We lived in safety in a holler down at the foothills of Appalachia. We was holed up in a big compound with highwalls and all manner of protection and arms. The place used to be a gated community. Our folk took to callin’ the place The Kingdom. We’d learn aboutContinue Reading
I am an artist who enjoys working in acrylics, ink and pen, colored pencils, and mixed mediums. Some paintings take 30 to 40 hours to complete, others — painted in an Uber-Expressionistic style — less than an hour. The subject and mood dictate the speed, emotion, color palette, and layers.Continue Reading
The Capturing Appalachia Photography Contest closed January 31 at midnight. Thank you for your interest. Appalachia Bare holds a genre-specific contest every year, so keep checking with us. We look forward to seeing more Appalachian creativity, as we take submissions year-round. For more information about how to submit your work,Continue Reading
Creative people can be a bit peculiar. We have a certain routine before a dance. We like a certain pen, pristine paper, cushy headphones, a particular paintbrush, specific canvas, special guitar pick, etc. We like our silence or music or background noise. Some of us are exactly the opposite. WeContinue Reading
To say that Hollins University is haunted would be a bit of an understatement. Records of the various spirits and supernatural occurrences popcorn throughout the school’s almost 200-year history: correspondence from the mid-19th century debates the level of concern that should be assigned to the strange occurrences in a student’sContinue Reading
An Appalachian Awakening is happening all around us. We peer through our emblematic windows – clear or murky – and see a new dawn’s vivid light peeking above the grey clouds that, to a great degree, were thrust upon us. Our eyes gaze upon lands and mountains where the footstepsContinue Reading
As a poet I have learned to approach syrupy topics, (tears, grandmothers and any thing that dances), with caution. But I am old enough to be a grandmother, and it just so happens both of mine could dance like hell and drive grown men to tears. One danced from DonegalContinue Reading
The following beautifully written article by Adam Miller first appeared on the site Waking Up in Boone. It was foggy almost that whole Saturday. I left the mountain in the morning driving with flashers and lights at a creeping pace on my way to Hickory. On the way homeContinue Reading
Have you ever wondered what ads an ancestor might have seen while reading the morning paper? Love them or hate them, advertisements are important windows into society. Ads tell us about particular time periods and what kind of dreams manufacturers or companies wanted to sell or perpetuate. Just like inContinue Reading
Tomorrow is the birthday of revered Appalachian poet and novelist Byron Herbert Reece (1917-1958). Join Appalachia Bare in celebrating his life and talent through a heartfelt tribute by acclaimed writer, Mark Wallace Maguire. I go by ways of rust and flame Beneath the bent and lonely sky; Behind meContinue Reading