Empowering Appalachia

Welcome to our lucky 13th episode with Amberly Kelley-Dotson, a queer yoga instructor currently working and living in Knoxville. Amberly discusses all things empowerment, using movement and yoga to connect to ourselves and our bodies, and the importance of movement in her own world and life.

We hope you are enjoying this weekly podcast for November. We will see you next week. Keep doing the damn thing!

Amberly's website is: https://amberlyyogaandwellness.com/#
You can contact her via her website!

Please head over to our Bonfire to order  your very own Empowering Appalachia Fundraiser Shirt: https://www.bonfire.com/empowering-appalachia-shirt-drive/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=campaign_page&utm_campaign=empowering-appalachia-shirt-drive&utm_content=default&fbclid=IwAR2yVGe3yb6de8c7xzenW_9APb4ytDkiM0rpDpWzy10NXO8U2ARwp56czVA

• Please head over to Apple Music (or Spotify or wherever you listen) and leave us a review if you like what you hear! 
• Here’s our Patreon account. Sign up at your convenience for a monthly contribution to telling more stories. https://www.patreon.com/EmpoweringAppalachia
•  You can also support us on Venmo @empoweringappalachia 
• Send us an email @ [email protected] 
• Facebook @ Empowering Appalachia
• Instagram @ Empowering.Appalachia

Image credits: Amberly Kelley-Dotson & Brianna Robinson

Music credits to the band Tellios.  You can find them on Facebook at Tellios.bandcamp.com

Welcome back, listeners! Tune in for our interview with Knoxville local music manager, Hannah Houser. Hannah is an Appalachian local and talks about her experience with empowerment, how she strives to empower her artists, and gives us a couple of resources to consider supporting this month.
If you want to connect with her, you can find her at https://HannahHouser.com

Those resources are:

Bridge Refugee Services https://www.bridgerefugees.org
Our Whole Lives: Lifespan Sexuality Education, a Unitarian Universalist based comprehensive sexual education program: https://www.uua.org/re/owl

• Please head over to Apple Music (or Spotify or wherever you listen) and leave us a review if you like what you hear! 
• Here’s our Patreon account. Sign up at your convenience for a monthly contribution to telling more stories. https://www.patreon.com/EmpoweringAppalachia
•  You can also support us on Venmo @empoweringappalachia 
• Send us an email @ [email protected] 
• Facebook @ Empowering Appalachia
• Instagram @ Empowering.Appalachia

Image credits: Hannah Houser & Bridgette Suzanne Photography

Music credits to the band Tellios.  You can find them on Facebook at Tellios.bandcamp.com

Hi Empowering Appalachia followers! Guess what! Happy November! 
It's my 36th birthday!As a resident Scorpio sun & rising sign and Cancer moon (allll the feelings), I like to get reflective when my birthday rolls around.  So you're tuning in to hear me reflect on all things podcast and how amazing this experience has been and how amazing I'd like it to continue to be. 

For November, we are launching an episode per week! Please join us on Patreon and be entered to win a raffle gift basket! 

• Please head over to Apple Music (or Spotify or wherever you listen) and leave us a review if you like what you hear! 
• Here’s our Patreon account. Sign up at your convenience for a monthly contribution to telling more stories. https://www.patreon.com/EmpoweringAppalachia
•  You can also support us on Venmo @empoweringappalachia 
• Send us an email @ [email protected] 
• Facebook @ Empowering Appalachia
• Instagram @ Empowering.Appalachia

Song credits for "I deserve to be here" to the band Tellios.
Image Credits:  Christina Perkins

It's October y'all! Welcome to Episode 10 of Empowering Appalachia! This episode is chock full of resources for Knox local folks, specifically for our LGBTQIA folks locally. You're gonna meet Beau Knowles and if you know anything about the webpages that catalog local LGBTQIA businesses, then you probably already know Beau. But you'll meet her here, learn a bit of her story and hear how she is empowering all the LGBTQIA folks of Appalachia.

You can reach Beau at [email protected]

From Beau: " I've built websites to offer affordable support to businesses & resources to bring the lgbtqia+ community together. I help small businesses navigate social media, create hastags and marketing plans. I also host workshops via zoom. Courses such as lgbtq leadership, non-profit strategies, vision board building, and small business support. www.beauknowleslgbt.com #beauknowleslgbt

Additionally I created a businesses and resources directory website to go along with my Facebook business groups established in 2013, Knoxville LGBT Friendly Owned and Operated Businesses. This website currently houses the Knoxville and East TN LGBT Directory as well. The webpages will have a calendar of events and news sections. I am assisting Knox Pride with their Community Resources, as well as other groups in Knoxville and surrounding areas. Please send events and press releases to [email protected] www.knoxlgbtbusinesses.com  #knoxlgbtbusinesses #knoxlgbtdirectory #easttnlgbt #easttnlgbtbusinesses #easttndirectory #knoxpride 

 I do have a buy me coffee account www.buymecoffee.com/beauknowles or you can ask how to sponsor one of my directory websites."

