the Clean Water Act. Yet EPA has used its 404 veto authority only 12 times since 1972, while processing about 80,000 Clean Water Act permits a year. EPA based this ruling on science, finding that “in streams where valley fills were proposed but not yet constructed, water quality was within scientifically defensible, acceptable levels to support native aquatic life.” Yet in streams where the upper headwaters were buried or disturbed by mining, “water quality as measured by conductivity levels was substantially above levels believed to cause excursion of water quality standards or significant degradation.” Clear enough?

The coal industry cried foul. After all, a permit had been granted by the Army Corps of Engineers. How could the industry make plans if the “rug could be pulled from under them?” King Coal, marionette meister that it is, jerked hard its strings, and all our politicians danced their jig.

West Virginia Senator Joe  Manchin echoed Arch Coal’s lament, that “they [Arch Coal] made every effort to comply with the EPA consultant’s recommendations and simultaneously maintain an economically viable operation.” A previously secret engineering study then came to light that Arch Coal refused to consider a plan that would have cut the stream impacts by half with an additional added cost of 55 cents per ton, a 1 percent additional production cost.

Acting West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin issued a “Call To Arms Rally for Coal” in the state capitol. The “call to arms” wording was later changed to “alert alert alert.” State Sen. Mike Green, (D-Raleigh), chair of the Senate Energy, Industry, and Mining Committee, said the “unprecedented action” by President Obama’s EPA was “nothing short of a reckless abuse of power.” The state Senate unanimously passed a resolution opposing the EPA decision. At the rally, the invocation was delivered by Rev. Mitchell Bias, from the Delbarton Regional Church of God. “Coal is your will. You placed it here on earth. It is part of your master plan,” Bias stated. Some people attending the rally wore black “Friends of Coal” T-shirts reading, “Pro-Christ, Pro-Life, Pro-American, Pro-Guns, Pro-Coal … Republican.”

During a counter demonstration, Maria Gunnoe said, “Mountaintop removal is no longer a jobs issue. It is a health issue. They are killing us by destroying our mountains and destroying our water.”  Gunnoe’s point was underscored by the January death of anti-mountaintop removal heroine Judy Bonds, who died at age 58 from cancer. More than 400 people commemorated her life at a memorial service, vowing to continue the fight.

January was also the month that Vermont State Senator Virginia Lyons introduced a precedent setting resolution into her legislature as a first step toward a U.S. Constitutional Amendment. Hopes are high that it will pass. The resolution proposes, “an amendment to the United States Constitution that provides that corporations are not persons under the laws of the United States.”

Winter is still cold and dark, yet daylight is getting longer, the sun brighter.

(Story by Allen Johnson, co-founder of Christians for the Mountains, via blog.sojo.net)

Wendell Berry @ I Love Mountains Day Rally

Live Stream of the Kentucky Sit-In

Free live streaming by Ustream

Exclusive Videos From the Frankfort Sit-In

The Latest On The Sit-In

A Statement from Wendell Berry, February 12, 2011, 10:58 a.m.

It is now Feb. 12.  By now we expected to be either in jail or bailed out.  Instead, by Gov. Beshear’s invitation, we are staying in his reception room in the Capitol.  We have had a good night’s sleep and are feeling fine.  The governor and his staff, the custodians and security staff of this building, all have treated us with hospitality and perfect kindness.  We have spoken much of this and of our gratitude.

A little to our surprise, the Governor spoke with us at some length yesterday, and listened evidently with care as our people bore witness to the abuses they live with every day.  He conceded graciously to two of our requests: that he would visit the home places of some of our people to see for himself what they are telling him about.  The conversation otherwise was a standoff.  We are far from agreement on most of our agenda of grievances.  But we feel that the conversation was useful because it made our differences utterly clear.  The Governor conceded our right to our opinions, but he believes that our accusations against the coal industry and its allies in state government are matters merely of opinion and personal feeling, without standing in fact, in law, or in principle.  He believes, moreover, that surface mining can be, and apparently that it is, carried on without damage to the land, the people, and the water supply.

