Music Makers Lecture and Panel Discussion

October 3, 2019, 5pm at the Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences, Charleston, WV

Led by curator Jessica O’Hearn, Music Maker Foundation founder Tim Duffy will be joined by West Virginia State Folklorist Emily Hilliard and Clay County Fiddler John Morris, to discuss the importance of supporting artists with opportunities and funding and preserving artistic and cultural history. Attendees will learn how the Music Makers Foundation and the West Virginia Folklife program have assisted many artists and practitioners to forge a path to success, and preserve musical traditions.

This event is free and open to the public.

Non-Professional Women Songwriters Workshop at the Lexington Gathering

Join West Virginia state folklorist Emily Hilliard at The Lexington Gathering on Saturday, February 9 for a guided exploration of recordings and ephemera of non-professional women songwriters in Appalachia, including Nora E. Carpenter of Magoffin Co. Kentucky, Shirley Campbell of Kanawha Co. West Virginia, Cora Hairston of Logan Co. West Virginia, Elaine Purkey of Lincoln Co. West Virginia, and Ella Hanshaw of Clay Co. West Virginia. We will celebrate and explore the work of these talented women, including their songwriting scrapbooks and self-documentation, daily creative expression and inspiration, and the importance of their songwriting and musicianship within their own communities.

West Virginia Folklife Progam Receives Gerald E. And Corinne L. Parsons Fund Award

The Gerald E. and Corinne L. Parsons fund was founded by American Folklife Center reference librarian Gerry Parsons (1940-1995) in honor of his parents. Parsons Fund Awards provide support to bring people to the Library of Congress to make use of primary ethnographic materials housed at AFC and elsewhere at the Library.

Emily Hilliard, West Virginia’s State Folklorist, was awarded a Parsons Fund Award for a one-week research trip to research AFC’s collection of sound recordings, photographs, field notes, and ephemera related to West Virginia, focusing particularly on archival content related to African Americans and other cultural communities whose “presence and contributions are often marginalized in historical and vernacular culture narratives of the Mountain State.” Her research will inform ongoing and future work of the West Virginia Folklife Program and culminate in a series of multimedia blog posts.

Brown University's Public Work Podcast- Episode 06: Emily Hilliard on Folklore, West Virginia, and Documenting Contemporary Labor Movements

"What role does folklore play in modern life? What is folklore, anyway? In this episode, Amelia Golcheski interviews West Virginia state folklorist Emily Hilliard to learn why folklore is more than just myths and legends. It can also be about labor movements, local histories, and even the “right” way to eat a hot dog. Amelia and Emily also discuss the recent teachers’ strike in West Virginia, misconceptions about life in so-called “Trump Country,” and approaches to public humanities that are invested in showing the importance of regional history."

Listen via Public Work

"One Year in Helvetia, West Virginia" Makes Bitter Southerner Top 10 Stories of 2017 List

Via Bitter Southerner: 

“One Year in Helvetia, West Virginia”

Story by Emily Hilliard | Photographs by Gabe DeWitt | Video by Coat of Arms

"This story was more than a year in the making. Emily Hilliard, the founder of the West Virginia Folklife Program based at the West Virginia Humanities Council, came to us wanting to document an entire year in one of the South’s most interesting small towns — Helvetia, West Virginia, population 59. In a high mountain valley “an hour from anywhere,” the little town sustains the traditions of the Swiss immigrants who settled there in 1869. Emily gave us a glorious look at Helvetia’s seasonal celebrations — and a deep understanding of how this isolated community draws strength from its land, its history, and its people."