Workshops and Programs 2022
Crystal Wilkinson
Kentucky Poet Laureate
Crystal Wilkinson is the award-winning author of The Birds of Opulence (winner of the 2016 Ernest J. Gaines Prize for Literary Excellence), Water Street and Blackberries, Blackberries. Nominated for both the Orange Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, she has received recognition from The Kentucky Foundation for Women, The Kentucky Arts Council, The Mary Anderson Center for the Arts, The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and is a recipient of the Chaffin Award for Appalachian Literature. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and her short stories, poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including most recently in the Oxford American and Southern Cultures.
Her most recent novel, a lyrical exploration of love and loss, The Birds of Opulence centers on several generations of women in a bucolic southern black township as they live with and sometimes surrender to madness. Her collection, Perfect Black, was published August 2021.
Crystal identifies as a southern, feminist fiction writer, and grew up in the hills of Kentucky. She currently teaches at the University of Kentucky where she is Associate Professor of English in the MFA in Creative Writing Program. She is a 2020 USA Artist Fellowship Recipient, and makes her home in Lexington, KY. In 2021, Crystal was named the Poet Laureate for Kentucky.
Learn to play the spoons with….
Abby the Spoon Lady!
Abby the Spoon Lady is an American musician, former radio personality, and free speech activist.
Abby first started street performing and busking as a means to make money traveling across the US, primarily hopping freight trains. Today she hosts storytelling events where she discusses the lifestyle of the American hobo.
Abby is an advocate for street performance and free speech. Her workshop at the 2021 Mountain Grrl Experience was on of the highlights of the event. Look for her during Mountain Grrl 2022 and her sweet little dog, Willie! https://spoonlady.com/
Carla Gover
Appalachian Flatfooting Workshop
Carla Gover is a Kentucky-born artist who performs original and traditional music. She offers renditions of ballads and banjo tunes from her native Appalachia as well as original tunes which touch upon themes of home, family, a sense of place, and spirituality. She has won a number of awards for her songwriting, including Merlefest’s Chris Austin Contest and the Kerrville New Folk Award. Carla currently makes her home in Lexington, where she collaborates with a variety of artists and educators on projects to improve the quality of life in our state through music, dance, and fostering cultural understanding. She’s the Artistic Director for both the Cowan Creek Mountain Music School and the bilingual folk opera, Cornbread & Tortillas. Band affiliations include Zoe Speaks and CornMaiz String Band. She was recognized by the Kentucky Arts Council as a Master Artist in Flatfoot Dancing, and recently founded the first-ever Online Appalachian Flatfooting & Clogging Academy.
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Jessica Salyer, Art Positive Project
Releasing Past Guilt
In conjunction with the Pikeville Pop Up Art on the Plaza series, Jessica Salyer is back again this year to help you create a beautiful piece of art. This class is a guided meditation with learning to visualize physically releasing guilts we carry through the power of art & tearing & burning the papers we wrote on. The duration of the class is 2 hours. The participants will have a stenciled drawing on a 16x20 canvas where they will use a positive affirmation to incorporate into the painting. No experience necessary!
Liv Taylor
Neurographics
Liv Taylor is an Army Veteran from Harlan KY who started her artistic journey to recover from a TBI and PTSD. Art therapy was her solution and her way back to the land of the Living. Through this journey, she created “Land of Liv,” a whole vibe of good thoughts, good friends and being kind. In addition to being a full time artist, Liv teaches Art Therapy at local Rehabilitation facilities in South Eastern Kentucky and photography classes at Kingdom Come State Park. Liv was a featured artist at Mountain Grrl 2021. This year, she further shares her art with us in conjunction with the Pikeville Pop Up Art on the Plaza series. No experience is needed for this guided therapeutic session to help teach coping and working through problems. Medium is Watercolor. Duration is 1.5- 2 hours
Anne Shelby
Appalachian Storytelling
Writer and storyteller Anne Shelby, from Clay County, Kentucky, is the author of plays, poems, essays and books, including The Man Who Lived in a Hollow Tree, based on an Eastern Kentucky Legend. Anne will be sharing stories about strong, brave and clever mountain girls from her award winning Adventures of Molly Whuppie and Other Appalachian Folk Tales, along with tips for writing, revising and telling your own stories.
