This week, we talk with East Tennessee’s Amythyst Kiah. Her new album contemplates the cosmos.

Also, hair salons are important gathering places where Black women can find community. 

And West Virginia poet Torli Bush uses story to tackle tough subjects. 

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

In This Episode:

"Play God and Destroy the World" is the opening track from Amythyst Kiah’s new album, Still + Bright. The album follows 2021’s Wary + Strange, and features guest spots by S.G. Goodman, Billy Strings and others.

Amythyst Kiah spoke with Inside Appalachia from her home in Johnson City, Tennessee.

We spend a lot of our lives at home or at work, but there are other spots that are just as important to who we are. They’re Third Places.

A third place can be a coffee shop or a basketball court, or any place where people get together and connect. In Black communities, hair salons can be spaces where women feel united and accepted.

Folkways Reporter Traci Phillips takes us to a hair salon in Charleston, West Virginia’s west side.

Asheville, North Carolina, is known as one of Appalachia’s cultural hubs — and that extends to the city’s dining scene. But Asheville was hit hard by Hurricane Helene. Dozens of its restaurants and bars were drowned in water, mud and debris.

Some may never reopen, while others are beginning to find their way back — including Neng, Jr’s, which serves up Filipino cuisine. After several months of hard work, Neng Jr.’s reopened in January.

Last Spring, Folkways Reporter Margaret McLeod Leef found her way to the restaurant, which is tucked away in an alley. She brought us this story.

There is a rich tradition of Black Appalachian poets and writers. One of the newest is Torli Bush, who grew up in Webster Springs, West Virginia.

Bush has won poetry slams in the region, and now has a new book, Requiem for a Redbird. Producer Bill Lynch spoke with Bush about the book.

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Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Amythyst Kiah, John Blissard, Jett Holden, The Local Honeys, Jeff Ellis and Dinosaur Burps.

Bill Lynch is our producer. Abby Neff is our associate producer. Eric Douglas is our executive producer. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our Audio Mixer is Patrick Stephens. We had help this week from Folkways Editor Jennifer Goren.

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

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

Inside Appalachia is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.