Mountain Talk Monday Every Tuesday!

In this episode of Mountain Talk Monday get your dose of literary musings when as we feature the 2016 Seedtime on the Cumberland’s Southern Appalachian Writers’ Cooperative Literary Reading. Hear writers from Letcher County, Kentucky and all over southern Appalachia read their work.

Host Kelli Haywood interviews Erv Crisp of the foster care agency NECCO which has several locations throughout the region. The pair discuss many topics associated with becoming foster parents and the adoption process. You will also hear the stories of foster parents who have chosen to foster medically fragile children and the importance of consistent healthcare for all foster children.

In this episode of Mountain Talk Monday, we welcome special guest hosts Tanya Turner and Willa Johnson with the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative. They interviewed four students involved in KVEC’s initiatives around the region’s schools about the effects that their participation has had on their educational experience in the mountains of eastern Kentucky. KVEC activities was one of the highlights of the 2016 SOAR Innovation Summit. They discuss everything from coding, student senate, creative writing, and the educational social platform – The Holler!

Host Kelli Haywood and special guest host Kate Fowler speak with award winning photographer Wendy Ewald. Ewald visited Letcher Co., Kentucky in the late 1970s and worked with youth to document life as they saw it. The work became the book Portraits & Dreams. The methods she developed in Appalachia she took around the world. Ewald and hosts discuss a variety of topics including how Ewald and her students made the photos, who can tell the story of a place... who has the right, and what is similar across cultures when we view them through the eyes of children.

Are you thinking about getting a pet, or do you already own one? Spring is the season where we tend to see plenty of puppies and kittens around. So, it’s timely that in this episode of Mountain Talk Monday our guest is Dr. Dustin Anderson, DVM with the Animal Wellness Center in Pikeville, KY. Dr. Anderson and host Kelli Haywood discuss basic pet care, budget care, pet allergies and food, and the most common diseases of dogs and cats. Plus, listen to learn more about pet adoption and the efforts of the Appalachian SPCA.

WMMT’s Mimi Pickering traveled to Lexington to talk with author Katherine J. Black in her home and garden about her book Row by Row: Talking with Kentucky Gardeners, and how the idea for a simple oral history project turned into a book that is truly an illustration of how growing gardens of all types ultimately brings new levels of personal growth for those who choose to take it on

Katherine J. Black reads two selections from her book Row by Row: Talking with Kentucky Gardeners. Can, Dry, and Pickle: Mae Raney Sons - Back and Forward: Jashu, Kasan, and Seema Patel

Host Kelli Haywood speaks with Jon & Sheena, a married couple who have shared the disease of addiction throughout their entire relationship and have gone through the process of recovery together. They share how they reached their lowest low, the steps they took to regain their health, and what it is like living daily as a recovering addict and parenting their four children.

In this edition of Mountain Talk Monday, host Kelli Haywood speaks live with the director of The Rising Center – Holly Combs. The Rising Center in Hazard, Kentucky located beside Appalachian Regional Hospital provides an array of services to adult and child victims of sexual assault, abuse and incest in Kentucky River Community Care’s (KRCC) eight county area. In doing so, it works closely with local health service agencies, criminal justice systems, and social service agencies to ensure a coordinated system of reliable and appropriate care. Throughout the show, the pair discuss what it means to be sexually assaulted, the feelings associated, what to do if it happens to you, and more.

In this edition of Mountain Talk Monday, we celebrate Women’s History Month. Women from our listening area in Kentucky and Virginia share the stories of the Appalachian women who inspire them to live boldly and to stand tall. Just like women the world over, Appalachian women are no two alike, but in navigating their collective history, culture, and lifestyle, they share a distinctive bond. Only a mountain woman knows what it really means to be a mountain woman.

Language shapes our world, and defines our identities. In this edition of Mountain Talk, host Benny Becker dives into the stories and identities of Appalachian dialect with Professor Amy Clark, who is a Sociolinguist, the co-chair of the UVa-Wise Appalachian Studies Program, and the co-editor of a new book, Talking Appalachian. She tells the story of how Appalachian dialects came to be, shares her personal journey of learning to embrace her voice, and offers advice for anyone who worries about their accent.

Frank X. Walker from Danville, Kentucky is the former Poet Laureate of Kentucky and the first African American to hold the title. His groundbreaking first collection of poems published in 2000, Affrilachia, helped to “challenge the notion of a homogeneous all-white literary landscape in Appalachia.” Walker was a co-founder of the Affrilachian poets group and coined the term “Affrilachia” which is now used to describe a multitude of mountain-centric creations, philosophies, and activities. Walker is a professor at the University of Kentucky and has many publications. Recently, Walker spoke at a convocation given at Alice Lloyd College in Pippa Passes, Kentucky. Mountain Talk Monday host, Kelli Haywood, was there for the address and reception where she talked with Walker about what it means to be Appalachian, what our future here holds, and more.

Crystal Wilkinson is a well known Kentucky author, owner of Wild Fig Books & Coffee in Lexington KY, and a founding member of the Affrilachian Poets. In this edition of Mountain Talk Monday, host Kelli Haywood with the help of WMMT’s Mimi Pickering interviews Crystal on the eve of her upcoming book release, The Birds of Opulence. Kelli and Crystal delve deep into what it means to be Appalachian and to write about Appalachia for the contemporary audience. Crystal tells the story of Frank X. Walker’s coining of the term “Affrilachian” and how it has grown from representing a very specific group of people to being the identifying term for those contributing to the world stage in a wide variety of ways. Crystal also reads from her newest book which will be released in early March. Find Crystal where she is the Appalachian Writer in Residence at Berea College, or at Wild Fig Books & Coffee in person or on the web. Come to Seedtime on the Cumberland Festival here on the WMMT/Appalshop grounds in June of this year t

Gary Bentley, Letcher County native and former undergroud coal miner, sits down with Mountain Talk Monday host Kelli Haywood to discuss his new column for the online publication The Daily Yonder, “In the Black.” Through his column Bentley tells his personal story of life underground, and addresses the stereotypes often portrayed in mainstream media of miners and mining, “King Coal”, and Appalachians in general. Bentley also speaks of the importance of telling one’s stories for the sake of posterity and a broader understanding of the current truth of the coalfields of Appalachia. Listen today for the rare opportunity to hear it like it is straight from the mouth of a miner. See Bentley’s writing on The Daily Yonder website. Each new column appears on Monday.