Cecilia Wright, MT-BC
Soundtracks of Our Lives: Using Daily Music to Explore, Empower, and Heal
Music is all around us— at the grocery store, on the car radio, in the TV shows we watch— but is it all contributing positively toward our health? In this workshop, board-certified music therapist (MT-BC) Cecilia Wright will lead a discussion of ways that music can be used to help us understand and regulate our emotions, explore different aspects of identity, and cope with stressors. Participants will have opportunities to express themselves through music (no training in music required!) and develop new tools and considerations for using music in daily life to improve one’s overall health and wellbeing. This workshop strives to create a “brave space” for sharing and reflection, and is committed to affirming LGBTQ+ identities and respecting diverse cultural backgrounds. Participants will be asked to respect the privacy of other group members by not discussing personal information that is shared outside of the group.
Cecilia is a board certified music therapist, musician, and cello instructor based in Knoxville, Tennessee. She earned a BA in Music at the University of Tennessee and a MM in Music Therapy at the University of Kentucky. Cecilia's graduate research explored LGBTQ advocacy and education in music therapy. In recent years, she has provided contracted music therapy services in the Fayette County public school system, working individually with disabled students (intentional use of identity-first language) to address specific educational goals. She is co-founder of Wildwood Music Therapy, LLC, which is currently owned and operated by Nora Veblen, MM, MT-BC in Lexington, Kentucky.
Sarah Kate Morgan
Folk Arts Director, Hindman Settlement School
Learn to play the Mountain Dulcimer!
This workshop is open to both children and adults. No dulcimer? No problem! We will have 30 dulcimers available for you to practice with during the workshop. This workshop was a huge success at the 2021 Mountain Grrl Experience. Be there early to get your instrument and learn to be a dulcimer rock star!
Melanie Turner
Rhythm Fun
Appalachian Teaching Artist and Musician Melanie Turner’s “Rhythm Fun” workshop involves using various rhythm instruments to encourage participants to explore, create, and discover rhythm patterns around us. Participants will play rhythm as well as sing along while being accompanied by banjo and guitar. Rhythm instruments will be provided for up to ~40 students. All ages welcome, first preference given to children.
Coaltown Dixie
Acoustic Instrument Workshop
Come join the ladies of Coaltown Dixie as they share their musical journey. This workshop will include discussions on becoming a band, routes of learning an instrument, acoustic instrument basics, and the overall joy of making music.
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Emily Jamerson
Yoga on the Green
Floyd County native and singer/songwriter, Emily Jamerson, will help you kick off Day 2 of Mountain Grrl Experience by leading you in a 60 minute gentle yin yoga class. Yin Yoga is a slow and meditative practice making it ideal for anyone. Please bring a yoga mat or towel and any other props you wish to utilize (blocks, bolsters, towels, etc). A limited number of blocks will be available.
Megan Duff
Storytelling Booth
Megan Duff is hosting a storytelling booth where women at the Mountain Grrl Experience may participate in a small interview in which their stories about womanhood and living in eastern Kentucky can be recorded. These interviews will remain anonymous and will be used to uplift the voices of women in EKY. These stories will be made by women in eastern KY and for women in eastern KY.
Duff resides in Harlan County, KY. She holds a Master’s in Communication and Storytelling from East Tennessee State University and has worked on storytelling projects since she was nineteen. She currently works for “Higher Ground”—a community-based storytelling and arts initiative in Harlan, KY—as PR manager and scriptwriter. Additionally, Duff is the founder of “Women of eastern Kentucky,” which is a community-based narrative and storytelling initiative focused on performing the stories of women living in eastern Kentucky.
