Trip to Pennsylvania: ASA conference #2

..the ASA banner hanging downtown..

This past weekend Scott and I ventured to Pennsylvania (for the third time in our two years living in Ohio, I might add) to the Appalachian Studies Association Conference at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.  It was a great end to my spring break and seemed more like a mini-vacation than a trip that will eventually end up on our resumes.  Because it's never one of our adventures without some minor mishap, we took a wrong exit, which resulted in paying an extra turnpike toll and seeing the welcoming (not!) sign that the next exit was 14 miles away, which then meant turning around, paying another toll and traveling the 14 miles again to the correct exit.

Despite our memorable little detour we made it to Indiana, PA in pretty good time, checked into our hotel and headed downtown to the small college shops, pubs, and restaurants.  We decided on The Train Station for dinner and had the place all to ourselves (which made the little train circling our heads seem even louder).  The food was good but the decor and the fact that we were alone but for our waitress and the cooks made it seem like we'd stepped out of time.

...the restaurant - a converted train station...

Friday morning we got up and went to the school, checked out the vendors - schools like Berea College and ETSU handing out flyers on Appalachian Studies programs, publishers selling books, and local artists and activists handing out pamphlets, stickers, and PENS!!! (Scott says I might have a serious problem about picking up pens on tables...). I presented first and really enjoyed listening to the other presenters on my panel.  They were very encouraging and asked some really great questions for further research on my paper.  From their presentations I learned about Diane Gilliam Fisher's collection of poems titled Kettle Bottom, and the Centralia, PA mining fire that created a ghost town: only 10 residents were living there in 2010 (I had honestly never heard of this tragedy before).

...the UIP campus was beautiful and busy with students...

 

Scott's panel was also very interesting...I learned a lot about Moutaintop Removal and Ann Pancake's novel, Strange As This Weather Has Been about the effects of MTR on a family in West Virginia.  I went to a Folklore and Storytelling panel where we heard a couple Jack tales performed by a professor at IUP; she also shared some picture books that would be great in the Appalachian classroom (adapted for all ages and grades): Mountain Jack Tales by Gail E. Haley, Momma Was a Miner by George Ella Lyon, In Coal Country by Judith Hendershot, and Appalachia: The Voices of Sleeping Birds by Cynthia Rylant to name a few of my favorites.  Cynthia Rylant's When I Was Young In the Mountains would be a great guided writing assignment for students (similar to George Ella Lyon's 'Where I'm From' poem).

I went to a 'Digital Appalachia' panel where I learned about Mappalachia, a digital archive of drawings of Appalachia, created by Berea College in Berea, Kentucky.  Can you believe a grad student all the way from Texas presented about this resource? She was analyzing how it served to depict Appalachia since it included drawings outside of Appalachia, as defined by the ARC.  Another presenter spoke about the Eastern Kentucky Arts Project which "seeks to nurture the visual arts of Kentucky’s Appalachian counties by providing information on the region’s arts-related resources" ('like' their Facebook page here).

...Si Kahn during his Keynote address...

We also attended the keynote address by activist, writer, and musician Si Kahn (I mentioned him in my previous post).  He weaved folk ballads like "I am a Union Woman: Join the NMU" and "One Man Dead on the Harlan County Line" while he spoke of what it means to be Appalachian and what it might mean fifty years from now.  He pondered whether you're born Appalachian or made Appalachian...reminded me of Simone de Beauvoir who said, "One is not born, but rather becomes a woman."  He asked if it were possible to decide to become Appalachian or to no longer be Appalachian.  It was really interesting, and I absolutely loved his use of the ballads during his talk, almost like musical chapter breaks.

Well I've come to the end of my post and I think the only way to end is with a couple of the ballads he shared, "I am a Union Woman" by Aunt Molly Jackson, the "Kentucky Coal Mining Diva" (you can listen to her sing it here).  I also found this video of Si Kahn at a bookstore and he talks a little about Molly and then sings "One Man Dead on the Harlan County Line" (it's in two parts)...

I am a union woman/ Just as Brave as I can be/ I do not like the bosses/ And the bosses don't like me. Join the NMU, Join the NMU 

I was raised in Old Kentucky/ Kentucky born and bred,/ But when I joined the union,/ They called me a Russian Red. 

Join the NMU, Join the NMU

This is the worst time on earth/ That I have ever saw,/ To get killed out by gun thugs/ And framed up by the law.

Join the NMU, Join the NMU 

If you want to join a union,/ As strong as one can be/ Join the dear old NMU/ And come along with me. 

Join the NMU, Join the NMU

We are many thousand strong, /And I am glad to say/ We are getting stronger/ And stronger every day.  

Join the NMU, Join the NMU

The bosses ride fine horses/ While we walk in the mud,/ Their banner is the dollar sign, / Ours is striped with blood. 

Join the NMU, Join the NMU 

(lyrics from here).