On this West Virginia Morning, the AIDS epidemic beginning in the 1980s took hundreds of thousands of lives across the country, and even more around the world. A new theater production at this year’s Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) in Shepherdstown highlights how the disease impacted the lives of Black Americans in particular.

Jack Walker sat down with playwright Donja R. Love and his colleagues to discuss the project, and what it means to tell this story in the Mountain State.

Also, in this show, experts are concerned about a growing mental health crisis nationally. In this story from our sister station WEKU, Stan Ingold takes a look at the struggles faced by those dealing with mental health access in eastern Kentucky.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.

Chris Schulz produced this episode.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning