High Country Humanities

Due to the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Helene, we are postponing the Brian Harnetty residency in the hopes of rescheduling for a time where more people will have the opportunity to attend and appreciate this exciting visit. Over the past two decades, Brian Harnetty has located historical recordings that document spoken words and musical performance in archives across Appalachia and the Midwest, including the Berea Appalachian Sound Archives (Berea, Kentucky), the Little Cities of Black Diamonds Archive (Shawnee, Ohio), and the Thomas Merton Collection (Louisville, Kentucky). In this talk, Harnetty will discuss strategies by which people in the present relate to recorded sounds that document the past.

Shot almost entirely in black and white, the film follows two journeys made thirty years apart by the indigenous shaman Karamakate in the Colombian Amazonian jungle, one with Theo, a German ethnographer, and the other with Evan, an American botanist, both of whom are searching for the rare plant yakruna. It was inspired by the travel diaries of Theodor Koch-Grünberg and Richard Evans Schultes, and dedicated to lost Amazonian cultures.

A Matter of Land recounts the first year of application of Colombian's Land Restitution Act from the perspective of a community who decide to engage with the process. The film explores the tensions that arise when such communities come face to face with the complex institutions responsible for enforcing the law. The result of these tensions is a narrative worthy of Kafka, in which a doorway to justice is opened for the sole purpose of demonstrating that no one can pass through it.

Evelyn Berry is a trans author, editor and educator from South Carolina. She is the recipient of a 2023 National Endowment for the Arts creative writing fellowship, 2020 BOOM Chapbook Prize from Bateau Press, 2019 Broad River Prize for Prose and 2018 Emrys Poetry Prize, among other honors. Her work has appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, Gigantic Sequins, beestung, Raleigh Review, Taco Bell Quarterly and elsewhere. Grief Slut (Sundress Publications, 2023) is her debut poetry collection.

Evelyn Berry is a trans author, editor and educator from South Carolina. She is the recipient of a 2023 National Endowment for the Arts creative writing fellowship, 2020 BOOM Chapbook Prize from Bateau Press, 2019 Broad River Prize for Prose and 2018 Emrys Poetry Prize, among other honors. Her work has appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, Gigantic Sequins, beestung, Raleigh Review, Taco Bell Quarterly and elsewhere. Grief Slut (Sundress Publications, 2023) is her debut poetry collection.

Dr. David K. Thomson is an associate professor of history at Sacred Heart University. In his lecture, Thomson will discuss: How does one package and sell confidence in the stability of a nation riven by civil strife? This was the question that loomed before the Philadelphia financial house of Jay Cooke & Company, entrusted by the U.S. government with an unprecedented sale of bonds to finance the Union war effort in the early days of the American Civil War.

Maria Dahvana Headley is a #1 New York Times-bestselling author and editor. Her novels include Magonia, Aerie and Queen of Kings, and she has also written a memoir, The Year of Yes. With Kat Howard, she is the author of The End of the Sentence, and with Neil Gaiman, she is co-editor of Unnatural Creatures. Her short stories have been shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson, Nebula and World Fantasy Awards, and her work has been supported by the MacDowell Colony and by Arte Studio Ginestrelle, where the first draft of The Mere Wife was written.

This film took a decade to complete. It is about love, affection, respect, humility, temperance and courage; about balance with oneself and the other. It is a tour through the mountains, jungles and plains where the jaguar has directly engaged with humans, creating a journey of chants, myths and cultural traditions which narrate the history of the human-jaguar relationship, and speak to the importance of preserving this severely threatened species.

Maria Dahvana Headley is a #1 New York Times-bestselling author and editor. Her novels include Magonia, Aerie and Queen of Kings, and she has also written a memoir, The Year of Yes. With Kat Howard, she is the author of The End of the Sentence, and with Neil Gaiman, she is co-editor of Unnatural Creatures. Her short stories have been shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson, Nebula and World Fantasy Awards, and her work has been supported by the MacDowell Colony and by Arte Studio Ginestrelle, where the first draft of The Mere Wife was written.

Eleanor Davis is a cartoonist and illustrator. Her books include How To Be Happy, You and a Bike and a Road, Why Art? and The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook. Her latest graphic novel, The Hard Tomorrow, won the LA Times Book Prize for Graphic Novels and Comics. She lives in Athens, Georgia.

Eleanor Davis is a cartoonist and illustrator. Her books include How To Be Happy, You and a Bike and a Road, Why Art? and The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook. Her latest graphic novel, The Hard Tomorrow, won the LA Times Book Prize for Graphic Novels and Comics. She lives in Athens, Georgia.

Juliet Escoria is the author of You Are the Snake (Soft Skull, 2024), Witch Hunt & Black Cloud (CLASH Books, 2023) and Juliet the Maniac (Melville House, 2019). She lives in West Virginia. Scott McClanahan is an author and filmmaker based in Beckley, West Virginia. He’s written eight books including Crapalachia, Hill William and the Sarah Book. He’s a co-founder of Holler Presents, a production company and small press.

Juliet Escoria is the author of You Are the Snake (Soft Skull, 2024), Witch Hunt & Black Cloud (CLASH Books, 2023) and Juliet the Maniac (Melville House, 2019). She lives in West Virginia. Scott McClanahan is an author and filmmaker based in Beckley, West Virginia. He’s written eight books including Crapalachia, Hill William and the Sarah Book. He’s a co-founder of Holler Presents, a production company and small press.

Lillian-Yvonne Bertram is an African American writer, poet, artist and educator who works at the intersection of computation, AI, race and gender. They are the author of Travesty Generator (Noemi Press), which received the Poetry Society of America’s 2020 Anna Rabinowitz prize for interdisciplinary work and was longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award for Poetry. They are also the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship.

Lillian-Yvonne Bertram is an African American writer, poet, artist and educator who works at the intersection of computation, AI, race and gender. They are the author of Travesty Generator (Noemi Press), which received the Poetry Society of America’s 2020 Anna Rabinowitz prize for interdisciplinary work and was longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award for Poetry. They are also the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship.