Mountain Justice Blacksburg

The beautiful Coal River Valley is hosting the 2009 Mountain Justice Fall Break. One hour south of Charleston, WV, it is home to wild bears, ginseng hunters, and strip mining. Activities will include visiting and learning about Marsh Fork Elementary, precariously placed under a 2.8 billion gallon sludge dam, and visiting Larry Gibson’s homeplace on Kayford Mountain and viewing the MTR site there. Hear the stories of affected community members. Come to learn, to get mad enough to spit, and then to strategize and network with student activists from around the country.

This event is held in conjunction with the 350.org day of action. It is sponsored by:

• Mountain Justice
• Coal River Mountain Watch
• Climate Ground Zero
• Student Environmental Action Coalition

Register here!

9 pm, the usual spot (couches on the bottom floor of Squires, near the Black cultural center)

Agenda items include:

report back on treasurer workshop from Chrissy
room reservations
MTR roadshow
pie auction
MJ Fall Student Summit
anything else???

Please come if you can!

A special preview of the film *Coal Country* will be shown on Thursday, September 10, at 7:50 p.m. at the Lyric Theater in Blacksburg. The film tells the dramatic story of the struggles of Appalachian communities against mountain top removal mining. A concert by Diana Jones, who performs in the movie’s soundtrack, will start at 7 p.m. The event is free with a recommended $10 donation to the sponsors, the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards and the Sierra Club’s programs against mountain top removal.

Special Preview: *COAL COUNTRY*
*A film by Mari-Lynn Evans and Phylis Geller*
www.coalcountrythemovie.com

Coal Country, the new film from Evening Star Productions tells the story of the dramatic struggle happening in central Appalachia communities around mountain-top removal coal-mining. In these communities, miners and residents are locked in conflict: is mining and processing coal essential to providing good jobs, or is it destroying the land, water and air?

Passions are running high in the mountains of Appalachia. Families and communities are deeply split over what is being done to their land. At issue is the latest form of strip mining called “mountaintop removal”, or MTR. Coal companies blast the tops off mountains, and dump the debris, or “overburden” into valleys and streams. They then mine the exposed seams of coal and transport it to processing plants. Coal is mined more cheaply than ever with less manpower needed while an ancient mountain range is disappearing forever.

A sneak peak of the film, which will air nationally in November, will be offered in Virginia on Thursday, September 10th at The Lyric Theatre located at 135 College Avenue in Blacksburg. Singer and songwriter Diana Jones (www.dianajonesmusic.com), featured on the upcoming Coal Country soundtrack, will be performing at 7pm preceding the 7:50pm film showing. This is a free event for the public, with a suggested $10 contribution to the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards and Virginia Sierra Club’s mountain-top removal advocacy campaigns. Signed, limited-edition prints of Virginian artist Wes Freed’s Coal Country painting will also be available for purchase.

This premiere event also includes a special appearance by Wise County resident Kathy Selvage whose story is featured in the film. Ms. Selvage’s father was a coal miner and a decades-long member of the UMWA. But when MTR began to tear her community apart, she could not remain silent. Listen first-hand to this coal miner’s daughter describe why she became a grass-roots organizer for the sake of her community’s future with deep respect for its past.

Coal is very far from the minds of most Americans, and this film will make you consider where the energy comes from to run the machinery of our daily lives. The movie was made to offer views from both sides of the issue to foster better ways to compromise, and take a look at coal mining with compassion, and respect.

Mountaintop removal coal mining has buried nearly 2000 miles of headwater streams with mining waste in Appalachia; demolished thousands of acres of hardwood forest; and flattened over 480 Appalachian mountain peaks.  And more permits have been approved.

Join us May 30 from 1 to 5 at the Lyric Theatre, located at  135 College Avenue in downtown Blacksburg for a double feature of documentary films on environmental justice:  Catherine Pancake’s Black Diamonds and David Novack’s Burning the Future.

Black Diamonds interweaves the story of citizens fighting mountaintop removal with the perspectives of government officials, activists, and scientists creating a “riveting portrait of … [a] region…caught between the grinding wheels of the national appetite for cheap energy and an enduring sense of Appalachian culture, pride, and natural beauty.”  The film includes music by the likes of Kentucky’s  Sarah Ogan Gunning and Roscoe Holcomb and North Carolina’s Ola Belle Reed, as well as contemporary artists such as Jack Rose and Susan Alcorn.

Burning the  Future focuses on a group of West Virginians fighting the despoiling of their land and the poisoning of their water and includes the story of Maria Gunnoe, a waitress turned eloquent activist for the mountains who won the 2009 Goldman Prize for North America, dubbed the “Nobel Prize for environmentalists.”

Tickets are $10 and all proceeds benefit  Concerned Citizens of Giles County, Mountain Justice Summer, Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards and Energy Justice Network, all small shoestring operations of all or mostly all volunteers.

And if you cannot attend you can still help sponsor the program ($10 for individuals and $20 for small businesses and non-profits.)  For more information contact Beth Wellington at beth@energyjustice.net.  You can view the facebook invite at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=99368830707

Panel of Coalfield Activists: Sharing Stories of Resistance in the Coalfields
8 PM, Surge 109

Lorelei Scarbro has lived in the Coal River Valley of West Virginia all of her life. Coal has always been part of Lorelei’s life; she is the daughter and wife of coal miners.  Lorelei has become active against mountaintop removal, as she has witnessed the destruction of her land, culture and community.  She is focused on finding economic alternatives to coal that will sustain her community and Appalachian culture.  Lorelei has been a key part of the Coal River Wind campaign, which seeks to place wind turbines on Coal River Mountain instead of the proposed strip mine, which is now looming over her community.

Voices for Appalachia Portrait-Story Project
10am-1pm and 6pm to 8pm, Swoop House Gallery – 512 Progress Street

The Voices for Appalachia Portrait-Story Project is a mobile, networked and volunteer art-media-social phenomenon whose primary purpose is to bring and co-generate an aesthetic and practice of media solidarity to the self-determination of communities and individuals connected to the land they live on.  Hundreds of individuals who live in Appalachia have been sketched and their voices, or stories, are told through their narrative which the individuals themselves hand-write on their portrait.  The  Portrait-Story Project will be in Blacksburg from April 20th to 25th, seeking more stories to be told and individuals to be sketched.  The artwork – hundreds of portrait-stories – will be on display at the Swoop House Gallery located at 512 Progress Street from April 20th to 25th.  The gallery will be open from
10am to 1pm and 6pm to 8pm Mon. thru Fri, or by appointment.  To make an appointment, contact Joe Kelley at (540) 449-3309.

Mountain Top Removal Road Show with Dave Cooper
3:30 PM, Surge 104D

The Mountaintop Removal Road Show includes a stunning 20-minute slide show about the impacts of mountaintop removal on coalfield residents, communities and the environment, and features traditional Appalachian mountain music and shocking aerial photos of decapitated Appalachian Mountains.