We, of course, respectfully disagree.  We are relieved this morning by an accumulation of evidence that the first goal of our protest has been achieved.  State government’s official silence on the grave issues of surface mining has been broken.  Those issues have now entered the public conversation as they never have before.  Obviously, we are determined to stop the abuses of the coal industry, and to that end we are determined also to keep this conversation going.  We look forward to continuing our discussion with the Governor, and with anybody else who may want to talk with us. 

We wish to say further—and this is extremely important to us—that our protest is against methods of mining that are abusive.  We do not oppose mining per se.  Our purpose is to protect our land and water.  And we most certainly bear no ill will against those who work in mines.

For the latest on the sit-in check the newly created Kentucky Rising blog

SIT-IN UPDATE: 3:30pm EST: Sleepover at the Governor's

Heading into the weekend, the Governor has opened his office to the sit-in protesters for "as long as" they wish. Thirteen protesters, including Wendell Berry, Teri Blanton, John Hennen, and Stanley Sturgill will spend the night in the governor's office.

Jeff Biggers full coverage of the sit-in is HERE

Check these sites for a live video stream from the Governor's Office:

KFTC: http://www.kftc.org/blog/archive/2011/02/11/live
UStream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/kepentz

Wendell Berry Joins Retired Coal Miners and Residents in Kentucky Rising Capitol Sit-in

Over six years after Kentucky became the first state in the nation to introduce a bill that would halt the dumping of toxic coal mining wastes into headwater streams and effectively reign in the devastating fall-out of mountaintop removal operations, a group of affected coalfield residents, retired coal miners and bestselling authors have launched a sit-in in the office of Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear this morning.

Joined by legendary author, farmer and philosopher Wendell Berry, retired coal miner Stanley Sturgill, and Kentuckians for the Commonwealth activists Teri Blanton and Mickey McCoy, among others, the Kentucky activists declared their intent “to remain in his office until the governor agrees to stop the poisoning of Kentucky’s land, water, and people by mountaintop removal; or until he chooses to have the citizens physically removed.”


Only days since the anniversary of the historic Greensboro sit-ins in North Carolina, which triggered the Civil Rights Movement in 1960, organizers are hailing this breakthrough event as the advent of the “Kentucky Rising.” Twitter updates will be posted @jasonkylehoward and @kftc

“This is not something we’re doing for pleasure,” said Wendell Berry, who has been active in the movement to abolish mountaintop removal mining for years. “We’re doing it because it’s the next thing to do after all our attempts to attract serious attention to these problems have failed. We’re doing this as a last resort. Our intention is to appeal first to our elected representatives and the governor, and failing that, to appeal over their heads to our fellow citizens.”

Read the rest HERE

Black-and-White Duo Allerton & Alton Occupy Special Place In Country Music History

Portland, Maine, 1947. Two teenagers, one white, one black, rummaged through the record bins at Knight’s Used Furniture store.

The two didn’t know each other, but they scavenged for the same music: Mostly harmony-rich records of duos from the south. Back then it was frequently called “hillbilly music,” and it often arrived in Portland via military personnel who had traveled from southern homes to their Maine station. When recruits were called overseas, they’d often sell their 78 RPM hillbilly records to Knight’s for 15 cents apiece, and the store would sell them to kids like Al Hawkes and Alton Myers for 25 cents each.

But there weren’t a lot of kids like Hawkes and Myers, searching for the plaintive sounds of the rural south, up in Maine. The fact they were of different races seemed less important than their similar taste in music.



“When I saw Alton, I probably thought, ‘Well, he’s a little different,” said Hawkes, now 80. “But we liked the same music, and he told me he was learning guitar. And I said, ‘Why don’t we try to play some music together?’ ”

They did, and though the music did not make any charts, it made long-hidden history. Billed as Allerton & Alton, the pairing of Hawkes and Myers constituted what is believed to be the only black-and-white duo ever in country music. After more than 60 years, their live recordings from Maine radio stations are now available, through Germany-based Bear Family Records, on a set called Black, White and Bluegrass.

“This is a fascinating piece of American musical history,” said John Rumble, senior historian at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. “These guys were standing up there as co-equals, in a duet. Considering the racial climate of the nation then, it really was unusual to have a black man and a white man making music together. It’s something far out of the ordinary.”

