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After a disaster, can comics help set the record straight?

Also, in Western North Carolina, a new generation of Cherokee potters are keeping old traditions, while shaping a modern practice all their own.

And, schoolyard games come and go, but for kids in one community, marbles still rule.

You'll hear these stories and more this week, Inside Appalachia.

In This Episode:

Comic Anthology About Hurricane Helene
Rebuilding Veteran Shelters In Asheville, N.C.
Next Generation Of Cherokee Potters
Native Bees In Kentucky
Kids Still Spend Time In Nature At Summer Camps
Marbles Still Roll At Recess
Blue Ribbon-Winning Fair Food

Comic Anthology About Hurricane Helene

An illustrated three-panel comic. In the first panel, there is a group of people. In the middle, there is an unidentifiable individual. The last panel is an illustration of a flood. — The cover of *Islands in the Sky*, the first book from the Appalachia Comics Project.
*Photo courtesy of the Appalachia Comics Project*

When Hurricane Helene struck Western North Carolina in 2024, it knocked out internet and cell service. That created an information gap that was quickly filled by conspiracy theories and misinformation. Now, a new project looks to tell the truth of the disaster. Islands in the Sky is a forthcoming comics anthology about the storm and its aftermath. The book will feature stories told by survivors in partnership with comics professionals.

Islands in the Sky was conceived by North Carolina comics writer Andrew Aydin. Host Mason Adams spoke with Aydin about the project.

Rebuilding Veteran Shelters In Asheville, N.C.

A building with the words "Veterans Restoration Quarters" on the side of the building. — The Veterans Restoration Quarters in Asheville.
*Photo Credit: Laura Hackett/Blue Ridge Public Radio*

Communities in Western North Carolina are still working through damage from Hurricane Helene. Before the storm, the Asheville-Buncombe Community Christian Ministry ran a transitional shelter in East Asheville for about 180 homeless veterans. Then Helene and the flooding that came with it destroyed the property, forcing veterans into a motel across the street.

Blue Ridge Public Radio’s Lauren Hackett reports that it will be a long time before the shelter makes a comeback.

Next Generation Of Cherokee Potters

A person holding a piece of pottery. — Levi West displays his maker’s signature on the bottom of his prize-winning pot. West is helping to develop a community art space for pottery and other traditional crafts.
*Photo Credit: Anya Petrone Slepyan/The Daily Yonder*

Cherokee people have been making pottery in the mountains of western North Carolina for nearly 3,000 years. Today, relatively few Cherokee potters carry on the art form. Thanks to a community-led pottery workshop, a new generation is emerging.

Reporter Anya Petrone Slepyan has the story from the Rural Remix podcast from the Center for Rural Strategies.

Native Bees In Kentucky

Two people standing in a green field. — Researchers with the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves survey a grasslands preserve south of Elizabethtown for native been species.
*Photo Credit: Sylvia Goodman/Kentucky Public Radio*

Everyone’s heard of honeybees. But there are hundreds of bee species native to the region.

Kentucky Public Radio’s Sylvia Goodman tagged along with researchers to understand which bees are still out pollinating.

Kids Still Spend Time In Nature At Summer Camps

A photo of a group of children playing in a lake. — Campers at the Junior Ranger Summer Camp at New River State Park.
*Photo Credit: Roxy Todd/Radio IQ*

Kids still spend a lot of time outside in the summer months. Warmer temps and longer days mean more time at swimming holes and playing in the woods. And scientists say, giving kids space to explore in nature is important for their development and mental health.

Radio IQ’s Roxy Todd recently visited one summer camp in Southwest Virginia, to hear how kids feel about spending time in nature.

Marbles Still Roll At Recess

A young boy holds up a clear, blue marble in one hand and a blue and white marble in the other. — Grayson Casto shows off his favorite marbles.
*Photo Credit: Zack Harold/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Hang out with kids for very long at all, and you realize some playground games never go out of style – hide and seek, tag and Duck, Duck Goose. Kids today still play those classics. And every spring, the students of one elementary school in Boone County, West Virginia, still get excited for a game that’s more than 100 years old. Folkways Reporter Zack Harold has the story.

Zack also made a video about marbles. It’s part of the Inside Appalachia Folkways television special that first aired last Thanksgiving on West Virginia Public Broadcasting. The show recently won a 2024 Ohio Valley Emmy Award.

Blue Ribbon-Winning Fair Food

It’s summer fair season. A staple of county and state fairs is the annual craft competition, where everyone from 4-H kids to the local dentist brings their finest quilts and peanut butter fudge to be judged for cash and prizes.

The prizes are usually pretty modest, but local bragging rights are at stake — as well as the highly coveted blue ribbon.

Few have been as successful as Linda Skeens. The Russell County, Virginia resident has won hundreds of ribbons — which made her a social media sensation and got her featured in the New York Times.

In 2023, Skeens released a cookbook featuring her winning recipes, plus poems, pictures and a peek into her life in southwestern Virginia.

Producer Bill Lynch spoke with Skeens about the book.

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Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Jeff Ellis, Joe Dobbs and the 1937 Flood, Paul Loomis, Blue Dot Sessions and Hello June.

Bill Lynch is our producer. Abby Neff is our associate producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens. We had help this week from Folkways Editor Chris Julin.

You can send us an email: [email protected].

You can find us on Instagram, Threads and X @InAppalachia. Or here on Facebook.

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Inside Appalachia is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

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