Black in Appalachia

This episode we explore the history and significance of racially charged place names in Appalachia. From Ann Miller Woodford in Far Western North Carolina, SW Virginia's Great Stone Face to poet Cecil Giscombe's reflection on the absurdity of "Negro Mountain" in Appalachian Pennsylvania, this discussion underscores the importance of addressing these place names and the work toward respectful historical narratives.

On October 31, 1919, white residents of Corbin, Kentucky forcibly removed approximately 200 African Americans from the town. The victims were forced into box cars and sent to Knoxville, Tennessee. Corbin was left a virtually all-white town. Years later, Travis Hampton, a survivor of the purge, is leading a desperate, impoverished life with his family in Knoxville. When a white man, an old acquaintance from Corbin, approaches and attempts to “make things right,” Travis must come to terms with his past and his principles.

On this episode of the Black in Appalachia podcast, West Virginia University Sociology Major, Suraya Boggs, shares her experience of growing up in Appalachia as a second generation immigrant with a West Indian parent. She is particularly concerned with the codependent relationships between immigrant parents and American-born children. Boggs found many similarities among herself and other second generation peers and also compared their codependent familiar relationships to their more independent non-immigrant peers.

On this episode of Black in Appalachia we talk with Frank X Walker, Black Appalachian award winning author, coiner of the term “Affrilachian” and 1st Black Poet Laureate of Kentucky. Frank shared with us about his background and growing up in Danville, Kentucky, the origins of his career as a poet, the founding of the Affrilachian poets and some of his work and writing processes. 

Enkeshi and William sit down and talk with Cornel West about his run for President of the United States.

The Black in Appalachia Podcast was lucky enough to talk with 102 year old Clara Hughes from Oliver Springs, Tennessee. She has led an incredible life, so you can only imagine the amazing stories she has to share, such as, she was the first Black woman to sit on the Y-12 Union Board in Oak Ridge, outliving 2 husbands and carving out a career and life from the East Tennessee coalfields to a venue of cutting edge technology and science.

On this episode of Black in Appalachia, Enkeshi is joined by University of Tennessee Sociologists, Shaneda Destine and Michelle Brown to share about a project the three of them worked on around the topic of Black safety. Black safety is a term Enkeshi developed in her dissertation that was concerned with how in a violent anti-black racists society, Black people and Black communities provide a sense of safety not captured in mainstream carceral understandings of safety. Together they curated a set of scholars to write on the topic and interviewed activists about their understanding and practices of safety. The episode highlights their interview with Ash-lee Woodard Henderson, Chattanooga native and Co-Executive Director at Highlander Research and Education Center.

Curator Kreneshia Whiteside-McGhee talks about her installation Y'all Don't Hear Me: The Black Appalachia. As part of the exhibit Kren sits down for a conversation with Nikki Giovanni. Featured artists include Amanda Banks, Jabari Browne, Kamau Bostic, Kywaun Davenport, Laiza Fuhrmann, Nikki Giovanni, Genesis The Greykid, Vandorn Hinnant, Frederick Johnson, Ashley Jones, Mary Martin, Charlie Newton, Iantha Newton, Mikael Owunna, Travis Prince, Walter Reap, Justin Rocha, RaMell Ross, Jessica Scott-Felder, Larry Silver, Myke “Murda” Stallone, Moses Sumney, Raymond Thompson, Carrington Ware, Crystal Wilkinson and Coco Villa.

On this episode of Black in Appalachia, Enkeshi teams up with four educators of  West Virginia University's national writers project to bring you letters from the archives. The team went to the University's archive for a workshop on how to incorporate primary sources in developing new narratives of Appalachia. While in the archives they discovered a master clap-back king and had to tell his story. 

In this unreleased episode from March 2022 William talks with Daryle Lamont Jenkins of the One People's Project to get an update on what's happening in the white supremacy movement.

Enkeshi and Pumpkin talk with Pam Nixon about her advocacy work in Environmental Justice in Institute, West Virginia. This was a live-recorded event that was part of the University of Tennessee's Black Ecologies Week, held as a partnership with UT Humanities Center initiative with Africana Studies, The Bottom, Black in Appalachia, East Tennessee PBS, UTK departments, and other community and university partners.

Black in Appalachia's Angela Dennis talks with Matthew Hawn, a teacher who was fired for exploring the concepts of white privilege and racial disparity. Hawn stresses the need to engage students to think deeply about values, history and society as he tries to reclaim his place in the classroom.

