Appalshop Notes

Dear Friends,

You have today the opportunity to remember why you support Appalshop and to reaffirm your commitment to our mission and the results you achieve through your social investment in the organization. We, the widespread family of Appalshop supporters will mark the occasion of our 40th birthday with our contributions. Together this year we shall raise $75,000 in Annual Appeal support for what UNC professor Jeff Whetstone calls the "most successful sustained rural arts movement of the past half-century."

Look at what you and Appalshop and have accomplished together: more than 100 films and television productions and more than fifty albums of Appalachian music and stories; the overturn of the broad form deed; documentation of traditional culture; the Appalachian Media Institute (AMI) building a new generation of community leaders and artists; WMMT, now beginning its 25th year of community radio; Roadside Theater; Thousand Kites; and so much more over these forty years.

You belong to the community of supporters that make this possible by investing your resources in Appalshop's work. This community has stood together for decades, united in the knowledge that communities in Appalachia and rural America must solve their own problems. As a longtime leader in the fields of community cultural development and community based arts, Appalshop creates art and media, develops tools, teaches skills, and fosters relationships to this end. Your trust and investment in us gives us heart. It helps us keep on addressing the issues shaping our future and sustaining the traditional culture of our home in the mountains.

We look forward to thanking you for your donation to Appalshop. Your support as financial partner of Appalshop in our 40th year is crucial to our effort to tell the stories and document the historic transition in Appalachia. You make it possible for Appalshop artists to support community-based efforts to determine their own futures. I hope that you will continue to share our work, our joys, and our concerns for many years to come.

Sincerely,
Art Menius, Director

Appalshop continues its two-year celebration of its 40th birthday, which occurred early in October 2009. The precise founding date of Appalshop cannot be determined, but records indicate that Bill and Josephine Richardson returned to Whitesburg on September 28, 1969 to begin establishing the Community Film Workshop here.

Appalshop at 40 focuses on supporting partner initiated events ranging from house parties created by individual supporters to academic conferences. This reflects the broad range of Appalshop's many individual and institutional supporters. We hope to touch as many people as possible during the course of the two year celebration, reconnecting with old friends, making new ones, and getting Appalshop's work out in as many venues as possible.

Appalshop at 40 events began September 2008 with the Letcher County Film Festival during Whitesburg Day of the Mountain Heritage Festival. A month thereafter the American Folklore Society, meeting in Louisville, presented three screenings of Appalshop films that deal with cultural topics and a seminar exploring our work. In November of 2008 Appalshop at 40 moved to the South Bronx when longtime collaborators Roadside Theater and Teatro Pregones presented a restaging of their joint effort, "Betsy." Thanks to the efforts of a robust host committee chaired by Anna Richardson, proceeds from that gala presentation of "Betsy" benefited Appalshop.

During February 2009 the celebration moved to Memphis, where the Folk Alliance International Conference offered a panel on cultural organizations of a certain age facilitated by Appalshop Director Art Menius as well as a session about the "Voices from the Cultural Battlefront" effort in which Roadside Theater director Dudley Cocke has been involved for more than 20 years. Five weeks later in Portsmouth, Ohio the Appalachian Studies Conference included a standing room only audience for an oral history of Appalshop featuring Jack Wright, Herb E. Smith, Mimi Pickering, Rich Kirby, and Dr. Bill Turner.

June 2009 brought Appalshop at 40 back to Whitesburg for Appalshop's Seedtime on the Cumberland festival. August found Appalshop at 40 intertwined with Senator Kennedy's funeral in Boston during the NAMAC Conference. The conference, which was held in Whitesburg back in 1984, included an opening reception at the MIT Museum in Cambridge that celebrated Appalshop's forty years.

September saw multiple Appalshop at 40 events happen including a screening of Appalshop music films during Whitesburg Day. Berea College's Appalachian Center began a series of monthly screenings of both Appalshop and AMI Films that will run through April 2010. Meanwhile, Appalachian State University in Boone, NC held the first of several Appalshop at 40 events crafted by Tom Hansell. Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC brought down filmmakers for screenings as well.

On October 17, 2009 Appalshop had the great honor to be the featured Saturday night program for the Oral History Association Annual Meeting in Louisville. Appalshop artists offered a fast-paced, multimedia exploration of how Appalshop has used oral history resources in its work. A week earlier, Appalshop at 40 returned to Whitesburg for String Band Day presented by the Alltech Fortnight Festival. Some 200 people enjoyed the workshops, concerts, and dance at Appalshop.

The months ahead promise a wealth of Appalshop at 40 events, including some continuing activities mentioned above and new ones under development. When the National Performance Network meets this month in Knoxville, a bus junket to Appalshop will bring several attendees to Appalshop. February will bring screeings of Appalshop films at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) on February 19 and 20 and another splash at the Folk Alliance International Conference.

March and April promises events at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, including an humanities symposium focusing on our work and its meaning. Check appalshop.org/40 to keep up with Appalshop at 40 events as they get scheduled.

