with kelsie cannon, ezra mars, sophia rehak + hannah bell, kevin chesser & best.virginia

click any of the DATES for the facebook event page for additional info & details

• June 19 – Wheeling, WV + Clientele Arts Studio 7pm
  • with Alec Berry, Billy Matheny, Gabby Marshall, Logan Schmitt, Natalie Kovacs & Luke Novel
• June 20 – Morgantown, WV + 123 Pleasant Street (WEST VIRGINIA DAY!!)*% 7pm
  • with Ann Pancake, Megan Mullinax Haas, Billy Matheny, Tyler Grady, Geoff Minnear, Corpse Factory, Emily Prentice, The Bench, Keegan Lester & Miki
• June 21 – Hillsboro, WV + Yew Mountain Center* 6pm
  • with Stephanie Jones, Tyler Grady, Jacob H. Logan, Kristen Rehak
• June 22 – Blacksburg, VA + SOLITUDE* 5:30pm
  • with Tyler Grady & Joe Shay
• June 23 – Matewan, WV + West Virginia Mine Wars Museum* 7pm
  • with Catherine Venable Moore & Brandy Jeffreys
• June 24 – Charleston, WV + FestivALL Presents @ Taylor Books* 4:30pm
  • with Mesha Maren, Matt O’Wain & Josie Martin
• Howard & Kevin go to the Governor’s Academy in Huntington ❤
• June 26 – Beckley, WV + BEX Presents @ The Raleigh Playhouse*^% 7pm
  • with Juliet Escoria & Val Nieman
  • and special pre-show ZINE MAKING 101 WORKSHOP 4pm
• June 27 – Lexington, KY + The Green Lantern*^ 8pm
  • with BRALETTE, Misty Skaggs, Darrin Hacquard, Jason Brown, Juniper Moon Folk Arts & Little Bubby Child
• June 28 – Athens, OH + LittleHouse Manor^ (message us for the addy) 6pm
  • with Lisa Bella Donna & Dani Mailap
• June 29 – Buckhannon, WV + Dough Re Mi 7pm
  • with Nicole Scott, Tyler Grady, Emily Prentice, Monica Leigh, Daniel Cain & Doug Van Gundy

* with collagist Ashley Renee Hoffman

^ with letterpress printer Sarah Brown/Questionable Press

% with talk on NARCAN & rural harm reduction by Queer Appalachia

This June Travelin Appalachians Revue is celebrating 5 years! Five solid years of tunes, tales, melodies, poems, yarns, snacks and good ol fashioned DIY good-timin’. This has been nothing short of a blessing.

This year we are taking our inspiration from a line in the debvut book by the novelist Mila Jaroniec, a long-time TAR contributor and friend. Because when Mila says, Trzeba se jakoś radzić, powiedział góral zawiązując buta dżdżownicą, which is to say you have to make it work somehow, said the mountaineer lacing up their boot with an earthworm, by glory do we feel it.

This year – between now and when you last heard from us – has been all about making it work somehow. This is a tough, tough time to be making art in Appalachia, but look around – we’re still here doing it, and so are you. The pundits will keep telling us there’s nothing here for us, that we’re not here at all – but bbys just lace up them earthworms, pick up your pens, whip out your cameras, pull out your sketchbooks because we have work to do & we will make it work.

The dates for this year are here:
June 19 – Wheeling, Clientele Art Studio
June 20 – WV DAY Morgantown, 123 Pleasant Street
June 21 – Hillsboro, The Yew Mountain Center
June 22 – Blacksburg, Solitude House, Virginia Tech Campus
June 23 – Matewan, West Virginia Mine Wars Museum
June 24 – Charleston, Taylor Books, FestivALL
June 25 – we’re going swimming
June 26 – Beckley, The Raleigh Playhouse and Theatre, BEX
June 27 – Lexington, The Kentucky School
June 28 – TBD
June 29 – Buckhannon, Dough Re Mi

Now that you know the WHERE’s, Stay Tuned to this page cuz we’re gonna start releasing the WHEN’s & the WHO’s pronto
♥
or
www.facebook.com/travelinappalachiansrevue
or
travelinappalachiansrevue.org
and find us on IG @travelinappalachiansrevue & Twitter @travapprevue

While our shows are all-ages, the content does occasionally skew toward PG-13 and beyond. Life is complicated, why shouldn’t the language reflect that.