• Please head over to Apple Music (or Spotify or wherever you listen) and leave us a review if you like what you hear! 
• Here’s our Patreon account. Sign up at your convenience for a monthly contribution to telling more stories. https://www.patreon.com/EmpoweringAppalachia
•  You can also support us on Venmo @empoweringappalachia 
• Send us an email @ [email protected] 
• Facebook @ Empowering Appalachia
• Instagram @ Empowering.Appalachia

Song credits for "I deserve to be here" to the band Tellios.
Image Credits:  

Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/EmpoweringAppalachia)

I'm glad to be back with y'all doing this damn thing! Two weeks ago you heard about a resource here in Knoxville for folks who are houseless and today you are gonna learn more about a grassroots social media movement uplifting LGBT folks in Sevierville. 
Tune in to hear my interview with Winter Starkey, a founder of the Sevierville based Facebook group for the LGBTQIA2S+ community. Winter shares the process of pandemic life bringing forth ways to connect via social media and finding over 1,000 LGBTQIA2S+ humans in the Sevier/Gatlingburg region. They discuss the region's first Pride march amidst worries and concerns of hate crimes. 
Winter discusses some events that have passed after our interview but not to worry, the group has several events coming up: All at the Sevierville Civic Center. All ages welcome

Halloween Party and Costume Contest
October 24th 5:00 pm 
Free admission
Donation appreciated

Thankful Holiday Potluck and Talent Showcase
November 19th 6:00 pm 
Free admission
Donation appreciated

Ugly Sweater Holiday Party 
December 16th 6:00 pm 
Free admission
Donation appreciated

If you want to reach out to the Facebook group or contact Winter, you can find them on Facebook @ SevierLGBTQIA2S+

• Please head over to Apple Music (or Spotify or wherever you listen) and leave us a review if you like what you hear! 
• Here’s our Patreon account. Sign up at your convenience for a monthly contribution to telling more stories. https://www.patreon.com/EmpoweringAppalachia
•  You can also support us on Venmo @empoweringappalachia 
• Send us an email @ [email protected] 
• Facebook @ Empowering Appalachia
• Instagram @ Empowering.Appalachia

Song credits for "I deserve to be here" to the band Tellios.
Image Credits:  Winter Starkey 

Welcome back! This interview features Rosie Cross, who works at the Volunteer Ministries Center (VMC) here in Knoxville. Rosie works with folks who are unhoused both for outreach efforts and operates the Foyer program which houses up to 40 individuals who are experiencing homelessness in our community. Rosie discusses the process of getting permanent housing, the ways in which the Foyer serves folks uniquely—by keeping folks with their partners, by sheltering folks who might have interacted with systemic barriers to other shelter, and allowing folks to be housed with their pets. She discusses the importance of collaboration with other community agencies in supporting and helping our unhoused neighbors. 

You can get involved with VMC here: https://www.vmcinc.org

• Please head over to Apple Music (or Spotify or wherever you listen) and leave us a review if you like what you hear! 
•   Here’s our Patreon account. Sign up at your convenience for a monthly contribution to telling more stories. https://www.patreon.com/EmpoweringAppalachia
•  You can also support us on Venmo @empoweringappalachia 
• Send us an email @ [email protected] 
• Facebook @ Empowering Appalachia
• Instagram @ Empowering.Appalachia

Song credits for "I deserve to be here" to the band Tellios.
Image Credits: Rosie Cross and VMC with image notes: "When a neighbor moves out of The Foyer and into their new home, they take a bird with them. These birds are handmade from scraps of clay that might otherwise have been thrown away.  They are all unique and none of them are perfect.  

A bird is a reminder that no one deserves to be discarded.  With hard work and support from others, we can all take the scraps of our lives and form them into something new."

Content warning for folks who are sensitive to conversations around religion and religious harm. Trigger warning regarding sexual abuse, specifically in religious settings. 

Welcome back! Listen in to hear me interview Jonathan Burchfield, a fellow queer person who is currently living in Knoxville and doing such important work helping folks to recognize and be safe from pastoral abuse. Jonathan discusses his experience of growing up in a cult of Fundamental Independent Baptists and the impact those experiences had on his life. He discusses being empowered by knowledge, discusses his local librarian and reading books that weren’t condoned, as helping to empower him. 

Jonathan talks openly about his work to break the patterns of continued abuse and denigration on the part of the pastors/preachers who lead congregations. He is passionate about creating a network of safety for folks who have been harmed in settings where they are supposed to be cared for and held. He is originally from Indiana and Knoxville has been lucky enough to have him here for about ten years. 