On this episode, Enkeshi and Pumpkin welcome wildlife biologist, writer, and poet, Dr. J Drew Lanham. Originally interviewed at Black in Appalachia's live show for the University of Tennessee's "Black Ecologies Week", we discuss and riff about birds, nature, and Appalachian South Carolina. We discuss his memoir "The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature", as well as his lessons from being a birdwatcher.

On this episode of the Black in Appalachia podcast, Director William Isom sits down with Enkeshi El-Amin to talk about the Marcus Garvey led Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and the organization's early twentieth century impact across Appalachia. Explore the scope of the UNIA and the types of activities that were attractive to working class Black people in the mountains, how informal networks and the organization's newspaper facilitated its spread and the challenges the group faced particularly from the feds.

On this episode of the Black in Appalachia podcast we reflect on the historical and contemporary importance of the Black press to Black people and Black communities. We ground this conversation in a special feature of a new Black newspaper in West Virginia called Black by God: The West Virginian. The paper is published by Afrolachian Poet, Crystal Good. Around the paper's 1st anniversary, we had a conversation with Good to learn about its origins and all the work she is doing with Black by God. 

On this episode of the podcast Enkeshi and Pumpkin talk about Black people's relationship with swimming and pools in America. We discuss the stats,  dispel the myths, explore the racist histories and share the stories from Black experiences in Appalachia. Guests on this episode include swim advocate Beverly McCloud Iseghohi, University of Montana Professor, Dr. Jeff Wiltse, Black Appalachian author Malaika Adero and Knoxville based cultural worker Aishia Brown.

Enkeshi El-Amin talks in-depth with Pittsburgh-based Brian Broome, the author of Punch Me Up to the Gods: A Memoir. His book recounts his experiences—in all their cringe-worthy, hilarious, and heartbreaking glory—revealing a perpetual outsider awkwardly squirming to find his way in.

On the next episode of the Black in Appalachia Podcast, Dr. Enkeshi El-Amin & Pumpkin Starr dig into the story of John Henry. There are dozens of tales of this Black laborer covered in myth & metaphors on race & class, but very little discussion on health & the sacrifice of Black bodies for capital.

On this episode of the Black in Appalachia Podcast Enkeshi and Pumpkin discuss the importance of the giving season to Black organizations in the region. They also talk about inequity in funding and the need for shifts in philanthropy. The episode closes with a charge to our listeners to #Giveblack. Tell us which Black orgs, projects, initiatives, artists, groups you are giving to this season and why?

Black in Appalachia Initiative Director William Isom shares Sepia Tones: Exploring Black Appalachian Music. This series chronicles the experience of freed and escaped African slaves and their descendants in the development of what we know today as Appalachian music. 

It's the Halloween episode of the Black in Appalachia podcast. Enkeshi & Pumpkin dig into truly macabre tales of Black labor in the coalfields of West Virginia and specifically the digging of Hawk's Nest Tunnel in Nicholas County. Featuring photojournalist Raymond Thompson Jr. and his work to uncover this protracted tragedy.

Dr. Enkeshi El-Amin talks with the Godfather of Blacks in Appalachia, Dr. William H. Turner about his new book, "The Harlan Renaissance: Stories of Black Life in Appalachian Coal Towns." The Harlan Renaissance invites readers into what might be an unfamiliar Appalachia: one studded by large and vibrant Black communities. Difficult choices for the future were made as parents considered the unpredictable nature of Appalachia's economic realities alongside the unpredictable nature of a national movement toward civil rights.

In this episode we're talking about the history of confederate monuments, their removal and impact on our educational landscape with C.J. Hunt the director of Neutral Ground. Neutral Ground documents New Orleans' fight over monuments and America's troubled romance with the Lost Cause.

Black in Appalachia was invited to speak at ArtsBuild Chattanooga's Equity in the Arts Conference held on September 10, 2021. This episode is a live recording where Enkeshi and Alona discuss shifting the power in equity conversation from funders to cultural workers and artists. We center the communities as those with the power and highlight how their creative and cultural practices transform the world. To help us, we talk with Chattanooga native Roland Carter whose arrangement of The Black National Anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing, is the most widely known.