Here’s to the next five years.
love,
TAR

“Well, to sum all this up and get to my topic, which is how Appalachian I am, I would say this: I reckon I’m more Appalachian than some, and less Appalachian than others. I’d say I’m Appalachian enough. I’d say I was raised, by both my mother and my father, to make my own sense of the world. And I was raised to make meaning by telling stories and listening to stories. I was taught that meaning is complex and shifting and difficult to state, and the more stories one adds to one’s thinking the harder it gets to make meaning, and that is good, and a good thing to keep in mind when one sees something new—that one won’t be able to make any sense of a thing until one hears not one but many stories about it. And I was raised to know that one good thing about stories is that one person might make one meaning out of a story and another person might take a different meaning from it. And I was raised to believe this ability to make our own meaning out of the world is what freedom is, and what joy is, and meaning making is a right we all have. I was raised that we all are obliged to work to make sure everyone has the right and the opportunity to tell their own story and hear everyone else’s—the easy story to hear and the difficult, the happy and the sad, the comic and the tragic. And we are all obliged to work to make sure each of us has the right to hear and tell all the stories and each make our own meaning out of them and the world, and if we don’t work toward that end, we are cheating our neighbor, and we are cheating ourselves of the joy of living, and should be ashamed of ourselves and should be forced to take long car rides in cars with no radio for all of eternity with people who grew up in places where they didn’t learn how to tell stories.”

-rob gipe

from Appalachian Reckoning edited by Anthony Harkins and Meredith McCarroll
West Virginia University Press

https://chapter16.org/how-appalachian-i-am/

So, I’m back at home now — tour is over for the summer. I have a lot of feelings about that, as I know everyone else involved does as well. But my heart is full to burst and my inspiration is at an all time high. This is a sad and difficult time to be alive, but the people we meet on tour, and the people we collaborate with and scheme with and plot with, and all the places we visit, pass through, and gaze upon keeps us strong. As this project grows, so does my love. Thank you so much to everyone for your support. We’ll keep ourselves afloat for another day, together.

Thank you so much to the core crew: Kelsie Cannon, Kevin Chesser, Jen Iskow, Keegan Lester, Sophia Rehak.

Special thanks to (in no particular order): Emeran Irby, Amy Johnson, Hannah Rego, Noah Prinsen, Justin Rabuck, Jocelyn Corvus, Mary Ruthless, Dan Carlisle, James Friley, J. Marinelli, L.J. Giuliani, Tori Vasquez, Lou Murrey, Betty Critch, Mamone, Molly Graham, Jess Spruill, Ashleigh Bryant Phillips, Evan Gray, Renee Nicholson, Brittany Javins, Mallory Richards, Mary Kelley, Tyler Cooper, Kayleigh Phillips, Jamie Morgan, Nicole Lawrence, Sarah C. Chavez, Nathan Thomas, Odana Chaney, Kristin Steele, Darrin Hacquard, Cassie Lopez, Joe Halstead, Raine Rue, Dylon Jones, Edie Bab, Vann G., Rebecca Gayle Howell, Rob Gipe, Glenn Taylor, Mesha Maren, Matt O’Wain, Spice Lo, Victoria Javier, Kathleen Scopis, Zakaria, Toki Tattoo, Claire Hopple, Charity Cimarron, Emily Blair, Joseph Bathanti, Angel Walsh, Crystal Good, Rachel Rinehart, Vince Trimboli, Susan & Michael Aloi, Zander Aloi, Joey Aloi, Hannah Aloi, Roxy Todd, Torli Bush, Doug Van Gundy, Josie Martin, Hillary Kay, Rose Anne Heater, Rayna Momen, William Matheny, Avery Williamson, Lou Richardson, Kayla McCormick, Mackenzie Rogers, Liz Urse AND ANYONE ELSE I’VE FORGOTTEN. That’s everyone who fed us, put us to sleep, connected us with people, booked shows, played with us, tabled with us. Thank you to everyone who submitted to the zine, you are far too many to list here but you know who you are!!! ❤ ❤ ❤

The Travelin Appalachians Revue is gently guided by Howard Parsons, Bryan Richards and Tyler Grady.