Jonathan asked that we link to Helen Ross McNabb Center, who has brought him a lot of containment and help. https://mcnabbcenter.org

If you struggle with this conversation or are particularly distressed, please send a text to 741-741 (a national crisis line) or contact the crisis line at Helen Ross IF you’re Knox local. 865-539-2409. Here’s the National Suicide Hotline: 1-800-273-8255

The book Jonathan mentions is "Freedom of Mind: Combating Cult Mind Control" by Dr. Stephen Hassan.
If you want to connect to Jonathan, you can find his work page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/stoppingpastoralabuse/

Here's a link to Jonathan's own book, Growing UP IFB, Reflections on the Toxic Environment of the Independent Baptist Movement (free on kindle; 9.99 for the print version) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B091CRDD9K/ref=cm_sw_r_as_gl_apa_glt_fabc_WCP3EGX03T8TZSG925MG?linkCode=ml1&tag=220500b-20&fbclid=IwAR0rzruoUDb3BwNV6Y0eWDrh62nQmq1XywfFvrR3BdDMXmpHp7Jv2xabnJE

• Please head over to Apple Music (or Spotify or wherever you listen) and leave us a review if you like what you hear! 
• Here’s our Patreon account. Sign up at your convenience for a monthly contribution to telling more stories. https://www.patreon.com/EmpoweringAppalachia
• You can also support us on Venmo @empoweringappalachia 

Song credits for "I deserve to be here" to the band Tellios.
Image credits to Jonathan Burchfield

Content warning for folks who are sensitive to conversations around religion and religious harm.

Welcome to our first September episode. Listen in to hear me interview my friend, Adam. Adam grew up in a community (Shady Valley) within Johnson County (my hometown) and discusses his experience in a particular denomination of Christianity known as the Church of Christ. He discusses his experience of hearing a particular sermon in which the way he empowered himself as a youth—reading—came into conflict with his experience of belonging in the church. Listen in to hear about how he began to ask questions and how he was empowered to question. 

Adam discusses the ways in which reading empowers him and how access to a variety of perspectives helped him to sort through his faith and engaging with considering that what he was raised to think and believe might not be the “right” answer. Adam and I discuss these topics with full knowledge of both of our vantages of privilege—his as a cisgender, white man and mine as a cisgender, white woman. You will hear me struggle a bit as a queer woman during this conversation, y'all and I consider it a testament to my friendship that I could safely hear his story. 

For some info about the county Adam & I are from, census data 2019, about 17,700   humans. 95.9% white, 11.6% of people in Johnson County have a Bachelor’s degree or higher. Median household income is $36,000, Land area is 298 miles. Here’s a map: https://www.mapsofworld.com/usa/states/tennessee/counties/johnson-county-map.html

If you want to connect to Adam, you can email him at [email protected] 

• Please head over to Apple Music (or Spotify or wherever you listen) and leave us a review if you like what you hear! 
• Here’s our Patreon account. Sign up at your convenience for a monthly contribution to telling more stories. https://www.patreon.com/EmpoweringAppalachia
• You can also support us on Venmo @empoweringappalachia 

Song credits for "I deserve to be here" to the band Tellios.
Image credits to Adam Fletcher

Welcome back! Join East and me for a conversation about spiritualism, divinity, connection, and the realities of a young woman in Middlesboro, Kentucky and her librarian Judy, who empowered her through choice and reading.
East is currently a dancer, dance-instructor, and divination artist in Knoxville, TN. She discusses her lived experience in her family, her capacity for touching into her spiritual realm, and her brand new book series that will be launched this winter.
If you're curious about her divination artistry work, find her on Instagram  @AppalachianAllegories. https://www.instagram.com/appalachianallegories/
If you want to know more about pole dance, check out Sheer Inspiration Pole Fitness on Facebook or Instagram. They also have a website to sign up for intro courses@ https://sheerinspirationpolefitness.polebuddy.com/studio/enrol/schedule.php?

This episode is dedicated to our guest, East's, aunt Roma Fleming, who passed away not too long after we recorded earlier this month. Hold a moment of silence for her if you will.

Content to be mindful of: Some discussion of religion, spiritualism, and fingers in boxes. (Tune into hear more about that).

Please head over to Apple Music (or Spotify or wherever you listen) and leave us a review if you like what you hear!

Also here's our patreon account. Sign up at your convenience for a monthly contribution to telling more stories. https://www.patreon.com/EmpoweringAppalachia

You can also support us on Venmo @empoweringappalachia

Also in case anyone else was just needing to know for curiosity sake, East's grandmother always said, "don't put your bag on the floor otherwise your money will know you don't care about it and fly away" (quotes are mine). 

Song credits for "I deserve to be here" to the band Tellios.
Image credits to East. 

Join me for a conversation with the current president of the Knox Pride Board, John Camp.  John discusses his lived experience of being empowered from an early age by his mother, and his work of paying that empowerment forward. He discusses exciting news on the forefront for Knoxville and a new Knox Pride resource center that's coming to town in September. We discuss what it means to live an empowered life and his hopes for helping LGBTQIA folks and our allies in Knoxville to do just that. He also discusses Knox Fringe which is a group of performers, artists, and "fringe arts performers ".  John is a part of a lot of exciting work here in Knoxville while tending to his family with his husband. Check out our conversation.

To connect with Knox Fringe, you can find them on Facebook @knoxfringe.
To connect with Knox Pride, head on over to www.knoxpride.com or on Facebook @knoxpridefest.

Come connect with John (and me) at South Press Coffee on August 10th at 6:00 p.m. for a community forum about the new pride center!

Song credits for "I deserve to be here" to the band Tellios. You may find them on Facebook or at https://tellios.bandcamp.com

See you in two weeks!