KY County Crosses Political Divide through Arts, Culture

December 30, 2016

LETCHER COUNTY, Ky. - In America, where the political divide has reached Grand Canyon proportions, one Kentucky county is trying to build deep community relationships to overcome these differences.

It's happening in Letcher County, where 80 percent of the residents voted for Donald Trump. It is known as the Letcher County Culture Hub, and Ben Fink, who has been heavily involved in the effort, believes it can be a model for other communities. He said divisions are "never absolute," and can be bridged through culture on two levels.

"One is art and music, and theater and film, and all that stuff," he said, "and then there's also culture on a deeper level - the shared values and the shared stories that we tell about each other, about ourselves, about our community." Read more…
 

The View From Appalachia: The Pull To Get Out And Come Back Home

This story is part of "The View From," an election-year project focused on how voters' needs of government are shaped by where they live. The series started in Illinois and this week, NPR took a road trip across three Appalachian states.

Letcher County, Ky., is shaped by generations of migration — not always voluntary. There is an almost tidal pull drawing young people out, in search of jobs. But there is also a new generation of return migrants, those eager to create economic reasons to come home. Read more…

After Coal, a Small Kentucky Town Builds a Healthier, More Creative Economy

A complex network of local organizations helps neighbors support one another as they rebound from a dying industry.

Peter Slavin posted Jun 06, 2017

Nearly 50 years ago, on a presidential campaign swing through eastern Kentucky, Sen. Robert Kennedy promised to help a disabled coal miner build a community center in the tiny mountain town of Hemphill to give idle youth and others a place for recreation and meetings.

James Johnson used the brick-making machine and VISTA workers that Kennedy supplied to create community space and built a park and area for horseback riding.

Years later Johnson developed black lung disease and couldn’t keep the center going. After he died, his widow, Mabel, helped establish a new Hemphill Community Center in this mountainous region in the heart of Appalachia. Read more…

Building Democracy in 'Trump Country'

Ben Fink works at Kentucky's Appalshop, a grass-roots multimedia arts center. He writes about how he and his community have been working with each other in the aftermath of the presidential election.

BY BEN FINK | MARCH 10, 2017

A lot of people don’t believe me when I tell them Letcher County, Kentucky, is one of the most open-minded places I’ve ever lived.
I moved here a year ago. I’ve spent most of my life in cities and suburbs, and I arrived with all the assumptions you can imagine about Central Appalachia and the people who live here.

I might not have believed it either, before I moved here a year ago. I’ve spent most of my life in cities and suburbs, and I arrived with all the assumptions you can imagine about Central Appalachia and the people who live here. Read more…