On July 28, 2022, the waters of a catastrophic flood breached a fellow regional archive, Appalshop, in eastern Kentucky. Their warehouse and vault held paper records, film, video, audio, and photographs representing a century of central Appalachian history. Eighty percent of their film reels, video tapes, and audio tapes were affected by the floodwaters and many were submerged in over six feet of water for several hours.
A very large portion of the Mid-Atlantic is considered Appalachia, including the entire state of West Virginia. Appalshop has fantastic content about our region and has lent us some footage in the past, including this 1990s interview of singer, Hazel Dickens, at a stoop in the Hampden neighborhood of Baltimore. A clip of this video was included in “Baltimorama,” which was made by MARMIA CEO, Siobhan Hagan, and shown for Cinema Ephemera in 2016. Hazel describes Hampden and recounts moving to Baltimore from West Virginia, playing music, working various jobs, and more. B-roll starts at 20 minutes in and shows more of the neighborhood.
Currently, the amazing team at Appalshop is well into the clean-up and recovery phase and needs your help! Please consider supporting this important regional history by clicking here to make a donation to Appalshop Archive. You can also support them through their Amazon wish list, and through their film department’s wish list which will be updated periodically. Meanwhile, learn more about Appalshop’s 50+ years of amazing work here.
Read more
– An update from Caroline Rubens, Appalshop archive director
– An update from Willa Johnson, Appalshop director of films
– Appalachian Flood Support Resources
– Subscribe to the Appalshop newsletter here
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