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Cultural Qualities.Pdf (521K) Cultural Qualities CULTURAL QUALITIES Gathering on the State Capitol grounds. Locations It was Appalachian all the way: fiddlers and banjo players, a Liar’s Contest, arts 1. WV Cultural Center 7. Coal camp town and crafts, Joe Bundyashington portrays for story-telling, and old-fash- 2. Vandalia Gathering 8. African-American Heritage Family Booker T. W school groups and others. ioned country hen Booker was freedalden at food. All the 3. 9. W Mountain Stage Contentment Historical Complex the age of 8 he walked things you think the Trail to M of when you 4. African Zion Baptist Church 10. Camp Washington Carver where he learned to read and the rest is think West history! Virginia. They 5. Malden Salt Village 11. Carnegie Hall (Rural arts education) have other Appalachian 6. 12. festivals there too, like the Cabin Creek Quilts WV State Fair (Fairlea) Dearest Sandy: Rhododendron Festival. Glad to hear your trip is going great. Glad Something else,before I forget.I knew you enjoyed the exhibits at the Louvre and you loved folk music, so I booked a cou- CULTURAL the London Gallery. Loved your stories ple of tickets to an Arlo Guthrie concert about the concerts. My trip through Europe here the Sunday after you get back. Right years ago was a great learning experience. I on the Capitol grounds is a musical only wish I was with you, but the boss could- showcase area they call Mountain Stage. n’t let me get away.When you get back, I’ve Every Sunday they have a musical pro- got another little cultural foray for you, and gram--jazz, folk, blues, classical--and they we could easily do it in a weekend away. broadcast it on the radio all over the Last weekend the work was slow, so I country.I thought it might be kind of fun. went to West Virginia just to get out of the After that we can ride the P.A. Denny city. I was in Charleston at the Vandalia Sternwheeler, the only one on the Trail (authentic, too). con’d Broadcast nationally from right on the Trail, Mountain Stage, the live performance NPR radio show is renowned for its star studded and diverse performances. 4.14 4.15 Just for fun, I decided to head up Route one in New York).They 60 East. When I was a kid, I read about have arts programs all At Malden’s Fresh Start Booker Washington, but didn’t know a lot year-round. From the Salt Village, kids and adults about him. He lived outside Charleston in a brochure, I found out alike get a glimpse of the work-a-day little town called Malden,so that Carnegie Hall has a life of a freed slave in a replica of Booker T. I went to visit.They had an Washington’s boyhood cabin home.When model rural arts-in- freed, an 8-year-old Booker and his family old black church called the education program,one walked from the Burrough’s Plantation in African Zion Baptist of the largest in the Virginia to Malden. Here he learned to Church; standing in it, you country. You might tell ead, taught Sunday School at the African r can almost hear a hot sum- Zion Church and began his life as an that to your painter educator and spokesman. mer’s day inspired sermon friends. Maybe it all started when the Carnegie family funded this beautiful Carnegie Art as a preacher with a swel- Sending you a copy Center here in 1902 -- but somehow tering face delivers his mes- of the schedule at Lewisburg has become a haven for the sage to attentive men and Camp Washington Carver at Clifftop (they also have African- artistic – with everything done in a world class way --live local theater, galleries, local women who fan them- American cultural programs); maybe we can go to “Doo-Wop musicians, artists of all types. Carnegie’s selves in the oppressive Saturday” or “Old Time Days”. Also a brochure for the model rural arts-in-education program, one heat. It’s next door to a Greenbrier Valley Theater in Lewisburg. The “Greenbrier of the largest in the country ! salt-worker’s village that Ghost” play looks fascinating. recreates what it was like The Trail also has other arts and crafts festivals, like the for freed slaves to live in Upper Kanawha Valley Fall Festival at Quincy Shopping Center and West Virginia Day Malden after the Civil War. at Hawks Nest State Park.Want to go to those? Let me know. I know you’re always look- I guess we forget some- ing for new cultural experiences.Wish I was with you. times what a freed slave’s life was really like. I could XXXOOO, almost see Booker in it as a Mike little boy, his eyes full of thirst for books and words Legendary quilters in legendary home. and learning. The village Cabin Creek Quilter really brings home to you Pearl Nutter quilts in what Booker probably saw as a boy. front of historic home I headed through a town called Ansted, of John Hale, salt and stopped at a place called the African- industrialist and American Heritage Family Tree Museum.To great-grandson of Mary Ingles. My Dear Corinna– look at it, you wouldn’t know it’s run by an internationally-known poet/playwright, but Forget the cathedral. sure enough, it is. Norman Jordan and his Let’s do it here -- the wife Brucella (who has a doctorate in histo- AfricanChurch Zion Baptist ry) met me and showed me some great cul- tural memorabilia. His roots are in the -Love Rodney African-American mining culture in Ansted, and he showed me memorabilia, photos (his father was a pioneering photographer), and models. It was an interesting look into min- ing and black culture. I went on to a charming little place called Lewisburg. There was a musical production at Carnegie Hall (yeah, the same name as the 4.16 4.17.
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