Dr. Genesia Kilgore-Bowling
All Bodies are Good Bodies
Feeling good in your own skin
This roundtable will facilitate a discussion regarding the struggles we have with our bodies and the quest to love ourselves. Attendees will hear from others and have the opportunity to share their own experience, if desired. The workshop portion will provide practical tips on how to change our relationship with our bodies, how to avoid body shaming and being shamed, how to navigate medical situations and other stigmatizing situations, as well as how to have body positive and acceptance conversations.
Dr. Kilgore-Bowling is a coal miner’s daughter who was born and raised, right here in Pike County, KY. A social worker by profession, she currently works as a social work educator and administrator in higher education. As a first-generation college student, her lived experience as a fat woman in Appalachia led her to an academic research interest into how people who navigate life with fat bodies are often devalued, stigmatized, and discriminated against across all areas of their life and across the lifespan. She is a social justice activist, advocate for body acceptance and fat acceptance, and enjoys teaching others how to find love for their own bodies and avoid feeling as if their worth is tied to a number on a scale or to a specific shape.
Mountain Grrls Speak: Preserving Your Personal Appalachian Story
While the Appalachian story might feel commonplace, the individual experience of Appalachian residents is not. We all face our own struggles and we all find our own paths, but these stories are rarely represented in the regional history books. Unlike the depictions of extraordinary people with revolutionary triumphs, the everyday experience tells a story rich in culture, lived experience, and tradition. The stories of everyday people give us a glimpse into real life when we were not there to live it ourselves.
UPIKE’s Special Collections and Archives would like to request your consideration in joining us for an exciting, low-stress oral history project. The archivist will provide prompts and speaking points to help engage your discussion. You’ll record your thoughts about the provided subject or answer the question, and then upload the file to the digital archives. Your audio file will join dozens of other voices in our Archives so no voice, or individual experience, is lost to time.
Grace Ann Rogers
Poetry Writing Workshop
Grace Rogers is a writer and musician from Bath Co., Kentucky. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky. Her work has been published in Cold Mountain Review, Mayday Magazine, and Inverted Syntax amongst other literary magazines. Her poem "Interesting Inanimate Things and Landmarks" won second place in Sarabande Books' 2021 Flo Gault Student Poetry Contest. You can find her work at gracerogers.substack.com.
PANEL DISCUSSION: Overcoming and Thriving-Women in Leadership
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Tiffany Craft
First Female Mayor of Whitesburg, Kentucky
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Angie Hatton
94th District Kentucky State Representative
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Janet Stumbo
Former associate justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, (second woman to ever serve on the court). Former associate justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court, (first female elected to that court).
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Jean Rosenberg
Former research analyst for the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division.
Kid Stuff
We love Mountain KIDS! Did you know that there will be LOTS of kid-friendly stuff going on at Mountain Grrl Experience?
FRIDAY
*11am Friday-Pop Up Art Class with Jessica Salyer for ages 9 & up
*Bubbles and Face Painting at the MTM Stage
*Art Positive Project Paint Slinging Room
*Gypsy Wings Kids Tent-free crafts!
SATURDAY
*10am- Yoga with Emily Jamerson
*11am-Pop Up Art Class with Liv Taylor for ages 9 & up
*11:30 am-Storytelling with Children's Book Author Anne Shelby
*12:00 pm -Rhythm Fun Workshop with Melanie Turner.
*12:40pm-Appalachian Flatfooting Dance Workshop with Carla Gover
*1:00pm Poetry Workshop with Grace Ann Rogers
*2:00pm Acoustic Instrument Workshop with Coaltown DIxie
*3:00pm-Storytelling with Children's Book Author Anne Shelby *4:20pm-Learn to play the spoons with Abby the Spoon Lady
*5:30pm-Square Dance called by Sarah Kate Morgan Beginners welcome!
*Various times throughout the weekend:
---Art Positive Project Paint Slinging Room
---Bubbles for kids
----Face painting (at MTM Stage area and Appcycled)
----Gypsy Wings Kids Tent-free crafts!
Saturday all day--Sign up for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library and learn about cool books with Pikeville Librarian Maggie Salisbury!
Most of these kid friendly events are either INSIDE the APP Theater (air conditioned) or in shade under the Appalachian Wireless Pavillon.