The widespread poverty that the Great Depression brought to Appalachia led to the founding of one of the area’s most valuable treasures: the Penland School of Crafts. Nestled deep in the hills of western North Carolina’s Mitchell County is the small community of Penland. . .
What do the GreenJackets, the RiverDogs, the Grasshoppers, the Catfish, the SandGnats, the BlueClaws, and the Crawdads have in common? They do not refer to square dance teams or high school debate clubs. Rather these intimidating monikers belong to professional, minor-league baseball teams. . .
Circuit riding clergymen, mostly Methodist and Baptist, brought religion to the scattered and hard-to-reach settlements of Appalachia before the Civil War. Obtaining resident pastors for sparsely-settled mountain communities was an ongoing problem. . .
Decoration Days are an important part of Appalachian ritual life. Usually held in the summer, these days are set aside by families and church congregations to clean and decorate their cemeteries. . .
Appalachian religious belief and expression were deeply influenced by the camp-meeting movement that swept the South in the early 19th century. . .
Tonya Carroll (B.A., 2007 M.A., 2009) with Bruce Frazier (Carol Grotnes Belk Endowed Professor in Commercial & Electronic Music) in the recording studio.