Black in Appalachia is talking Black life in West Virginia coal camps, the Mine Wars and the struggles for Black political power and workers' rights, with excerpts from our visit to The West Virginia Mine Wars Museum, retired coal miners and the one and only Dr. Joe Trotter, Jr.

In this episode Black Excellence from the Steel City comes to life as the Black in Appalachia crew headed to Pittsburgh for a live episode at the August Wilson Cultural Center. Special guests include Marimba Milliones of the Hill District CDC, National Student Poet Anthony Wiles, and Artist Darrell Kinsel.

Affralachian Poet Crystal Wilkinson shares her thoughts on growing up in Appalachia and reads from her new collection Perfect Black.

Enkeshi and Alona explore the interesting history of Berea College and it's legacy for Appalachia.

Enkeshi, Angela and Alona discuss guns and gun culture in Appalachia. We talk with David Yamane a sociologist at Wake Forrest who is an expert on American Gun Culture and hear from Jered Croom on why he is a member of the NRA - begrudgingly.

On this episode of Black in Appalachia we have a discussion with singer-songwriter Walter DeBarr about growing up Black in West Virginia. Debarr was the only bi-racial person in his extended family AND his hometown. His feeling of cultural separation from those around him accompanied by significant life events led him in the direction of active addiction. All the while music played a saving role.

Enkeshi and Pumpkin talk with Drag Queens about the ups, downs and being Black in the Appalachian Scene

On this episode of the Black in Appalachia Podcast Enkeshi and special guest host Joe Tolbert talk Black church life, community, sex, identity and much much more with Deesha Phliyaw, acclaimed author of The Secret LIves of Church Ladies.

It’s Christmas in Appalachia and the crew is exploring Black holiday traditions from Pennington Gap, VA, London, KY and Birmingham,AL. Join in and hear talks about food, chittlins, rabbit hunting, Kwanzaa and more! 

Discover the history of Appalachia as Enkeshi and Angela talk about Mulungeon identity in the region and hear from author and descendant, Wayne Winkler. 

In this Thanksgiving episode Enkeshi and Angela explore the relations between black folks and the Cherokee nation. Listen as they talk to Marilyn Van, President of the Descendants of Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes Association and dig deeper into the indigenous history. 

As Enkeshi and Angela embrace the centering of Black women,  this episode features the award winning legendary poet, author and civil rights legend Nikki Giovanni as she joins them for an exclusive interview. Listen as she talks Appalachian history and family stories in true Nikki fashion.

It’s Halloween in Appalachia and Enkeshi and Angela host special guest activists on this hour long special episode exploring historic homes and the spooky ghosts of untold and forgotten Black History. 

It's election season and Black women are on the rise in Appalachian politics. In this episode Enkeshi and Angela talk about Amelia Parker, Black women and the historic elections that have shaped the political climate in the region.

In the wake of uprisings, Asheville, NC has been in the media and at the center of reparations talk in the region. Will Black Appalachians finally get their 40 acres and a mule? Find out as Enkeshi and Angela explore the truth behind the city's Reparations resolution and dig into what's happening on the ground in Asheville.

In this episode of Black in Appalachia, Enkeshi and Angela discuss The Great Migration and the role that Appalachian coal miners played in it. With the rise of coal industry, thousands of Black laborers were recruited from the deep South to the coal fields of Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia. Black people, seeking living wages and to escape from racial terror settled in Appalachia coal towns before moving on to Northern cities like Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, and New York a generation or two later.  

In 21st century America, there are people actively working to track down Nazis. Daryle Lamont Jenkins explains modern Nazi Hunting, why this is even a thing & the special skill set he's developed for exposing those that may prefer to stay hidden.

"Sundown Towns" explores the existence of these no-go places for Black folks and the navigation of the checkerboard that is Appalachia.

Its Emancipation Day in Appalachia, but what has that meant through Reconstruction, Jim Crow and the current uprisings for justice. We'll talk though being Free-ish in 2020 with scholars, activists and community members.

Having long been in this region, Black Appalachians have remained mostly invisible while dominant narratives of Appalachia depict whiteness. The Black in Appalachia Podcast challenges misconceptions by highlighting how Black people have shaped and have been shaped by Appalachia. Through historical and contemporary stories of Black people, places and experiences hosts Enkeshi El-Amin and Angela Dennis interrogate what it means to be Black in this regions. The podcast creates a space where untold stories can be heard but also where the Black Identity can be reclaimed.