Participation Type
Performance
Session Title
Running With Whiskey: A Multi-Media Performance Exploring Place, Identity and Extractive Industry
Session Abstract or Summary
In the summer of 2017, Marc Harshman, the Poet-Laureate of West Virginia and Doug Van Gundy, award-winning poet and musician, traveled to the coal-mining region of south Wales, in the UK to meet, hear and read with Welsh poets whose work addresses many of the same issues that Harshman and Van Gundy frequently write about: labor, connection to place, the environmental and human impact of extractive industry, and the redemptive beauty of the hills.
Utilizing the traditional Appalachian arts of old-time music, storytelling and poetry, Harshman and Van Gundy will present a unique program grounded in the geo-mythos of the mountain state of West Virginia. The program weaves some of West Virginia’s oldest traditional fiddle music with original contemporary poetry representing the concerns and joys of this resilient land and its people.
The program will appeal to those interested in cultural studies, literature, traditional music, and the cultural connection to the British Isles that is part of the pastiche that is Appalachian culture. Having debuted the original program in West Virginia and subsequently in the UK, Harshman and Van Gundy are eager to bring it back to share this, their passionate homage to WV to a wider Appalachian audience and present it to the members of the Appalachian Studies Association.
Presentation #1 Title
Running With Whiskey: A Multi-Media Performance Exploring Place, Identity and Extractive Industry
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
In the summer of 2017, Marc Harshman, the Poet-Laureate of West Virginia and Doug Van Gundy, award-winning poet and musician, traveled to the coal-mining region of south Wales, in the UK to meet, hear and read with Welsh poets whose work addresses many of the same issues that Harshman and Van Gundy frequently write about: labor, connection to place, the environmental and human impact of extractive industry, and the redemptive beauty of the hills.
Utilizing the traditional Appalachian arts of old-time music, storytelling and poetry, Harshman and Van Gundy will present a unique program grounded in the geo-mythos of the mountain state of West Virginia. The program weaves some of West Virginia’s oldest traditional fiddle music with original contemporary poetry representing the concerns and joys of this resilient land and its people.
The program will appeal to those interested in cultural studies, literature, traditional music, and the cultural connection to the British Isles that is part of the pastiche that is Appalachian culture. Having debuted the original program in West Virginia and subsequently in the UK, Harshman and Van Gundy are eager to bring it back to share this, their passionate homage to WV to a wider Appalachian audience and present it to the members of the Appalachian Studies Association.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Marc Harshman’s latest collection, Believe What You Can, recently published by West Virginia University Press won last year's Weatherford Award from the Appalachian Studies Association. His fourteenth children’s book, Fallingwater, co-authored with Anna Smucker, has just been published by Roaring Brook/Macmillan. His monthly show for West Virginia Public Radio, “The Poetry Break,” began airing in 2016. He is the seventh poet laureate of West Virginia.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Doug Van Gundy teaches in both the BA and MFA writing programs at West Virginia Wesleyan College. His poems, essays and reviews have appeared in many journals, including The Oxford American, Ecotone, Appalachian Heritage, and Poetry Salzburg Review. He is co-editor of the anthology Eyes Glowing at the Edge of the Woods: Contemporary Writing from West Virginia, and is currently working on a follow-up to his debut poetry collection, A Life Above Water.
Conference Subthemes
Education, Environmental Sustainability
Running With Whiskey: A Multi-Media Performance Exploring Place, Identity and Extractive Industry
In the summer of 2017, Marc Harshman, the Poet-Laureate of West Virginia and Doug Van Gundy, award-winning poet and musician, traveled to the coal-mining region of south Wales, in the UK to meet, hear and read with Welsh poets whose work addresses many of the same issues that Harshman and Van Gundy frequently write about: labor, connection to place, the environmental and human impact of extractive industry, and the redemptive beauty of the hills.
Utilizing the traditional Appalachian arts of old-time music, storytelling and poetry, Harshman and Van Gundy will present a unique program grounded in the geo-mythos of the mountain state of West Virginia. The program weaves some of West Virginia’s oldest traditional fiddle music with original contemporary poetry representing the concerns and joys of this resilient land and its people.
The program will appeal to those interested in cultural studies, literature, traditional music, and the cultural connection to the British Isles that is part of the pastiche that is Appalachian culture. Having debuted the original program in West Virginia and subsequently in the UK, Harshman and Van Gundy are eager to bring it back to share this, their passionate homage to WV to a wider Appalachian audience and present it to the members of the Appalachian Studies Association.
