Participation Type
Roundtable
Session Title
Appalshop at 50: A National Spotlight in 2020
Session Abstract or Summary
Do you know Appalshop, the multimedia arts, culture and education center in Whitesburg, KY is about to celebrate a 50th Anniversary? We are! Most of our celebration will happen in 2020 and we’re especially excited about the ASA Conference in Kentucky next year, but this is a great chance to sneak peek our 50th Campaign and artwork to mark this special occasion. Organizations like the ASA have helped transform Appalshop from an experiment into a success and will enable our next 50 years of creativity through art, music, theater, film, photography and new medias on the horizon. This roundtable will spotlight how Appalshop’s 50th milestone can echo Appalachia’s story and significance across the country.
As actor, author, and woodworker Nick Offerman recently said, “If every community had an Appalshop, we would all be much better at exchanging handshakes and recipes. They are a beacon of decency and forward-thinking in our country’s continued quest for equal human rights.”
Presentation #1 Title
Appalshop at 50: A National Spotlight in 2020
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Do you know Appalshop, the multimedia arts, culture and education center in Whitesburg, KY is about to celebrate a 50th Anniversary? We are! Most of our celebration will happen in 2020 and we’re especially excited about the ASA Conference in Kentucky next year, but this is a great chance to sneak peek our 50th Campaign and artwork to mark this special occasion. Organizations like the ASA have helped transform Appalshop from an experiment into a success and will enable our next 50 years of creativity through art, music, theater, film, photography and new medias on the horizon. This roundtable will spotlight how Appalshop’s 50th milestone can echo Appalachia’s story and significance across the country.
As actor, author, and woodworker Nick Offerman recently said, “If every community had an Appalshop, we would all be much better at exchanging handshakes and recipes. They are a beacon of decency and forward-thinking in our country’s continued quest for equal human rights.”
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Tanya Turner (convener)
An auntie and eldest daughter of four from Bell County, KY, Tanya is a graduate of Eastern Kentucky University. She spent five years on the staff of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and joined Appalshop’s 50th planning team in 2017 after working on The Holler Network with Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative. Tanya has contributed to youth programming at the Highlander Center and Stay Together Appalachian Youth (STAY) Project, served on the Boards of Appalachian Community Fund and currently, the Kentucky Foundation for Women. Besides leading regional Sexy Sex Ed workshops and her weekly WMMT program, Feminist Friday, you can hear Tanya on the regional political podcast, Trillbilly Worker’s Party.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
MIMI PICKERING
Mimi Pickering is an award-winning filmmaker and director of Appalshop’s Community Media Initiative (CMI). Pickering is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and two Kentucky Arts Council Artist Fellowships. Her film, The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man, was selected by the Library of Congress for inclusion in the National Film Registry in 2005. Other documentaries include Chemical Valley, an examination of environmental racism in West Virginia’s Kanawha Valley after the Bhopal disaster in India, which aired on the PBS series P.O.V., and Hazel Dickens: It’s Hard to Tell the Singer From the Song, a film The Oral History Review described as “a powerful tale told by one of Appalachia’s most reverent filmmakers working today…” Most recently Pickering and Anne Lewis produced Anne Braden: Southern Patriot, a biography of this storied civil rights and civil liberties activist. As CMI Director, Pickering produces Making Connections News, a joint effort with WMMT-FM to share stories exploring sustainable economic options for the coalfields. She also is a team leader for All Access EKY, a collaboration to leverage youth-produced multimedia storytelling and community-based decision making to raise awareness and support for comprehensive reproductive health services for women in Appalachian Kentucky.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
ALEXANDER GIBSON
Alex graduated from Berea College in 2008 with a B.A. in Philosophy and earned his J.D., Doctor of Laws, from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2012. Alex also holds certificates in International Comparative Law from Queen Mary at the University of London, England, and in Thai and Southeast Asian Studies from Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Alex now serves as the Executive Director of Appalshop, a multi-media arts organization located in Whitesburg, Kentucky.
Before joining Appalshop, Gibson practiced law within the Torts, Insurance, and Business Litigation practice groups at Stites & Harbison, PLLC in Louisville, Kentucky, and in the Business Litigation group at Ballard, Spahr, Andrews, and Ingersol in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Before entering private practice, Gibson served as a federal law clerk for the Honorable Thomas W. Phillips, U.S. District Judge for the eastern district of Tennessee, where he assisted in the resolution of multi-million dollar law suits, federal criminal trials, and critical questions of constitutional law; particularly, those issues that implicate the First Amendment. Prior to his clerkship and while attending law school, Alex provided Pro Bono legal services to asylum seekers from central and west Africa; he conducted tax workshops in west Philadelphia and was part of a delegation that went to serve Mombasa, Kenya, in order to teach constitutional law to women’s rights groups in the wake of Kenyan constitutional reform.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #4
MARLEY GREEN
Marley joined Appalshop in June of 2017 as a Community Development Worker. A native of Virginia, he graduated with a B.A. in Anthropology and Environmental Studies from James Madison University in 2009, and graduated from the University of Virginia with a Master’s Degree in Urban and Environmental Planning in 2017. Prior to joining Appalshop, he worked as an environmental and economic justice community organizer in Southwest Virginia, linking ecological sustainability, community economic resilience, participatory democracy and social justice in pursuit of a better tomorrow for all. Marley is a passionate gardener, canoeist, and occasional host of the Whirled Beet on WMMT.
Appalshop at 50: A National Spotlight in 2020
Do you know Appalshop, the multimedia arts, culture and education center in Whitesburg, KY is about to celebrate a 50th Anniversary? We are! Most of our celebration will happen in 2020 and we’re especially excited about the ASA Conference in Kentucky next year, but this is a great chance to sneak peek our 50th Campaign and artwork to mark this special occasion. Organizations like the ASA have helped transform Appalshop from an experiment into a success and will enable our next 50 years of creativity through art, music, theater, film, photography and new medias on the horizon. This roundtable will spotlight how Appalshop’s 50th milestone can echo Appalachia’s story and significance across the country.
As actor, author, and woodworker Nick Offerman recently said, “If every community had an Appalshop, we would all be much better at exchanging handshakes and recipes. They are a beacon of decency and forward-thinking in our country’s continued quest for equal human rights.”