As Rumble is quick to point out, African-Americans have contributed to country music as forerunners, influences and stars. Harmonica player DeFord Bailey was a prominent performer on the Grand Ole Opry from 1926 until 1941, when he was dismissed from the show in a decision that held ugly racial overtones: “Like some members of his race and other races, DeFord was lazy,” wrote Opry founder Judge George D. Hay in his 1946 history of the program.

Bailey is now a Country Music Hall of Famer, as is African-American Charley Pride, who notched top hits from the ’60s into the ’80s. Today’s country radio playlists regularly feature Darius Rucker. And a 1998 Country Music Foundation boxed set — From Where I Stand: The Black Experience in Country Music — illuminated country multi-cultural roots and branches.

But the notion of an integrated and equal country duo...that’s something else entirely.

Read the rest of the story HERE

(Story and photo via http://blogs.tennessean.com)

Wildcat Coal Lodge Will Have Tribute To Coal

The University of Kentucky's new $8 million Wildcat Coal Lodge won't just refer to coal mining in its name. According to the agreement between the donors who gave the money—many of them coal operatives—and the University of Kentucky, a tribute exhibit to the coal industry will greet visitors and residents when they come in the front door of the new residence planned for the UK men's basketball team near Memorial Coliseum.

Joseph W. Craft III, who heads Alliance Coal, organized a group of donors to give $7 million for the building; an anonymous donor later gave an additional $1 million, UK officials said. The UK Board of Trustees approved the building's name in 2009. The lodge will be 20,000 square feet and house 32 students.

The gift agreement, obtained by the Herald-Leader under the state's Open Records Act, says the building "will include an exhibit in the primary entrance lobby which presents in print, photographic, sound, video, DVD and/or other format, a discussion of and tribute to the importance of the coal industry to the Commonwealth of Kentucky, which exhibit shall be reasonably acceptable to Craft."

The proposed name already has caused an uproar on campus, and it spurred famed author Wendell Berry to pull many of his personal papers from the UK archives because he said it indicated the university was in a "manifest alliance" with the coal industry.

Teri Blanton of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth said Wednesday she would like to see a tribute to all the miners who have lost their lives digging for coal in Kentucky. "Coal has not been good for Kentucky," she said. "I don't think UK is making a good decision."

Read the rest of the story HERE

(Story and photo via Lexington Herald-Leader)

By The Numbers

It's interesting about this blog. It takes some time pulling interesting stories, videos, events, and news bits together, but not all that much, really. If someone stumbles upon it, that's great, and if someone else spends twenty minutes or an hour a week sorting through what's here, that's really great, and if I'm the only one here, that's okay too. But I'm not the only one, apparently. Started poking around with some web stats and found some interesting info about you all. In January, for example:

• Folks from 30 countries visited the blog, including Israel, Thailand, Sweden, Brazil and Hungary (The US, obviously, is ranked #1).
• Within the US, folks from 35 states wandered through--North Carolina and West Virginia being the highest ranked.
• In the last two months, visitor traffic is up 320%.
• Most of you are coming from the Radical Roots website. Other high traffic sources are Facebook, Google, and catholicanarchy.org. Hmmm.
• Most people like videos, and anything Wendell Berry related is hugely popular.
• 58% are Windows people, 37 are Mac.
• And so on...

So whoever you are, thanks for stopping. Stay awhile.

From Kentucky to Shanghai with Abigail Washburn

Abigail Washburn has a lovely, lilting, strong voice, and her music is a fascinating blend of bluegrass, woven with old threads of 1930s Americana and traditional songs, then globally spiced with Chinese melodies and Chinese language. On this recent NPR concert she talks about her local to global musical connections, the influence of Doc Watson on her playing, and other connections to Appalachian culture and music. Her new album City of Refuge came out in January. (Note: Yes, she did marry Bela Fleck last year and yes, Ben Sollee is a member of her Sparrow Quartet).

And, for all you Ashevillians out there, here's the latest from her Twitter feed: "Asheville! Thank you for the Early Girl Eatery. Thank you for the Grey Eagle. See u tonight! 8pm... Special guests revealing themselves."