Photo courtesy of After Coal
Lauren Adams comes from a mining town. Like many, she is concerned about the future of the coal industry.
As I toured the Appalachian coalfields in 2012, I sensed that many Appalachians were not ready to talk about life after coal, fearing that this would deepen divisions in their communities. But I was resolved to meet people where they were, not where I wanted them to be.
Many Appalachian coalfield residents blamed the liberal government for shutting down the coal industry. In fact, they viewed the government and all of its programs as the enemy. As a result, they disengaged from the political process.
In Appalachia, the struggle was how to move past the rhetoric of pro-coal versus anti-coal toward a conversation about what is good for the community. Retired miners like Rutland Melton of Harlan County, Kentucky, felt torn by these deep divisions. He supported underground mining, but was staunchly opposed to mountaintop-removal coal mining and resented industry attempts to describe his position as anti-coal.
“I don’t have nothing against mining coal because I was in the mines twenty-three years, but I am against that mountaintop removal,” he told me. “I look at it this way: God created the mountains to be admired, not to be destroyed. You can’t make those mountains look the same as they did after you tore it up.”
Lauren Adams, an eighteen-year-old with dyed blue hair, was from a mining family. She was concerned about a future without the industry that had created her hometown of Lynch, Kentucky.
“Around here, coal mining is a big part in a lot of people’s lives,” she said. “It’s extremely important to them because it is their job, that’s how they are putting clothes on their kids and stuff. And then anti-coal people will bring up things about the environment and how it might ruin the air and water. I guess I could sympathize with both sides—I don’t want to destroy the environment, but I also want to feed my kids.”
I sought out the places where these discussions were already happening. My goal was to amplify local discussions in order to increase support for community-led efforts to diversify the Appalachian economy.
One place I went to was Cumberland, Kentucky, where Higher Ground of Harlan County had been working with community members on a series of art projects designed to start conversations that address local issues. They developed participatory photography and mural projects, and eventually created a series of original plays.
"Our play was just miraculous to me, because everyone loved it and it talked about coal. The play made a situation where it was safe to talk about it.”
The project had gained national attention, including grant awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and ArtPlace America. In 2013, Higher Ground started work on a new play about the future of Harlan County. The idea was that conversations around the scripting, rehearsals, and performance of the play could help local residents define their own future.
“You can’t talk about stuff around here,” explained Lauren Adams, one of the participants. “It’s really hard to talk about anything: coal or different religions, or different sexualities. You just can’t. Our play was just miraculous to me, because everyone loved it and it talked about coal. The play made a situation where it was safe to talk about it.”
In downtown Cumberland, when I visited, an art class was busy making backdrops out of junk. Students gathered trash and piled it into the old showroom to develop a set of backdrops for the play. Another student had brought materials from an old coal truck garage to add to the mix.
“Ever since we started writing this script it’s made me just kind of think about the junk in my life,” Adams told me. “It makes you think about the junk we need to get rid of. It also helps me imagine what we can make out of all the old junk in our lives.”
This is an excerpt from Tom Hansell's new book, After Coal: Stories of Survival in Appalachia and Wales, West Virginia University Press, reprinted with permission.