UMD engages volunteers and community members in numerous outreach and education opportunities including publishing and distributing the Tennessee Mountain Defender newspapers, organizing and participating in special events, conducting online organizing and letter writing campaigns as well as coalition building. UMD has expanded its outreach and education by supporting several educational art projects.
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Tennessee Mountain Defender Voices for Appalachia Online Organizing and Letter Writing Special Evetns Coalition Building |
Tennessee Mountain Defender Newspaper
The Tennessee Mountain Defender is an educational newspaper that includes articles on the impacts of mining on Tennessee’s mountains and watersheds, current permits, ways citizens can get involved, how to report violations of the law and numerous other articles of interest. Each edition is distributed to local coalfield residents and passed out in numerous other communities and at local and regional events.
Tennessee Mountain Defender 2006
Voices for Appalachia- Written and Narrated by Hundreds
An Appalachian Portrait-Story Project
Reach the artist Francesco di Santis through email at wanderer@riseup.net
Voices for Appalachia Image Gallery
Post Katrina Portrait Story Project
Voices for Appalachian is a media & social phenomenon made up of 500 Portrait-Stories. Each piece of art features a hand draw portrait of an individual living within Appalachia and their personal story written directly on the portrait of themselves. The art series includes a large range of descriptive stories and anecdotes of firsthand accounts of each person’s experience in Appalachia.
Phone: 865 689 2778
email: umdvolunteerhouse@yahoo.com
The Voices for Appalachia Portrait Story Project is a one of a kind fine art series that is very fragile. It is essential that the integrity of the project is maintained so that the artwork can be enjoyed and used as an education tool for many years to come. When setting up an art show it is very important to respect the series by following these guidelines:
- Make sure the artwork does not come into contact with water of any sort including rain, fog, or mist.
- Keep the portraits inside of their cellophane envelopes at all times.
- Hang the show in a secure location so that the portraits are not stolen, lost, misplaced, or destroyed.
- The portraits will need to be hung using string and clothespins and it is important that they do not have holes punched in them or anything sticky like tape attached to them. Instructions for hanging the show will be provided.
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UMD is not able to replace either the portrait or the cellophane envelopes. The project will be inspected before leaving and upon returning and you or your group will be responsible for replacing any damages to the series.
History of Voices for Appalachia:
March 1, 2008 marked the beginning of the two year project called Voices for Appalachia, A Portrait Story Project.
During 2008 and 2009 volunteer artist Francesco “Cesco” di Santis traveled around Appalachia meeting and drawing various residents and visitors to the region. His drawings began simply enough with charcoal, graphite, colored pencil, china marker and plain sketch paper. Adopting progressively thicker papers to accommodate an evolving and more intensively layered style, a whole spectrum of media emerged from dry to wet, common to uncommon
These portraits indicate every demographic and community that Cesco was able to find during his two years of travels. Many of the people drawn were friends and friends of friends so the project reflects a greater sense of community.
Cesco set out with an initial aim of drawing at least five people a day, roughly envisioning a five month commitment of making the "art-media-social phenomenon" he "co-bottomlined" with his partner Casey available in one place after another, throughout the active coalfields wherever residents and sympathizers in solidarity had begun to organize resistance against "King Coal." Impressed by the scope of consequences these landscapes suffered as an energy colonies, the complexity and diversity of regional issues (from coal extraction [mountain removal, deep-mining] to coal-washing [coal slurry impoundments and injections and subsequent leaching and spills] to burning [emissions, coal ash impoundments and subsequent spills] to accelerated erosion, de-population, prescription drug and other hard drug addiction, economic depression and the persistence and patience that would become necessary to "co-generate" a series worthy of public discourse. Their journey turned into a 16 month commitment in total, the parts of 2008 and 2009 warm enough to reasonably draw people outdoors.
Most spectators after reading or skimming just a few narratives quickly realize the plurality throughout these Portrait-Stories. Folks wrote of everything from their genealogy traced up to the present, to childhood memories, to their relationship to folk culture, to old United Mine Workers struggles, to perceived changes in the land and impacts upon their life from surface "mining," to non-violent direct action or civil disobedience to halt or bring attention to the industry's atrocity, to trying to create fair, sustainably local economy in Appalachia or practice primitive skills or permaculture. Stories range from silly to tragic to sentimental to transgressive, from incidental to serious and implicative.
Many were pleasantly surprised to discover there was no charge for being drawn as long as one desired to contribute the content for their handwriting so their perspective could be rendered authentic to the world.
Some feared government, coal company or local community reprisal for writing their uncensored stories, yet most came to understand the very safe and nurturing nature of this media format in which there was no question and answer format. One began and ended the narrative where they chose and one did not have to sign their name if they didn't want to. Privacy was sensitively respected, innuendo never projected. Very often portraits were left with participants so they would have as much time as they needed to consider what they would write. Some were drawn several times over many visits.
Early on Casey and Cesco had not foreseen the immense challenge of drawing portraits and gathering stories from such a large region. They accepted that Appalachia or even the coalfields could be elastically defined, stretching over many county and state lines. They also realized that as more and more whom they would meet would self-identify as Appalachian and feel "Voices for Appalachia" as relevant to their communities and . . . well what a long strange journey it became. From academia and high profile conferences to moonshining shacks, punk squats and roadside camping, from parks, community centers, cafes, galleries, museums, to homesteading farms, family reunions and festivals, from intentional communities to downtowns, from grassroots campaign headquarters to private residencies, from indigenous to old-timers to back-to-the-landers to newcomers, from second-home retirees to the homeless, from fundamentalists and evangelicals to pagans, agnostics and secular humanists. They learned and from the portraits you will see, there is no one Appalachia.
In some cases those drawn had already enjoyed a whole plethora of media about their concerns or heritage. In many cases, those drawn had never gotten drawn before and had never experienced any professional form of media and likely otherwise never would have.
So we are very proud to be able to present a completed body of over 500 portrait stories. Hopefully this number will continue to increase as more and more people continue to write on their portraits and add them to the series. When members of Mountain Justice initially invited and conversed with Cesco about creating the Voices for Appalachia Portrait Story Series we hoped that the project would be a touring art show that would stay within Appalachia and be used as a tool for outreach and education. We also hoped that it would be turned into a fine art book someday.
Special Events
Throughout the year, United Mountain hosts and produces outreach material for numerous special events. These events have included rally’s film festivals, benefit concerts and speaking engagements to both educate the public and to mobilize action in the campaign to protect the mountains and waters of Tennessee.
Coalition Building
United Mountain Defense is dedicated to fostering links with other NGOs and engaged citizens, and has helped build region wide coalitions across Appalachia. We realize that we are strongest when we are united in our campaign to protect our mountains, waters and people.
