Common Threads

by | Sep 9, 2025

Introduction Many influential figures in the Appalachian Craft Revival (1896-1937) lauded handwoven overshot coverlets as one of the finest expressions of the region’s handicraft traditions (e.g., Hall 1912). As a wave of university-educated women arrived from the...

Unwritten Presence

by | Sep 9, 2025

There is knowledge that refuses the page. Knowledge that arrives on the breath, in the bend of fingers, in the hush before a voice takes hold of the air. There is wisdom that cannot be footnoted, pedagogies older than the school—more fluid than text, more precise than...

Tending the Archives

by | Sep 9, 2025

  So, during the project, my role was really to just be a helper and to also do some taping and talking, interviewing the adults of that generation, my parents, uncles, and the leaders in the community. And I think the greatest thing was that, for me, is to see...

“All the Good in Life”

by | Sep 8, 2025

In the summer of 2014, I was halfway through my MFA in Poetry at Brooklyn College and desperately looking for work at the intersection of poetry and education. As a poet exploring work in translation from Farsi and my Afghan heritage, I somehow stumbled upon City...

Note from the Field

by | Sep 8, 2025

In the surreal and liminal reality of the early months of the 2020 global pandemic, I had just moved on from my 19-year tenure as the Virginia State Folklorist to start my own cultural nonprofit, the Center for Cultural Vibrancy. While I felt blessed and enjoyed my...