Plus, we can take a direct, active, personal role in celebrating Appalshop at 40. You can mobilize support for our work by organizing an Appalshop at 40 event in your community. It can be as simple or elaborate as you desire, but regardless of scale, you will be making a difference for Appalshop, Appalachia, and rural America. Please contact Appalshop Director Art Menius at art@appalshop.org or 606-633-0108.

Appalshop is pleased to announce that WMMT's live webstream is now available for the iPhone and iPod touch. To tune in, download the free Public Radio Player App via your device or online from the iTunes App Store.

Once the player is installed, you can search for WMMT or find us by state in the Kentucky listings.

For more information, including a link to the iTunes App Store, visit publicradioplayer.org.

WMMT News is our monthly e-newsletter that will keep you updated on all WMMT programming. You'll know in advance who's scheduled to appear on Appalachian Attitude and Mountain Talk and what to expect from WMMT's public affairs programming. In every e-newsletter we'll highlight a volunteer programmer and their program in addition to giving you a schedule of all the great entertainment on WMMT.

Keep up with WMMT’s music, public affairs and events by signing up today!

Appalshop's General store will be offering great prices on wonderful gift ideas for anyone this holiday season. The CDs, like our latest reissue of Addie Graham's album Been A Long Time Traveling ("It is no exaggeration to say that Been a Long Time Traveling is one of the best records ever made by an old-time traditional singer,"~Dirty Linen) is only $10 between now and the new year. You can also take advantage of our Appalshop Films sale ($30 for any two titles or $40 for any 3: includes DVDs and VHS) to pick up our latest documentary on guitar maker Wayne Henderson, From Wood to Singing Guitar or classics like Stranger With A Camera and Hazel Dickens: It's Hard To Tell The Singer From The Song.

To give a gift from the mountains this holiday season please visit our web store at appalshop.org/store for great documentaries and music at low prices.

Appalshop's Thousand Kites is excited to offer community radio stations and individuals the 10th annual national radio program Calls from Home. Now in its 10th year, the program features phone calls from mothers and children, brothers and grandparents, sharing the intimate power of families speaking directly to their incarcerated loved ones.

Poets and musicians read and sing across phone lines and prison walls. Across the US, radio stations broadcast the radio program while organizations and individuals host listening parties in their communities. Record your calls on our answering machine between Nov. 23rd - Dec. 6th or call our live program on Dec. 7th and get the completed program December 8th. The phone-line is toll-free at 877-518-0606.

For media and more on how to get involved in this year's program, visit callsfromhome.org.

The Appalachian Media Institute (AMI) provides teens with the opportunity to learn new media technology while developing their capacity for leadership, artistic selfreflection, communication, and education. According to Rebecca O'Doherty, AMI's director, documentary production is a kind of resistance that sustains young people's positive connection to traditional Appalachian culture while "helping them realize they have knowledge and stories they should be telling."

AMI released three youth-produced video documentaries during the summer of 2009. Mayfield Pennington, portraying Pikeville's legendary boxer's work with youth in the community; Gold in the Water, about water quality in eastern Kentucky; and Just a Little Bit Normal, a story about ADHD, were screened for a community audience of more than 100 on August 7. During May and June AMI youth created a remarkable, interactive installation in downtown Whitesburg.

Appalshop's Appalachian Media Institute (AMI) and intern Allie Mullins are featured in the October issue of Unicef's Media Magic Digest, which includes video excerpts from Summer Documentary Institute videos.

This Fall, Kentucky Educational Television (KET) is airing Appalshop's Headwaters episodes on the KETKY channel. December episodes will include The Ralph Stanley Story, Shelter, His Eye is on the Sparrow & Girls' Hoops, and Rough Side of the Mountain.

For a complete schedule, please visit ket.org.

Appalshop Filmmakers Elizabeth Barret and Mimi Pickering have been awarded Al Smith Fellowships, and are traveling throughout the commonwealth this Fall as part of the Al Smith Fellowship Filmmaker Tour.

The Kentucky Arts Council, sponsor of the tour, is posting schedule information at artscouncil.ky.gov/FilmTour/filmtour09.htm.

Appalshop has been involved with two Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) Flex-E-Grants, which are awarded each year for "small investments in short-term projects that will build community capacity to mobilize local resources, gain leadership experience and strengthen community institutions and networks."

One of the grants was directly to Appalshop's WMMT-FM 88.7 to initiate the Letcher County Emergency Response Network and the other to conduct a county-wide planning process. Letcher County Emergency Response Network or LCERN works to gather residents, elected and other government officials, emergency response personnel, local business owners, health care providers, community action agencies, local and regional media, and other key stakeholders to develop a comprehensive and strategic plan to keep everyone in the county accurately informed in the event of immediate or ongoing emergencies.

Appalshop assisted the Letcher County Convention & Tourism Commission with its ARC Flex-E-Grant to create a community-based plan for using Letcher County's natural,cultural, and creative assets for economic revitalization. More than 225 citizens, including much of the county's elected leadership, participated in a series of eight community meetings that developed the plan, which will be published by the end of the year.